LT1 Coolant Bleeding

[sidepipe]

I came up with a neat way to bleed the air out of the coolant on my wife's 94 LT1. The service manual said to open the bleed screw on the thermostat housing and run the engine for 4 minutes. It seemed like a lot of coolant to be running out, considering the Opti. What I did was remove the bleed screw, push a piece of 3/8 fuel line (about 18 in.) over the HEX fitting that held the bleed screw. I sealed this with a screw clamp. It wasn't perfect, but I stuffed rags around the thermostat housing to absorb any leaks. I then took a length of clear plastic hose and put one end inside the fuel line and the other into the coolant reservoir (cap off). I started the engine and watched the air and coolant flow thru the clear hose into the reservoir. By the time 4 minutes went by, only a solid flow of coolant was seen in the clear hose. I shut the engine down and removed the fuel line. This step resulted in a small coolant loss before I got the bleed screw in place. On the road the coolant temp stayed at a constant 193. One dry Opti! For what it's worth folks.....Frank

 

[compyelc4]

Thank you Sidepipe. I'm always looking for trick ways to do things. I'm going to try that this weekend.

 

[madstacker]

Im gonna try that on my 94 trans am maybe it will get the low coolant light to go off.

 

[sumoboy]

Im gonna try that on my 94 trans am maybe it will get the low coolant light to go off.

That sounds like another problem. Did you check the sensor?

 

[vettered91]

Thanks Sidepipe I owe you this one, I just made the throttle by-pass this morning and I need to bleed the air without a wet opti!