more antifreeze observations/consumption, am i bleeding correctly?

[ryan roopnarine]

after adding roughly 1.5 cups of water to the rad yesterday, the level with bleeder shut is only about 1 inch above where it was previously. i haven't had a chance to open the bleeder and see where it is, as the car is still hot. is it possible that there just isn't enough water in there? someone care to explain how one is SUPPOSED to bleed? thanks.

[Dave M]

Take it for what its worth and jump in if you feel inclined. I had just replaced the rad and main rad hoses and filled the system with the blue stuff as best I could with the car relatively flat. I had drilled the small hole at the arrow in the thermo as well.

1) From a 'warm' start (top rad hose warm), I parked the car on a 25-30% slope, wrenched on the park brake and blocked the wheels.
2) Shut the car off, filled the expansion tank almost full started the car again, reved the engine to @ 2000rpm, watched as it sucked coolant from the tank. Continued untill it sucked no more.
3) Cap back on, engine running, open bleed screw and watch it trickle down the side of the expansion tank for a minute or so, until no spurting and spewing of air/coolant is visible and it runs clean (Nissen rad may be different than the Behr). I think I had filled it fairly well before hand as I saw very little air emerge.

Is this what you were looking for? I've never heard the method you cited before, with the drivers side corner raised, pouring coolant into the bleed hole.

[JR'Z 525]

Dave, I think you hit the bleeding process dead on. Something else I've been doing is squeezing/pumping the lower hose rapidly with the screw cracked open, car running. Occaisionally I squeeze/pump the upper hose as well. It seems to help speed up the bleeding process on my car. If I'm starting with a fresh fill I also turn the heat controls wide open (I think Ryan mentioned that in his other post). Hope this helps too.
JR

[ryan roopnarine]

i think i'm just relying on other people's best efforts to fill my car to the proper level, i'll just refill over the next several days until the level is satisfactory at kalt temperature....i've never been able to bleed the car by filling antifreeze into the cap-hole, but with this method, i drove the thing to canada with perfect cooling system operation, so i'll have to build up some courage and ask some specific questions of the board before i try it that way. also, jacking the corner refers to me topping up the antifreeze and quickly trying to get the car's front up into the air. more formal instances, i jack the entire front up. something that speeds things up for my bleeding purposes is to squeeze the top and bottom hoses with screw open (8 times), fill, and repeat the aforementioned 5 repetitions. YMMV. i'll respond with deflection measures in your other thread now.