Mad Mart

I'm trying to bleed the air out of the cooling system. On reading through the manual it says to remove the cap from the heater by-pass tube & undo the bleed bolt in the intake manifold. I've undone the bleed bolt but can't find the heater by-pass cap. On the illustration it does say LHD models & it looks like it's near the bulkhead, I'm assuming there is a similar cap on RHD models? Anyway, I topped the rad up with water but no coolant is coming out of the bleed bolt, even after squeezing the bottom hose.

S2000_FUN

Look behind the injector plastic cover the polished tube in the following photo (at the very back, behind the engine). Just in the straight line of the plastic injector cover is the cap from the heater. Best thing to do in order to bleed the system correctly is to jack up the front of the car so as the radiator cap is higher than the heater cap

s2konroids

UK models don't have the heater bleed cap.

Do as S2000FUN says also...

I have found to get pesky air out open the bleed cap on the intake manifold a little put a tight transparent tube on it and with the radiator cap removed just blow into it (don't ingest any) you will blow the air/bubbles out. You will see fluid and bubbles come out of the transparent tube.

It does work and doesn't take too long.

S2000_FUN

Oh i am sorry i didn't know that UK models don't have the heater bleed valve. I am sorry for giving the wrong info here

Mad Mart

No problems S2000_FUN. It was worth it for the pic of your engine bay. You must have spent thousands?


Thanks s2konroids, I did what you suggested with a piece of tube & blew quite a lot of air back through the system. But, after tighteneing the bleed bolt, when I started the engine (from cold), coolant started overflowing from the rad. I guess this shouldn't be happening?

S2000_FUN

Thank you for your kind words. Have you tightened the radiator cap? If you haven't put the radiator cap at all, then is normal. Secure the radiator cap and try to do 2-3 heatcycles and check your overflow bottle. Then leave it over the night. If the system has air inside the radiator cap will allow some air to escape and the system will suck some water from the overflow bottle until the air gets all out. Also did you bleed the system with the heater control at hot?

mikey k

The best bleed point for UK cars is the nipple on the front righthand side of the head.
Put the heater on full as well.
As others say jack the front up.
Run it up to temp with the rad cap off, put it on and bleed it.
Always worked for me!

Mad Mart

I believe there is only one bleed point on UK cars. But if I keep the engine running without the rad cap on, I will lose a lot of coolant.