How to bleed coolant?

Tiny
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Yes, it will determine a head gasket issue, with a head gasket fault the cylinder pressures push combustion gases into the cooling system and that's what the purple liquid will react with and change color.
For just leaking coolant hoses or components, I like to do a pressure test first, only up to whatever the max psi on the radiator cap is, usually 15-18psi range. Then after a repair I will pull the cooling system into a vacuum and let it sit at 25-30 inHg for 3-5 minutes to make sure it will hold under that vacuum. I do both testing methods because certain leaks can happen when under positive pressure and not under a vacuum and the opposite as well, but yeah, you'll want to replace any hoses first.
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Sunday, November 24th, 2024 AT 5:42 PM
Tiny
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Do you have one of the temperature probes to see if the ECT sensor is accurate? To compare it to scan data.
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Sunday, November 24th, 2024 AT 5:44 PM
Tiny
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What do you mean temperature probe? Car gets to middle needle on gauge quickly but I read online that these cars do that's how they are. But the fact that fan comes on high, and scanner shows it to go up and water boiling in reservoir tells me something is up. It's possible that there are gases in the reservoir and water isn't boiling. Not sure. But none of the hoses is super hard or anything and the lower hose is always cold. Not sure if any is related to the leak that was there under the intake. Car starts first time. No smoke at all. And no rough idle.
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Sunday, November 24th, 2024 AT 5:47 PM
Tiny
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But what if you do a pressure test and it fails but it's not due to a head gasket but rather to a leak somewhere that is small and you don't see it?
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Sunday, November 24th, 2024 AT 5:50 PM
Tiny
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Well, if it's full of coolant and you pressurize the system with the coolant leak kit you will see coolant coming out somewhere, that's the reason for putting it under pressure without the engine running. To simulate running conditions. If you have bubbles coming up at the reservoir, use the head gasket chemical test to check for combustion gases. Do that test first so you can determine if that the cause. Then go from there.
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Monday, November 25th, 2024 AT 10:57 AM
Tiny
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So, coolant leak kit and head gasket chemical are the same liquid that I am going to buy?
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Monday, November 25th, 2024 AT 1:08 PM
Tiny
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No the cooling system pressure tester has a hand pump and adapters for various radiator openings, looks like this, this is a positive pressure test kit. If you have an autozone or advance auto store near you, they actually rent these kits out. You just have to give them money for the price of the kit and they will refund you 100% when you return it.
2nd picture is a vacuum test and fill kit, and then 3rd is the chemical head gasket kit, it only detects combustion gases being pushed into the cooling system from a bad head gasket or cracked cylinder wall, etc.
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Monday, November 25th, 2024 AT 2:11 PM
Tiny
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Oh, I am aware. I have all these tools. But what am saying is do I use the chemical head gasket kit when am doing pressure test using the tools in the first picture and only for the pressure test?
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Monday, November 25th, 2024 AT 3:39 PM
Tiny
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No I would do the chemical test first thing when the engine is still cold, so you can run the engine with the radiator or reservoir cap off, here's a little testing procedure description on head gasket tests. The chemical test will come with instructions, once you're done with that test you can then do your pressure test. Because you can only run one test at a time since both methods require use of the cooling system opening.
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Monday, November 25th, 2024 AT 5:17 PM
Tiny
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If the thermostat is removed, why do you think the lower radiator hose is not getting hot? Strange, Even if the radiator is blocked, the bottom one should get hot since it is part of the water that is not circulating isn't it?
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Saturday, November 30th, 2024 AT 1:04 PM
Tiny
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With the thermostat removed and the vehicle just sitting at an idle, yeah I would think the lower hose should at least get warm, the engine wont get up to operating temperature because the thermostat regulates that, but unless the water pump is not working correctly and flow is limited, This is the non turbo engine correct? Sorry I don't remember if you mentioned that or not, just asking because the turbo engine has an aux radiator.
You could take off the Serp belt and turn the water pump by hand and see what it feels like. I'm not sure what kind of water pump this is as for the internal workings, but I have seen water pump break the vein part of the pump right off inside and the pulley was spinning but the pump was not doing anything inside.
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Saturday, November 30th, 2024 AT 1:19 PM
Tiny
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Non turbo. Yes, was thinking water pump. Yes, next move is to remove the belt and see. Then maybe remove the water pump.
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Saturday, November 30th, 2024 AT 1:21 PM
Tiny
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Not sure how accurate these pictures are, and if the actual pump veins are plastic or metal, some are plastic, but yeah, I've seen them break off inside, that's a diag that can throw you for a loop. If you can spin the pulley very easy by hand, its possible it sheered off inside. It's rare but happens. Let us know, and if that's the case, take some pictures for us please.
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Saturday, November 30th, 2024 AT 1:28 PM
Tiny
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Removed water pump, no issues there, hardly any water from the hoses except the one coming from radiator to water pump. If heater core is clogged up, could it cause stop of circulation to where the lower radiator hose stays cold? No heat from vents even though hose under the hood going to heater core tests hot.
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Sunday, December 1st, 2024 AT 3:21 PM
Tiny
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I don't think so but it might affect the refilling procedure though, if one hose of the heater core cannot pull the air out, you may end up with air pockets. How much coolant did it take while refilling?
Here is a zoomed in diagram of the cooling system hoses, the hoses to the heater system marked in red. Does this vehicle have a transmission fluid dipstick? It sounds like there may still be air pockets, the coolant spec is 15-16Liters, For an empty refill, and the refill procedure for an empty system (diagrams 3, 4, 5). There are a lot of small hoses on this vehicle but check that the transmission fluid just to be sure there isn't any coolant in it.
16 liters is over 4 gallons, so it's quite a bit of coolant.
When doing the vacuum refill, after you have vacuumed it down fully and its held for a couple minutes, when you go to refill, you can't let the fill hose that pulls the coolant into the system to take any air in, so use a 5 gallon bucket or some large container so when refilling there is no need to stop the refill procedure. It needs to keep pulling coolant until its completely full and it has to be down to 30inHG of vacuum so it can pull the full amount of coolant.
You can try taking off a hose that's higher up, an easy one to unclamp, so the air can bleed out, I usually check any hoses that are up the highest since that's where the air can end up, but the vacuum bleed system should have no problem pulling all the air out.
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Sunday, December 1st, 2024 AT 4:27 PM
Tiny
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Yes, that's what I thought. They are not stupid to make it where if a heater core is clogged up the whole system just overheats. Cannot remember how much coolant I put in first. When installing thermostat and coolant flange maybe 2 or more gallons. It's a frustrating issue. I removed the hose from the bottom radiator and water came out. Same on top one, ran water through radiator and its fine. No junk or plastic from anywhere. I don't understand how temperature can go up high if bottom one is not hot and too ones you can squeeze and feel that there is not so much pressure just regular pressure. But it gets scary with the fan kicking super high and reading on scanner says 235. It could be that the reading is wrong, cause like I said the temperature usually takes time to get to halfway of cluster needle but it gets there quickly not to mention the thermostat is out. Removed the upper heater core pipe hose under engine, which I think comes from radiator then foes to the aluminum pipe, the one that has the second bleeding screw, no junk of any type. Blew air into most of them and it came out fine. Is there a second intake under the top plenum? I am thinking maybe there is a clog where the coolant flange we replaced which goes into a second piece, cause the pieces were all broken and we had to spoon it out. That flange has 2 openings and sits next to the oil or water cooler under the intake. If the readings on the cluster and scanner are wrong. With the gun the temperatures are not high, maybe reach 130. And when I measured the radiator fina from in front of the car they were around 67f.
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Sunday, December 1st, 2024 AT 5:16 PM
Tiny
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No transmission dipstick on these and no evidence of oil in coolant. Also far drives excellent no shifting issues.
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Sunday, December 1st, 2024 AT 5:17 PM
Tiny
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Yes, I used a 1-gallon bottle to fill water twice, so removed it yes.
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Sunday, December 1st, 2024 AT 5:19 PM
Tiny
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If it was reaching 235f the hoses would be super hot and full of extreme pressure, Unplug your coolant temp sensor and see if it reads -40f with your scan tool at just key On, engine off. They will usually default to -40 degrees when open circuited. You can also check to see if there is a 5volt reference on one of the coolant temp wires when the sensor is unplugged.
You might be dealing with a bad sensor or wiring issue if the scan data is not the same as a temperature probe reading.
Are you meaning about a lower intake manifold? Not sure what pieces youre mentioning there, something was metal was broken that came out in pieces?
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Sunday, December 1st, 2024 AT 5:52 PM
Tiny
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It looks like there are 2 ECT sensors.
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Sunday, December 1st, 2024 AT 6:01 PM

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