burping coolant system

[bostonrsx24]

Hi. New to the site.

 

Working on refilling/burping 1993 Legacy 2.2L 110K miles after replacing water pump, timing belt, and thermostat to correct overheating problem. The water pump would hardly turn and the timing belt was apparently just rubbing on the pump drive "pulley". I don't see any water or white smoke coming out the tail pipe. I refilled through the radiator cap (didn't know about the bleeder on the top right side of the radiator. The temperature still goes above normal. The upper radiator hose gets hot but the lower hose stays cool. I now have it up on ramps as suggested in many posts, but unsure best way to burp it. How should I burp it? Should I drain it and refill through the upper hose?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Brian

[porcupine73]

That sounds weird that the water pump would hardly turn, even if you did have air trapped in there. Are you sure the timing belt tensioner was in good condition? Did you use a new timing belt? Or if you reused the old timing belt was it soaked iwth oil?

[SuBrat84]

I think he means the old pump/belts were having the problem. Anyway.. Did you get a genuine subaru t-stat? Did you fill it up with the car running and the heater on full blast? You definitely need to have that bleeder open as well.

[bostonrsx24]

What I meant was that when I took out the old pump, I found it would hardly turn. I replaced the old pump with a new one. I also put on a new timing belt.

[SuBrat84]

It's conceivable that there is a clog in the system somewhere.. If you do end up draining it.. try running very low pressure water through the top and make sure it comes out the bottom.. do the same with the radiator.. make sure everything is "flowing." It might help clean out some gunk too...

[bostonrsx24]

I filled it with the engine off and the bleeder closed.

[bostonrsx24]

SuBrat84 - How should I run water through the engine? Do you mean in the top hose into the top of the engine, and out the bottom hose from the water pump?

 

Thanks,

 

Brian

[bostonrsx24]

I'm going to drain it, try the water flow suggestions, refill through the top hose, reinstall the top hose, and refill with the engine on, the heat on high, and the radiator bleeder open. I'll let you know how it goes.

[SuBrat84]

Yeah, whenever I have my coolant system empty I get the garden hose on low pressure and just make sure everything looks like it is flowing well.. sometimes I get some funk out of some of the older vehicles! It's not a great "flow test" for the radiator.. but it's still good to know the coolant CAN move through there.

[bostonrsx24]

Thanks, I will give it a shot tomorrow.