I have a 1999 F53 motorhome with 6.8 V10.
Decided to completely drain, flush and refill the cooling system.
Drained the radiator and, after a stuggle, managed to remove the block drain plug.
So I assume I got most of the old stuff out.
When I refilled with new 50/50 stuff, I could only get in about 18 litres out of quoted 29 litres.
I have run the motor until warm and cracked some hoses, but still can't get any more in.
Haven't driven it yet.
Don' want to run it too much in case there's an air lock in an important part, and could do some damage by overheating!
Can anybody please suggest a safe way of getting any air out?

 

My 2005 has two block plugs. Did you keep track of how much coolant you removed?

 

Got nearly three bucketfuls.
Must be close on all of it.
Only one block drain plug on drivers side.
Any ideas about how to check that system is filled correctly?

 

Well I was hoping someone who was certain of the proper procedure would chime in. However, for what its worth, last fall in one weekend I changed the coolant in my SUV, minivan, and F350. I just dumped the coolant in, ran the motors at idle until the thermostat opened. Took a short drive, adding coolant if it looked low. Then keep an eye on it for a while. Wish I could tell you the proper procedure to tell if you have entrapped air, I just don't know it....

 

Thanks for your help, BareBones.
I will do what you say and run the motor some more, then go for a drive.

 

Remove the rear heater hose from the intake, and fill the reservoir until coolant spills out the back of the motor

 

Bare Bones is correct. There is a drain plug on each cylinder bank. The drain plug on the right (passenger) side is under the motor mount and difficult to access. Once you get the steel hex plug out replace it with a brass one which is easier to negotiate with a 6 point socket. It sounds like the block did not get completely drained.

 

the factory trick is a tool known as a air lift. it uses a fitting hooked up to the bottle then hooked up to a air compresser that then pulls a full vacume in the system.
when you have the full vacume reached a valve is closed at the bottle and the hose changed from vacume to pick up and droped into the premix. when opened it then sucks the fuild back into and fully filling the system with out any air pockets to wait to bleed out by them selfs.
http://www.amazon.com/UView-550000-A.../dp/B0002SRH5G

 

Yes, Paul, there may well be a plug on the passenger side, but I couldn't see it!
The balance of about 10 litres was obviously retained in this side of the block.
In the end, I knew that I hadn't drained all of it, and did successive filling, circulating and draining until very diluted. So I finished up adding 15 litres of new antifreeze and only 4 litres of distilled water. This makes the 29 litres total required.
This was a lot of time-consuming work!!!
I acknowledge Krewat's efficient filling method.
I have looked at captchas recommendation of the airlift product and this will be a must for next time. I can imagine how quick the job is!
Excellent reviews too.

 

The airlift works great. It will really pull a serious vacuum and doesn't require much cfm from the compressor. I have a small air compressor at the house and it worked great. Totally eliminates any air pockets in the cooling system.

 

I'm sorry to everybody to say this, but, I understand why dealers have this equipment, but, in 35 years I have only seen 1 vehicle that had an air-lock issue, and never seen an issue on the inability to remove 100% of the fluid from any system.

With regards to general cooling system maintenance, my thoughts...

We know from test conducted by Prestone, conventional coolant has a life of 13 + years (at that mark they stopped the test) and it's contaminants that kill the coolant and damage components. With that said, here's the possible issue I have with inline filters. As they collect contaminants, they slowly restrict the flow and there have been a couple of instances where these restrictions have caused severe overheating (yes caused by owner failure to clean the filter).

IMHO,

1. Nothing substitutes a periodic flush of the radiator

2. When I drain the coolant, I place a doubled up paper towel over the funnel which filters to less than 3 microns (much better then any of the inline filters)- in terms of contaminants, the coolant is now as clean as when it came out of the original bottle. Provided it meets all the other test I do, it is reinstalled in the vehicle.

3. I have installed a magnesium anode in all overflows (same electrolysis protection used per code for all underground tanks)- Zinc anodes are available as well (JC Whitney, etc.) specifically for automotive applications and sell for about $6- they attract all the nasty stuff that destroys radiators, pumps, hoses etc and they become the sacrificial lamb- and keeps the ph of the fluid neutral. The inside of my cooling system and related components is spotless- literally!

4. I check the ph (using a swimming pool kit) - and check the alcohol content using a conventional coolant bulb type test device ($10 at any parts store)

the results.....

1. Contaminant production is eliminated by 90%+ as a result of the neutral ph maintenance

2. Contaminants that are produced are contained outside of the system flow, in the overflow at the anode. At this point I have less contaminant in my system than if I used an inline filter because we have eliminated 90% of the production and contained the residual.

3. With the paper towel, I can actually see the residual system contaminants (which you can typically count) and by most accounts visually know if a potential problem exist by the type and color of the products. The coolant is as clean as if I had opened a fresh container.

4. The system is clean and performance level known.