. another chapter in the engine puke saga

[66hcs-conv]

Hi all,

I took the radiator out & had it boiled out, guy says it cleaned up good.

While the radiator was out, and with the t-stat removed, I used the garden hose and put water in the upper radiator hose until the water ran clear out the bottom hose. I also flushed the heater core.

Put every thing back together except for the heater hose coming off the intake manifold (thank you Rob). I put coolant/water in the radiator until I got a little water coming out the manifold connection, and then put the heater hose back on the manifold connection.

BUT at this point I can only get 8 quarts (2 gallons) of coolant back in the engine/radiator. Shop manual says it is supposed to hold 15 quarts.
I cranked the engine a little hoping it would circulate the water a little, but no help.

So does the engine hold or retain 8 quarts, or what is going on here?

I would greatly appreciate your thoughts and input.

Thanks, Dave

 

[dalorzo_f]

After the garden hose flush there was probably water left in the block and heater core. If you put coolant in and got "water" out, as you note, it shows water left in the system was being displaced.

If you run it to a temp to open the tstat it should settle, cranking the engine a bit won't do it. Alternatively you can run it without a tstat to get the level right and check flow, replace it after you're sure the engine is full.

 

[Mosesatm]

Another good thing to do with a newly rebuilt engine is to remove the block drains and flush the engine. If I remember correctly the drains are immediately in front of the motor mounts.

 

[robert campbell]

Dave,
As Richard said you had water in the block when you started. All is good.

As Arlie said there are two block drains. The passenger side is in front of the motor mount and kinda below the alternator. the driver side one is towards the back of the block kinda below the back of the driver valve cover. Both are somewhat close to the oil pan gasket surface. Typically a square head iron pipe plug, but sometimes a hex head or allen head pipe plug.

These plugs can be extremely hard to remove sometimes. I would leave them alone unless you really need to drain and flush the block as Arlie said. The car called "Satan" on our site was full of gunk and I removed both plugs to flush it out. My guess is you are ok as it came from a shop and they flush it out.

You are ok if the intake connection return line was off when filling. You are ready to go.

Rob