Another coolant bleeding issue thread - help!

[eaglecomm]

Hi all,
I'm helping my son with his 2014 Mustang v6. He had a small coolant leak at the base of the water pump so we changed out the water pump.

Trying to bleed the system so we:
- fill up the coolant reservoir
- raise the front end to help air bubble up easier
- engine running
- heat all the way, fan all the way down

Ran the car for a while in the garage and neither of the upper (on passenger side) or lower (driver side) hoses get hot or pressurized. Temps from obd show around 205F. Took the car out for about a 20 minute drive with some highway time and stopped many times to check the coolant reservoir and the hoses and they never filled up.

Brought it home and figured maybe the thermostat was the culprit and so we bought a replacement 190 tstat. Installed and refilled the coolant and did everything again.

Temps running at 210-212 for 10-15 minutes and still not circulating.

Aside from maybe now having 2 stats that are bad (including the new one), is there something else I'm missing? Tstat is mechanical so it shouldn't be anything electrical? It isn't temperature plus pressure is it? I was trying to think of some other reason why it isn't circulating IF the tstat is in fact opening properly?

Happy New Year!

 

[diambo4life]

Heat in the vents? Did you use one of those burping funnels? I think you still have lots of air in there.

 

[GriffX]

I pump/squeeze/massage the upper radiator hose until it fills up.

PS: To clarify, I pump the air/water through the thermostat, it has a bleeder hole in it.

 

[eaglecomm]

Ok, thank you both.

We did have heat in the vents and I had squeezed the hoses, but only to test for heat/water/pressure, not as a means to push air around.

I mistakenly figured the reservoir fed the engine high enough (it doesn't) and thought the area feeding the thermostat had enough water because it came pouring out when I replaced the thermostat, but I see it probably doesn't now. I also saw another thread mentioning to fill up the upper radiator hose and reconnect it to try and get more in the tubes.

Will work on it some more today. Thanks for the help!

 

[eaglecomm]

To follow up, I pulled the upper radiator hose and it was full. Still tried to pour fluid in, but ultimately decided to reconnect and attempt to use the small breather/overflow hose at the top of the thermostat housing. Using a small 3oz funnel I slowly refilled as much as possible until I saw that the coolant reservoir was filling and closed it all back up. Ran it for a few minutes, squeezing hoses and then had to make a run to get gas (<.5 mile away) as he was too low to let it sit and run longer. Checked at the gas station and then again near the house as it warmed up. Drove a little longer and it seemed that the thermostat opened up. Took it out on the highway to be sure, running around 205F and stopped off to check again and both hoses were warm and pressurized.

So all worked out in the end, but not sure exactly which it was or a combination of the new tstat, filling up through the upper hose or the breather/overflow hose, or I just held my head right and leaned on one foot. But it's running right now!

Thanks for the ideas and the quick responses.