Isuzu Trooper Owners Club UK™

[donk1052]

hi i have a bighorn 3.1 td and recently fitted a new radiator,expansion tank and thermostat. the problem i have is i cant seem to get all the air out of the system by running the engine with rad cap off, is there a bleed valve anywhere. can anybody help. many thanks.

[Google]

[rabbitt]

nope , unfortunatly its just very time consuming , i take it you are doing it with the engine running and the heaters set to hot ?

its just a case if VERY slowley pouring the water in and cheaking the water lvl in the tank as well .

to refill the whole system took me the best part of an hour

[donk1052]

thanks for reply. i have tried about six times to bleed with cap off and trickling water in but it keeps throwing water out and then i slowly pour more in then it throws more out. i have heater on full and hot, someone did say it could be pulling air in if head gasket gone, i hope thats not the case.

[MartQ]

Only top up thru the expansion tank, leave the rad cap on.  The reason being it is a sealed pressurised system and doesn't circulate properly with the rad cap removed.  It's a very slow process though.
_________________
94 Big Horn 3.1 Lotus Auto
Torque Flung Dirt Technique!

[donk1052]

thankyou i will try that, we have the same vehicle. i just wish i had found this site a long time ago. once again thankyou all for your help, talk soon no doubt.

[donk1052]

hi again, i have tried bleeding cooling system by trickling water in rad while running engine but no joy and tried doing it through expansion tank but no joy either, i even got hold of a piece of pipe with a bleed valve in and spliced it into my heater matrix pipes but no joy. as i am driving the temp guage goes into red for a few seconds and then drops back to normal and then you can hear the air rush through the heater matrix. it doesnt over heat but i am running it at the moment with expansion tank cap off but still in the tank. has anybody got anymore suggestions or should i take it to a garage and see if they can clear the air out.

[brains]

ok try this then put the cap back on then start it up , crack open the thermo switch on the top of the thermo housing and slowly let the water seep out untill there is no more bubbling and tighten it back up.then see if that works , it should do.

[donk1052]

ok i will try that, there are two what look like senders or switches on top of thermo housing can you tell me wich one i should undo, thanks for reply.

[brains]

any one will do as long as its above the thermostat

[donk1052]

right will try that thakyou for help i hope it works cos its begining to confuse me all my other vehicles i have done have been simple to get air out of system, thanks again.

[brains]

i know m8 my astra is also a pig to do so i do the same with that and it works a treat

[donk1052]

just wanted to say thanks to all who gave advice, i have done it at last, i ended up taking the little black pipe off back of thermo housing which i think circulates coolant around turbo and it was rather blocked which would not have helped, i then filled up rad until coolant came out of thermo housing then put pipe back on, started engine ran for a while topped up some more and job done, hope my experiences with this may help someone else someday. once again thanks you guys much appreciated  

[donk1052]

just a quick note to say bighorn not sorted but will be soon, its going into garage to have either head gasket done or core plug replaced whichever one needs doing thats why it was sucking air into cooling system, whatever happens i will be a few hundred quid lighter afterwards :cry:

[brains]

oh dear m8 sorry to hear it , hope you have it sorted

[donk1052]

hi guys hope you all well, just to let you know i got bighorn back from garage after having head gasket replaced, i am a few quid lighter now but the good people at nene overland in castor peterborough did a good job and very reasonable price, now i can get back shooting and ferreting talk soon