Coolant Level Question-pending trip need to be sure!

[Tomer]

The pressure bottle (with the rad cap near the fresh air intake) is full full full...Like when I remove the cap, the bottom of the rad cap is touching the coolant...

The overflow bottle hidden in the lower fascia is ~ 1/2 inch above the lower mark...This was cold.

My question, is this OK? My car seems to be running normal per the illustrations in the manual...When run hard or stop and go with higher ambient temps, the gauge reads above the three marks around the 190 "\|/" but it never touches the next mark, which is mid way to the 250...I will call it the 225 mark for purposes of this mail...But it may not be 225. Normally the temp will come back down to the / to the right of the 190...

To potentially complicate matters, the manual said the pressure bottle under hood should be full to the seam, and since it was well beyond that, I got the turkey baster and removed some from the pressure bottle and added it to the overflow bottle via the hose that connects the two...The pressure bottle is still above the seam (i.e. very full) but at least their is a small air gap in that bottle now...

Did I screw anything up?

thanks! we are planning a trip this coming weekend from the SF bay area down to Santa Barbara, so I want to make sure the snake will be kewl.

Tomer
96 RT

 

[Qualitywires.com]

bump! I would like to know too.

 

[Tomer]

thanks for the bump ab!! You got me excited...I hate to do this, but i need to know pretty soon!! thanks

Tomer

 

[Tomer]

bump!

Tomer

 

[VPRVENM97]

tomer,
How's it going? Seems to me that everything was normal and as it should be prior to you taking the Butterball baster to the pressure bottle. Here's what my 97 service manual says.


<FONT size="4">ROUTINE LEVEL CHECK</FONT s>
Do not remove pressure bottle cap for routine coolant level inspections.
The coolant dearation pressure bottle provides a quick visual method for determining the coolant level without removing the pressure cap. With the engine cold the level of the coolant in the coolant pressure bottle should be above the top seam of the bottle.

<FONT size="4">ADDING ADDITIONAL COOLANT</FONT s>

The radiator cap should not be removed.
When additional coolant is needed to maintain this level, it is necessary to fill the coolant recovery bottle through the overflow hose. Remove the hose from the pressure bottle neck, to fill the coolant recovery bottle. No access is provided to the coolant bottle cap. Use only 50/50 concentration of ethylene glycol type antifreeze and water.

Now go and burp your cooling system...Have a good cruise down the coast to SB/SLO. You'll have a blast slithering down Hwy 1 in that cool ride.

 

[Tomcat]

My experience is that when the R-cap is removed, air enters the system and it needs to be burped again. Adding (removing coolant if needed) coolant is done using a t-baster to the overflow bottle only. I run the overflow bottle about half full when cold and it seems to work fine when hot (doesn't overflow). The pressure bottle is always full.

tw

 

[Tomer]

Thanks for the replies. Dave, oddly enough, my 96 Manual has the same text in it! Although the manual was not clear on the levels of the overflow bottle in the front fascia...

I wanted to burp my car, but had to remove some coolant from the surge tank, or it would overflow immediately - as soon as I squeezed the upper rad hose like 1/2 inch, the coolant was ready to overflow...This is because the coolant level was sooo high in the surge tank...Like I said, the bottom of theR-cap on the surge tank was touching the coolant. Thats how full the surge tank was...

So, to give me some room to burp, I took some (cupfull or so-maybe 6-7 turkey baster draws) coolant out of the surge tank, and put it into the overflow bottle via the overflow hose on the neck of the surge tank...

Then I burped the baby via the upper rad hose, and did get a little bubble action in the surge tank (wife was watching it directly)...

At this point, the overflow bottle level is still close to the cold mark, ~ 3/4 inch above cold mark. Surge tank is still full, i.e. above the seam in the tank per the manual...

I did neglect to do a final squeeze on the upper rad hose, after capping the surge tank...Would that cause problems...The burp instructions are a little unclear on this, it says once you have squeezed all the air out, cap the surge tank (adjust overflow bottle as needed) then "Then, squeeze the radiator overflow hose once more, firmly, to complete the siphon between engine, surge tank, and overflow bottle"...

by saying rad overflow hose, does this mean the upper rad hose? Or some other hose??

In my drive this am, the system acted very differently than before...On my 10 minute freeway cruise, the gauge instead of sitting at the middle \|/ tick of 190, cycled 3 times from the upper tick, back almost touching the lower tick, then back up to upper tick, then back down, etc...

This is new behaviour for me...Does this indicate a problem?

thanks
Tomer
96 RT.

 

[Tomer]

Just a sanity check...Is the burping to be performed with the engine OFF, or running?

thanks
Tomer

 

[red98GTS]

Tomer....if I may....sounds like as long as your tank up top is full and the bottle in the fascia is above the lower mark, and the system has been purged of air, you will be fine. Do the burp with the engine off. pete the ex glass guy happily burped.

 

[Tomer]

Thanks Pete!! brrrrrrp!!! Now I feel better....

Even though I left the surge tank level ~ 1 inch from the neck, the system is operating fine during today's test...

But to be sure, I will let her cool, double check the over flow bottle, burp again as best I can, and fill the surge tank right to the neck (so the bottom of the R-cap touches coolant when I install it).

thanks
Tomer