talon46

I need some help,

I can wrench on cars just fine, I opted to change the coolant and thermostat myself, however there is not filler cap, I have been following recommendations from an earlier post, been burping the car now for 2 plus hours, I am on my third gallon of coolant, only coolant that initially came out was when I changed the thermostat.

Now she wants to over heat, idle her for a bit, and she hits 245 degrees quit fast, I had the heat on trying to get it to circualte the fluids, have filled up the coolant resivor several times, and it has boiled over several times, whats the trick?? how do you know when its full.

I am used to radiators that you can fill up and see when its full, run the motor until the thermostat opens and it circulates, then top it off watch is circulate until its stays at an even level, then cap it off and your done. Not really liking this new system if you can tell.

Some help please??

any advice??

sean.b

start touching hoses to see if you're actually circulating water anymore. its my guess you either have your thermostat not opening (you should have cold tubes where all tubes should be hot) or you disconnected the water pump or something.

talon46

I may be making some progress, it needs to cool down a bit, but it warmed up quick to 241 alot warmer then I want it to be, however, the fans are kicking in on time, let it cool off and burp her again. Hope this works out, not real happy at this point.

Any other advice?/ last two cycles of warming her up and burping her she was not low and did not need fluid??

am I possibly getting close to having accomplished this chore??

on a good note while waiting during several of these sessions was able to do the AMF cleaing and the throttle body cleaning, both were dirty hope to see an improvement in MPG ??

let me know if anyone can think of anything else?? also I went back to running the heater to completely cycle the fluids??

I will post up in a few any other findings alas another figure 2-4 hours job is taking as my wife would like to say you know nothing you start ever takes just a few hours???

thanks

LoneStarFRC

Tip: "cycling" the heater does nothing. There is no heater control valve on a C5. Engine coolant circulates through the heater core full time regardless whether the "heat" position is selected or not.

When you "cycle" the heater, all that happens is that the damper doors inside the HVAC housing change position to allow the fan motor to blow air through the heater core instead of the AC evaporator core.

Question: Why did you change the thermostat in the first place? Was it faulty? Are you certain you were sold the correct thermostat? I agree with the others about checking the hose temps to try to determine if it is opening. If worse comes to worse, re-install your old thermostat and check again.

HTH

dgrant3830

I've never had this issue myself. I just put in the coolant with the engine cold and keep topping it off as it slowly fills the block. From there, heat it up and burp it once the thermostat opens, then shut it down and let it cool off all night again. Top it off again and all's good.

bracketshark

This is what I used and it work perfectly.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...-solution.html

cdkcorvette7

Here's the thread where this started for reference: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...emp-issue.html

OP: Did you ever check your original thermostat as suggested by throwing it in a pot of boiling water to ensure that it was actually your issue? If you haven't verified that your overheating issue was actually due to a stuck thermostat than simply swapping it out and then changing the coolant per the procedure I posted may not fix your problem.

Did you ever get underneath and look between the radiator and condenser for obstructions?

Also, if it's boiling over are you certain you didn't overfill it?

If you've put three gallons in and you changed the thermostat out per the procedure I posted you have almost definitely overfilled your car. Did you lose three gallons when changing the thermostat?

These cars DO have a fill line on the coolant reservoir. Take a rag with some simple green on it and wipe off the clear part of the tank so that you can see it better.

dougbfresh

1-you expect INSTANT help here for FREE??
2-You started yet another post on this-did you look at the OTHER THREAD for help?
3-Maybe you should have tried to find the procedure to do this BEFORE you began (Advanced Search will help you here)
LIKE: http://www.iammoon.com/c5tech/coolant_drain.htm

The ONLY fill is the cap on the resevoir-there is no BURPING to speak of, you fill it, run it a while and then top it off. If you have problems-you most likelhave other problems!

cdkcorvette7

I disagree. There IS a burping procedure to get air out of the coolant lines...

lucky131969

Ok, something isn't right here. The system capacity is ~12.5 quarts (just over 3 gallons). So if in the course of changing the t-stat, you lost some fluid, there is no way it could have been that much. No idea why you changed the thermostat, but it must have been running very hot........because of a lack of coolant to begin with.

dougbfresh

Disagree-never did it to mine and all the stuff in the manual also does not cover it.
I used: http://www.iammoon.com/c5tech/coolant_drain.htm

cdkcorvette7

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/1574741091-post15.html

dougbfresh

That's NOT burping-it's just topping it off.

cdkcorvette7

"Topping it off" is the last step in the procedure and, as I understand it, is defined as pouring coolant into the reservoir until the liquid has reached the fill line. The procedure in the link I posted is designed to get air out of the lines and is far more inclusive that just "topping it off"... Either way we've hijacked this thread. We can continue this debate over pm if you'd like...

dougbfresh

He has other problems-some history would have been good, like was he having "issues" before he began?

imavettegirl

least descriptive and weirdest thread title ever.....

talon46

was not expecting immediate help, just some help and I have gotten alot of posts.

I did my home work, I sought advice prior to choosing to do this, followed directions from patches.

I may indeed have another problem it may be my fan low temp not coming on or being intermitent.

I was under the car last night for about 2.5 hours, disconnected the fan schroud, to verify no cap and there is not?? also no obstructions.

The white plug underneath turns just fine, but nothing came out. It boiled over several times, and I bought 3 gallons fo fluid based on the parts clerk looking up the capacity of 12.4 quarts.

I lost alot of fluid when I removed the thermostat, both from the block side and the hose/radiator side.

tonight I will be looking again underneath, at the fan connections, I was asking earlier about fan sensors and relays any help there would be appreciated. I posted similar post in the tech section in hopes of getting different information.

I am aware of the fill line, found it after looking at the resivor from the drivers side did not see one, found it when looking from the front of the car.


By the way not sure what would cause the drain plug to not function but radiators get gunked up, and cause overheating and or running hot issues. I recently dealt with this problem on a different vehicle mind you it had 106 K miles on it. however in my negelct of the car not intentional I have not changed the fluid since owning it. Just did not think about it. I have owned it since 23.5 k miles, and it is now pushing 57K miles. It is possible it could be gunked up. adding to my problem?? Other thought would be that when I broke the thermostat loose, from the radiator and block side that the radiator might have been drained to begin with I can test that tonight since I know there is fluid in there now??

ya'll take care

thanks

craig04c5

You have an 04 and it is possible to put the thermostat in backwards Check to be sure.

XtremeVette

I normally totally agree with you Lucky...but in this case disagree and can from first hand experience! I searched on here before changing out the stock t stat on my 2002 to go to a 160 T stat. I read so many posts that all said the same thing..."you'll lose a little bit or not that much coolant when you change the T-stat". Let me just call BS on that one. I was quite surprised when I had rags under the t-stat and a small quart size container under the car ready to catch that small amount of coolant. When I popped the hose off my t-stat housing....Gush!!! Out came all of it and at a super fast rate! I quickly as fast as I could, put the hose back on but it was too late. All mine took was about 2 seconds to lose the first gallon or so. I definitely wanted to change it...so I put pans under the car to catch all the remaining coolant...and I definitely did lose it all or really close to it. My car had been sitting overnight so it was cool. When I refilled mine...I did just that...I put coolant in...then started it up...topped it off to the fill line on the reservoir...no problems. Only thing I can add to the originally poster is you did put the t-stat in correctly right? You can accidentally put it in upside down if you get sidetracked. I don't know if the hose would fit on properly or not...but a thought none-the-less. Good luck

lucky131969

I guess somehow you had no coolant in the radiator, heater core, or hoses. The system only holds a little over 3 gallons, and the OP put in 3 ?? I guess my experience has been different....then again, you do have to be a little smarter than the fluid when doing this. I always have the front on ramps, which only allows soo much to come out initially.....learned that a long time ago, working on SBC's.