I just put a new radiator in my ranger, the 'ol girl has 115000 miles so she deserved it.
When I refilled the coolant the reservoir (aka degas bottle) only accepted maybe 2 quarts even though I drained roughly 2.5 gallons from the system before I removed the old radiator.
How do I safely bleed the air from a radiator that has no cap?
The only videos I find on coolant system air bleeding is for radiators that have a cap.
Got this off the internet:
Well thank you for your advice! I will do this tomorrow!
So I did the procedure this morning and followed it to a T. It took maybe 10-15 minutes to reach operating temp and the system drank more coolant but still not enough.
I would say there is now approx. 1.5 gal of coolant in the system of the roughly 2.5 gal needed. I can't get any more air bubbles to come out and I don't feel any pressure in either large radiator hose. The heat is not working still either.
I reinstalled the cap after an hour of this dance and let the system repressurize before shutting off the engine. After shutting off the engine I took the cap off the degas bottle again and it bubbled up a lot then settled back down. I replaced the cap.
I am thinking to just let the engine cool off for an hour and then try the procedure again.
Any thoughts?
On the RANGER FORUM there is some solutions they talk about:
https://www.ranger-forums.com/2-9l-3-0l-v6-tech-32/coolant-bleeder-150960/
Now what I thought interesting is this:
Loosen the heater hose that is on the highest outlet of the engine, but at the other end of that hose, i.e. the by-pass or the heater core(firewall), and fill, this lets most of the air out of the engine.
Rest will come out on first cool down, reservoir level should drop so top it up after full cool down
Check it out!
thanks again!
So if I understand correctly I will disconnect the hose that goes from the block to the heater core at the heater core side and then fill it with engine coolant directly?
Well everything is ship shape.
I followed Dion's instructions from his first solution and it worked out.
After doing the "burping procedure" for an hour - as I discussed - I let the truck cool for an hour and then went out and did another 30 minutes of the burping procedure. Once I decided that I was just not getting any more air out by manually massaging the radiator tubes I went for a drive to the grocery store. I made sure to take the extra bumpy route to try and work out as much air as possible.
After I got back from the grocery store I checked the coolant reservoir and it had finally gone down to the point where I was able to another approx. a gallon more coolant to the system.
During the drive I kept an eye on the temp gauge to make sure the truck did not overheat and it actually suddenly dropped in temp right before I got home which tells me that the coolant had finally began circulating again and was pushing out air. I think it would not be a good idea drive on the highway. I stayed on normal streets so that if there was a problem I had a parking lot to pull into rather than the shoulder of the highway. (insert scotty horse laugh).
I am gong to return to my regularly scheduled driving and just keep a bottle of coolant with me incase the level drops any more.