bleeding coolant WITHOUT bleeder pipe

[2tep]

Gidday people,

I have a 2004 Bongo Friendee with a 2.5l TD engine.

I remember I used to have a bleeder pipe, However, my former mechanic put a different thermostat into my Bongo to prevent it form overheating. Works quite well.
Yet, he seems to have removed the bleeder pipe.....

I have just derusted the whole Bongo, then also changed the radiator and was about to bleed the coolant system when finding out about this.

Now, I am more of an amatuer willing to get his hands dirty, but I do not quite know what to do here now. Can you help?!?

I have attached four pics to show the "new design". My questions are:

1. Does the blue circle at the top indicate the spot which the orginal bleeder pipe should have been attached to?

2. If so, can I remove it from there, plug it up and reattach a new bleeder hose for the bleeding process? Afterwards I would put it back to the current design system as it has been working well for four years already.
Obviously, I would try to do that w/o allowing much or any air back into the system

Cheers from New Zealand.

Dirk

[g8dhe]

Yes, the blue spot looks about right the outlet should be a three way spigot, the main flow, the turbo feed and the bleed pipe. Some people have cut into the turbo feed pipe as high up as possible to add a "T" piece with the T feeding a replacement bleed pipe. Three way spigots are available https://bongospares.co.uk/shop/new/cyli ... new-2-5td/

[2tep]

Hi g8dhe,

Thanks a lot for that!

Looks like I still have a 3-way-spigot as seen in the pic attached.

Would you mind helping me understand a bit better my whole situation here?

1. Which number on the picture feeds the turbo, please? Number 2?

2. And the spigot outlet number 1 would usually connect to the bleed hose while mine is somehow connected to the heating pipe maybe!??

Well, what about me putting a "T"-piece close to the number 1 outlet of the spigot to feed a replacement bleed hose from there?
Would that make sense?

Cheers

Dirk

[g8dhe]

Yes, Might be worth a search on the forum, but yes number 1 maybe the bleed pipe but it looks quite thick, 2 is the turbo link - but follow it back it should go to the turbo!
If 1 is the bleed hose then it should not be attached to anything at all and just have a bung in the end, maybe its been dropped down, normally it loops back on top and just held in place by ties to stop it moving around.
There are some images around like this one viewtopic.php?p=230696#p230696 which may help?

[2tep]

Thank you, g8dhe!!

I have used the same colours as before.

Looks like my former bleed pipe is now attached differently, maybe to the heater system(?) (blue arrow leading into yellow arrow) while the metal thing on the top right (marked orange) has been detached.
What is this anyway?

There is a four-way-junction into which my former bleed pipe goes. Out if it goes the pipe into what I believe is the heating pipe.
Another pipe (purple) leads somewhere else.

I am not sure if there already was a four-way-junction before my former mechanic redesigned the whole thing. Will do some search of pics and vids again to see how all the pipes would be connected properly including a bleed pipe!

Could I drive the Bongo for some 15km WITHOUT bleeding it to see my mechanic? Or would that damage the engine maybe?
Am gonna get to my wits' end if i cannot figure out the correct design here.

Cheers

Dirk

[g8dhe]

Not sure too be honest! There have been a number of ideas for getting any accumulated gases back to the de-gassing tank on a permeant basis, it may be one of them.

[2tep]

Cheers, mate!

[BongoBunny]

Hi Dirk, I had a Bongo which was a nightmare with the cooling system and I use a vacuum filling system which needs an air compressor but basically it pumps the air out of the system, to the point where all of the hoses are flat. You then see if it can maintain the vacuum for a few minutes (showing there are no leaks) and then suck coolant into the system, in my experience this means that you don’t need to bleed.