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Possible air lock Vitesse


Paul H

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Hi flushed my system, removed bottom hose and bleeder valve on the engine . Water did drip out over night from the block valve. 

I did try to remove the nut holding the bleeder valve to no avail.  Now refilling with distilled waster and antifreeze at 35% , handbook says 6.2 litres in total .

 currently have approx 4 litres and its full. Started the engine with heater controls on . I have hot hoses at the heater section and bottom hose but still cold on the top hose . Assuming there is no trapped water in the block I’m hoping to  clear the airlock by running the engine with top hose loose or off until air lock clears

 Am I missing anything ?

Paul 

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Your thermostat hasn't opened yet - or is stuck.

Hot coolant comes out of the head and is pumped up towards the 'stat.    The take-off to the inlet manifold warming tube comes off  below the stat, so it circulates through there anyway.   If the heater is on then it goes to the heater matrix, back to the valve and then to the water pump via the pipe under the exhaut manifold.   It's a separate circulation.

John

Cooling circulation.jpg

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John is probably right - and as a further wrinkle, if your thermostat seals well and has no air relief hole in it, it may itself be sitting in a pocket of air and not getting enough heat into it to actually open.  Try bleeding by removing the hose that goes from the water pump housing to inlet manifold.

Nick

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My solution to bleeding the heater high point on a Vitesse Mk2, copied from a Renault 8 Gordini I had in Montreal in the late 60's.

I always thought what a good idea it was, its just a Yorkshie T with soldered in brass nut in the vertical offtake. Yes it works.

PeterT

Air Bleed at Heater.JPG

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Update: I ran the engine up to temp and the thermostat kicked in and the top hose is now warm , I checked carefully and removing the top hose  while running there is a flow of water . The rad is still full despite me only putting in approx 4 litres and the book says 6 litres . Is it possible I left 2 litres in the block ? Both heater hoses are hot . Would giving the car a run remove any possible airlocks if this is still the case ?

Paul 

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I suspect some was left in the block. When I last refilled my GT6 cooling system I actually added slightly more than the book indicated as capacity! Took 6.5 litres. Whether the half full overflow bottle is included or not I've no idea!

Gully

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1 hour ago, Ian Foster said:

Paul

The drain tap can be completely removed, which gives a much bigger hole to poke something through (a large cable tie works well).

Suspect you may not want to do this just yet having just refilled the system, but definitely one for the future.

Ian

Hi Ian on the list , I did try before but access is not easy . Will need to remove the carbs to get the access 

Paul 

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1 minute ago, Ian Foster said:

Paul

The tap is close to back of the block and behind the carbs so should be no need to remove them for access.

Ian

I did try but the tap nut wouldn’t shift with the limited access . The tap itself came out but there is a blockage with crud 

Paul 

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