Yet another coolant bleeding question. (long)

[Kristuphir]

I filled and bled it at lunch, drove it around a little, bled it again, and everything seemed fine. Time will tell.

The outlet for the pisser does let water through when I'm bleeding it by leaving the cap off the expansion tank and watching the bubbles, so I know it can't be TOO clogged. Might be worth a look to see if it's not operating quite as it should. When I was bleeding it at lunch, it emitted a steady stream from the pisser, then spat a few bubbles out, then a steady stream, then nothing. I closed it up, bled from the screw, drove it around the block, bled from the screw (this is all with heat on), and all seemed to be well.

The occasional whiff of coolant smell is when the temp gauge says the car's running normally, and there's no bubbling, boiling, etc. When I opened the bleed screw this morning when the gauge said it was hot, it spat and bubbled and fizzed and steamed, so it was hot indeed. I need to find a place to park with nice clean ground so I can see if the car leaves coolant there - my driveway's no good for that. Although this weekend I was in someone else's driveway and only saw the oil leak at the front of the motor, but that's a different matter...

[Kristuphir]

These all sound like excellent ideas. I'll take a magnifying glass to it this weekend if I have to...

It is possible but unusual to leak air in but not coolant out. Normaly this is caused by a loose hose clamp. The rubber swells enough when warm to seal, then as it cools down, in shrinks and allows air to be drawn in. Normaly it will have signs of seeping arround the clamp. look for crusting and the like arround the hose ends and other coolant seals, like the T-stat cover. I have found that it is good maintainance practice to retorque all the hose clamps at every oil service. Just use a swivel socket and loseen every clamp under the hood 1/4 turn and then tighten it back up a bit. Do this with the hoses hot, and don't over tighten the clamps, they take very little force to clamp properly.

While you are rooting about under the hood, verify that the radiator is clean of leaves and other obstructions, tip it forward if you can to look between the radiator and the condensor, alot of buggy temp problems are caused by debris.