• The site migration is complete! Hopefully everything transferred properly from the multiple decades old software we were using before. If you notice any issues please let me know, thanks! Also, I'm still working on things like chatbox, etc so hopefully those will be working in the next week or two.

Coolant bleeding procedures not working. Temp sitting at 160* while moving

S

SWRT

New member
A friend of mine and I replaced the lower and upper intake manifold gaskets
and water pump on my fiance's 01 Grand Prix. It's a NA 3.8 series 2 engine.
I'm more of a Subaru guy myself and I dont know a whole lot about the
procedures of GM so I looked up a few things and here's what's up...

We flushed the engine during the process and decided to fill the block
with coolant before running it so it would have something in there. We
removed the thermostat housing and filled it up and put the thermostat
back on. Then we topped off the radiator and let it warm up While running
the heater. It got to 210 while idling so I figured it was fine. Then I went to
take it out for a test drive and while moving the temp dropped to 160 and sat
there. I figured there was air in the system so I used the small bleed screw on
the top of the thermostat housing and only coolant came out. It didnt feel like
much was getting in the upper hose, though. The car takes 2.8 gallons so we
ended up filling up the coolant reservoir with the last half gallon and it's almost full
still. We tried driving it, idling it, squeezing the upper hose, removing the radiator
cap (which air did come out, but now it's only coolant) and if you leave the car
running with the cap removed it pours out since the radiator is full.

Also, the fans wont kick on.

This is the last step in the process. Any chance anyone has any ideas on what
I can do?
 
Last edited:


fans dont come on till 212 ish. if you let it idle long enough with the cap off, the fans will come on. then crack the bleeder screw.

it does sound like its running ok tho, these engines tend to rise and fall temp wise all the time.
 
I'm unsure of the degrees that the gauge represents, but after flushing my engine a year ago, I barely get above 2 marks over a 1/4. In the summer it has a bigger range with driving temps being around 1 or 2 marks below half, but it's cold here now.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top