Bongo Fury

Bongo nads wrote: Answer: The elbow from the head, with the turbo coolant port, does not also have a blead port.

Bongo nads wrote:New slant on an old issue. And an alternative way of bleeding the cooling system emerges.

I’m in New Zealand. I’m a 60-y-o with the same love of getting my head under a car bonnet that I had when I was 18, but I’m not a mechanic.

I bought a good diesel “Mazda Freda” (registered on import into NZ in that name) with low Kms for a song. It had been taken as a trade by a small caryard who hadn’t picked up that the vehicle had head issues, and the dealer was in turn having to sell it in “as is” condition.

I took the head off. It was cracked. But that was okay ‘cos I had another head. Put the new head on never having realised that the head was not one from a Freda/Friendee, but some other WL-T. Does anyone know what the one difference is that distinguishes the Freda/Friendee head?

Answer: The elbow from the head, with the turbo coolant port, does not also have a bleed port.

I simply hadn't noticed the difference until all the work had been done, and it was time to connect the bleed hose. Oh dear, what to do. when filling the coolant mix? I filled the coolant system using the usual thermostat-opening routine. But that meant airlocks in the engine block and head.

I sat there in my living room for two nights, with the cracked head on my coffee table me studying it during the TV ad breaks, when suddenly I had an answer.

I put the front wheels of the vehicle higher by a few centimetres than the rear wheels. With a 12mm socket (long socket) I undid the temperature sensor at the front right of the head next to the front end of the intake manifold (pics to follow). I dipped a wooden ice-cream stick down about 65mm into the sensor hole. Bone dry!

I waited and watched. And about ten minutes later, slowly the green-tinged coolant rose up and gently overflowed out of the hole. I refitted the sensor. And voila. I had airlocks no more.

Footnote: I have been absolutely amazed at the extent to which mechanics of years of experience have NO IDEA whatsoever of what this issue is all about. And even when it is explained to some very well qualified mechanical minds, they still simply don’t get it, that having coolant top pipes running under the floor, means things are a bit different to the usual. Only when one compares it to bleeding brakes. do these geniuses start to see it.

Alacrity wrote:The stat should have a bleed hole in it to stop air trapping.

Vacuum bleeding answers all. Simple & quick, although not available to all. Why anyone with basic garage facilities (i.e. compressor) who does this sort of thing fairly often doesn't have one is beyond me I'm afraid.

The stat should have a bleed hole in it to stop air trapping.

That is probably the reason it takes about 10 minutes for the coolant to come through.The Jiggle pin.

Alacrity wrote:The stat should have a bleed hole in it to stop air trapping.

Vacuum bleeding answers all. Simple & quick, although not available to all. Why anyone with basic garage facilities (i.e. compressor) who does this sort of thing fairly often doesn't have one is beyond me I'm afraid.

Alacrity, how about a thread on the topic "Cooling System - Vacuum Filling", cos it's just slightly off this topic.