Hey Board,

I just installed my hotcam. My rocker arms are a little noisy, but I have good (a little high) oil pressure - and the car started right up. What I ran into is it heated up very fast, I tried to bleed the cooling system, but only air comes out the top - no coolant, the top passenger side hose does not appear to be getting any coolant as it is not even warm to the touch. I put two gallons of water and coolant in the system when I put it together.

Any ideas?

My car only has 70 K miles. I am assuming the likely candidate is the water pump?

Anyone ever run into this?

 

You should slowly fill the system with the bleeder screws open. If no coolant is coming out, you don't have enough coolant and have air in the system.

 

Shoebox-

What do I do? I filled it with the car off, I added coolant and water to the radiator and the overflow tank.

How can I undo this?

Do I have to drain and start over?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

At this point, I would wait unti the engine was cool and remove the radiator cap. I suspect that the coolant will be low. Open the bleeder screws and fill it to the top. Listen as air will likely come out of the bleeder screws. Close them when solid coolant comes out. Keep the coolant off the opti.

Start the car and watch the coolant in the radiator as it warms up. It will probably go down. Keep filling it as necessary opening the bleeders as you fill. Repeat procedure until it stays full or tries to bubble out the radiator, then you can put the cap on. Keep an eye on the temp and check the level in the radiator again the next morning.

 

Did you prime the water pump before putting it back on?

 

did you put the w/p drive on

what timeing set did you go with is it turing the w/p drive

just a couple of thoughts

not trying to be insulting

faded

 

thats exactly what i was thinking. even with low coolant, you should still get some circulating. and I don't think it would be real low with as much as you added. good luck

mike

 

Thanks for all of the replies. I used the stock timing set with just a new chain. As far as the wp, I just took it off and put it back on. It bolted right up with no problem. I had not heard of priming it. How do you do that?

The radiator is full and does not seem to be going down. I have gone through three cycles of starting, heating up, bleeding with no coolant coming out (just air) and cooling down.

BTW - my fans do not seem to be coming on either.

 

Are you able to see any circulation in the radiator after the thermostat has opened? Warm it up with the cap off and see.
Is the water pump drive collar is on, like was previously suggested? I have never primed the pump and have never had a problem.

 

Looked at coolant level this morning, it looked about 1/2 in from top of radiator.

I am at work now, so will not be able to look at it until tonight.

I was thinking I could take the thermostat out and look in to see if the fan was spinning when the car was running (I am assuming it is not).

I do not have my books in front of me, what does the drive collar look like? Is it outside of the timing cover? I just put the water pump on over the shaft that sticks out of the timing cover for it. If there is something that is supposed to go in between that is the problem, because all I did was put the pump directly on the shaft. I was suprised at how easily it went on.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

The drive collar looks like a thin piece of pipe or something that fits over the ends of both the driveshaft coming from the block and the shaft sticking out of the pump. The inside of the collar has grooves that fit over the splines on the driveshafts. Without that collar, there is nothing to drive the waterpump.

BRAD

 

It should have looked like this when you put the w/p on. The splines on the back of the pump should have fit into the coupling that is shown in the pic.

 

Thanks for the pics. They are definately worth a thousand words. This tube (39) was still attached to the wp when I slid it over the driveshaft assembly (63). So I guess that eliminates that possibility.

I just wanted to make sure that it was not something else.

It sounds like we are back to the airlock situation.

What if I remove the thermostat and add water if / as necessary and bleed out the air to get things going? Then I could just put the t-stat back in and re-bleed the system.

What about squeezing the lower hose to force the coolant into the pump?

 

Yes,raise the front end and remove the t-stat and fill the block.Reassemble and bleed.It should be good to go.

 

I removed the tstat and found some coolant. I poured about 1/2 cup in to fill it up. I reinstalled the tstat and opened the bleed screws. I was never so happy to see my nice clean engine get dirty. I closed the lower bleed screw, waited until coolant leaked out of the upper, then closed it. It looks like this is a wrap.

Thanks for all of your help guys.

I am back on the road next week.