Coolant- Opposite to usual problem

[Eat Aunt]

Having been amazed that the repair to breather hose fixed the problem of the usual Bongo coolant leak, am left with a question to the Bongo Coolant Experts.

(Unable to find what I am looking for in the members area)

Having not really expected the previous repair to have solved the problem, and expecting further work to be done I did not add the coolant

What I would like to know is can I drain off enough water to be replaced with anti freeze/coolant without going through the full hosepipe/see saw method of bleeding

For instance can this be done by draining off any area of the system, and refilling, without causing air to be trapped ?

Hope that makes sense

[haydn callow]

Personally I would drain it down and premix 50/50 antifreeze/water and do the whole job again..
However I think BDC may be along and If I remember he has a way of just adding antifreeze.

[daveblueozzie]

you can drain water off but it needs two people to do the operation.
firstly fill the expansion tank with neat coolant, then slowly drain the water using the bleed hose ,while the other person fills the expansion tank at the same time with coolant, keeping the expansion tank topped up all the time. when coolant starts to come through the bleed hose stop draining and filling, then slowly drain the expansion tank to the required level.
this can easily be done without getting air into the system as long as both people drain and fill at the same amount.
this is the way me and BDC did MR Munkeys.

[Eat Aunt]

you can drain water off but it needs two people to do the operation.
firstly fill the expansion tank with neat coolant, then slowly drain the water using the bleed hose ,while the other person fills the expansion tank at the same time with coolant, keeping the expansion tank topped up all the time. when coolant starts to come through the bleed hose stop draining and filling, then slowly drain the expansion tank to the required level.
this can easily be done without getting air into the system as long as both people drain and fill at the same amount.
this is the way me and BDC did MR Munkeys.

Nice one Daveblueozzie

Many thanks, exactly what I hoped for

[haydn callow]

DAVE...Do you do that with the engine hot and running so the stat is open ??You need to get about 6 lts of anti freeze in.

[missfixit70]

If you do it with the engine running it mixes it up & it starts coming out the bleed hose before all the antifreeze is in .
If it's already been bled & air free, you can do it with the engine off with one person. Top the header to the top with coolant, the drop 1 litre from the bleed hose into a measure so you know it's a litre, then fill up the header again with a litre of coolant, drain another litre, etc until it's all in, easy

[haydn callow]

Yes But !!!! if the stat is not open how does the anti freeze get into the engine ?? surely you cannot get 6 lts into the bypass system. Wouldn't you be pouring Anti treeze in one end and anti freeze pouring out the other. Even if you did get it all in you would have to run up to high temp to open stat and mix it. In this weather you dont want neat water anywhere...i.e. bottom of rad.
Or am I missing somthing ???

[daveblueozzie]

What you probably forgot is that it wont just have plain water in the system,(i hope) all your doing is adding neat coolant to strengthen the existing coolant in the system already, so you will not need a full 6 liters of coolant.
when you think it is strong enough then you can start the engine to mix the coolant.

[Eat Aunt]

Unfortunately have had plain water in there for the last few days.

Hope to do your method with the engine cold DBO

[haydn callow]

Ah !! I assumed it was full of water....Would your method work if it was ?? Still wouldn't want to leave a rad half full of very weak mixture.

Ah!! new post...just got water in....IN THIS WEATHER !!!!

[missfixit70]

If I remember right, I got most of my 5 litre bottle of antifreeze in before it started coming out the bleed hose, but I think the stat may well have been open at the start as the engine had been running before I started.
As I've never bothered going much more than about 30% antifreeze in any car I've had, I don't see why it should be any higher for the bongo

[daveblueozzie]

Unfortunately have had plain water in there for the last few days.

OH ,thats different, I'm not sure if the method ive suggested will work, its only for strengthening the coolant as far as I'm concerned.
i think it will have to have the engine hot to do it the way i suggested for a coolant change

[Eat Aunt]

Looks like then, >>

Engine up to correct running temp to get the stat open.

Turn engine off, then above method.

Will the new coolant running through cause the stat to close ? Guessing not by what Kirsty has done previously ?

[missfixit70]

suspect it does, but you could always warm up the antifreeze, stand it in a cool box full of hot water, probably a good idea anyway so it's not going in cold. If it does start coming through before it's all in, run the engine up to temp to get it thoroughly mixed, then what's draining out to get the concentrate in, is diluted, which can be saved in the event of top up being needed, & you are getting more concentrate in than is coming out.

[kawasaki kid]

BDC and DBO and myself added antifreeze into my van using this method a few weeks ago - engine up to temp -a 17 mile run down the motorway then left the engine off for an hour to let it cool down a bit then using 3 people - one to hold the funnel in the expansion bottle , one to pour the antifreeze into the bottle and one to hold the bleed pipe over a bucket and control the flow of water coming out of the bleed pipewith our thumbs . We then added the anti freeze making sure that the expansion bottle always contained liquid so no air was introduced into the system - after adding 5 ltrs we then started up the engine and ran it putting the heaters / blowers on in the front and rear making sure they blew hot - when we were satisfied we knocked the engine off and let it cool down then carefully removed the cap off the bottle and checked the level inside - mine was spot on and didn`t need to top it up. A word of warning when you empty the water out of the bleed pipe it will be HOT - we had a few burny fingers doing it. I checked the water every day for a week incase the level dropped in the bottle - it never did. So the BDC and DBO method works great - just take your time and don`t let the bottle run empty and introduce air into the system and you should have no problems. Thanks again lads.