cooling system problem

[MMcactusflower]

i must confess...i do not think i have enough college degrees to figure out what the dickens happened this time...
i changed the antifreeze/coolant in my '04 DTR MM 23,000 miles) yesterday...opened the plastic valve at the driver's side bottom of the radiator...cap off the coolant reservoir up top...and flushed the radiator out three different times...water hose in reservoir at small stream volume...motor running the last two times for 15-20 minutes at a time so top hoses and tubes were hot...i figured the thermostat was open and fluids would circulate through the system and drain out at the bottom of the radiator...and so i got a bucket of old antifreeze colored water first and then the last drainings were clear water...although there did not seem to be 14 quarts total volume...and that sorta puzzled me ...
i had the heater running as well when the motor was running.
next let the motor cool and put about 3/4 gallon of prestone 50/50 antifreeze and the water already added solution in the top reservoir.
i thought it should take 14 quarts or so...but it was full up to the top and so i stopped.
let the car run for 20 minutes...fluid was moving in the top reservoir then...again figured the thermostat was open and all was well...was running the heater then too.
turned car off ... put cap on ... no leaks... everything fine

this morning...went for a drive through town and back and within 10 minutes the temp guage on the dash had risen to the "H" mark
just a good thing i noticed it...
immediately came home
parked in shade and opened hood to let motor cool

when the car was cool in a few hours...checked the fluid level in reservoir and it was as it was yesterday...up to the top...temp guage was at "C"... so then went for another short drive around the block...within a few minutes the temp guage was almost to "H" again...

i did squeeze the rubber hoses leading to the radiator yesterday as the coolant was circulating to see if there was air in the system that i could force out...and i did add a bottle of Red Line Water Wetter yesterday as well...

what the devil happened...is there still air in the block...or somewhere else in the system...is there another drain i need to open to drain it all out again...
have i missed something
done something wrong

never had a problem like this before when changing coolant in a car but then this marauder has a lot of extra plumbing up top to be sure

any help or advice or suggestons would definately be appreciated
the car has never gotten hot before even in july and august here in texas so i must have really fouled something up

thanks

[SC Cheesehead]

Sounds like you have air in the system, need to burp it.


http://reischeperformance.com/refill.html

[MyBlackBeasts]

i must confess...i do not think i have enough college degrees to figure out what the dickens happened this time...
i changed the antifreeze/coolant in my '04 DTR MM 23,000 miles) yesterday...opened the plastic valve at the driver's side bottom of the radiator...cap off the coolant reservoir up top...and flushed the radiator out three different times...water hose in reservoir at small stream volume...motor running the last two times for 15-20 minutes at a time so top hoses and tubes were hot...i figured the thermostat was open and fluids would circulate through the system and drain out at the bottom of the radiator...and so i got a bucket of old antifreeze colored water first and then the last drainings were clear water...although there did not seem to be 14 quarts total volume...and that sorta puzzled me ...
i had the heater running as well when the motor was running.
next let the motor cool and put about 3/4 gallon of prestone 50/50 antifreeze and the water already added solution in the top reservoir.
i thought it should take 14 quarts or so...but it was full up to the top and so i stopped.
let the car run for 20 minutes...fluid was moving in the top reservoir then...again figured the thermostat was open and all was well...was running the heater then too.
turned car off ... put cap on ... no leaks... everything fine

this morning...went for a drive through town and back and within 10 minutes the temp guage on the dash had risen to the "H" mark
just a good thing i noticed it...
immediately came home
parked in shade and opened hood to let motor cool

when the car was cool in a few hours...checked the fluid level in reservoir and it was as it was yesterday...up to the top...temp guage was at "C"... so then went for another short drive around the block...within a few minutes the temp guage was almost to "H" again...

i did squeeze the rubber hoses leading to the radiator yesterday as the coolant was circulating to see if there was air in the system that i could force out...and i did add a bottle of Red Line Water Wetter yesterday as well...

what the devil happened...is there still air in the block...or somewhere else in the system...is there another drain i need to open to drain it all out again...
have i missed something
done something wrong

never had a problem like this before when changing coolant in a car but then this marauder has a lot of extra plumbing up top to be sure

any help or advice or suggestons would definately be appreciated
the car has never gotten hot before even in july and august here in texas so i must have really fouled something up

thanks

When refilling the MM cooling system you need to jack the front end off the ground as high as you can, remove vent plug from crossover tube, fill through res cap till full, cap res, funnel coolant in to vent hole till full, replace plug. Start and watch gauge. periodically check the vent hole, if coolant has gone down, top it off.

I loosely installed vent plug and for 1st few minutes it was running I carefully removed to check & top off. Once engine starts getting warm don't do this.

When hot & coolant level stays full, take for a ride to fully circulate & open t-stat. Watch gauge. if issues, keep repeating proceedure till all air burped from system.

When sure all is good, adjust res level to spec.

Then get out there WOT and burn up some Prius gas! :burnout:

[airjordan2k8]

mine seems to do this aswell but only when i have the car in park and it just running it shoots up to the "H"???? its done it a few times while driving but it goes back down still wondering???

[RacerX]

mine seems to do this aswell but only when i have the car in park and it just running it shoots up to the "H"???? its done it a few times while driving but it goes back down still wondering???
You have air in the system also and need to "Burp" it. When idling, any air in the system collects into big air spaces which don't allow for water to move. At highere rpms, you're breaking the air up into smaller bubbles and moving more fluid to cool. Don't run these motors like this! You will warp the heads eventually.

[fastblackmerc]

A proper "burping" is in order for both MM's.

[airjordan2k8]

Thanks guys ima have my mechanic do this for me....

[MMcactusflower]

i was pretty sure air in the system might very well be the culprit...so thanks for confirming my suspicions...and i was VERY concerned about warping the heads and causing other serious damage to the aluminum parts with overheating
i shall be at work on this problem tomorrow and will follow these instructions carefully

thanks again for being a part of such a valuable resource for us owners 'out there'

[88LTDCV351]

Does an older car need to be burped? Reason I ask is that I put a new radiator in my 1988 Crown Vic about 4 years ago. Only thing I did was drain the radiator, took out the radiator, put a new radiator in, filled with antifreeze and never had a problem since. Should I have burped it? I drive the car about 3,000 miles a year since its no longer my daily driver. Since its been fine for 4 years or more years, did I get lucky or should I have a mechanic burp it just to avoid problems later?

[fastblackmerc]

Does an older car need to be burped? Reason I ask is that I put a new radiator in my 1988 Crown Vic about 4 years ago. Only thing I did was drain the radiator, took out the radiator, put a new radiator in, filled with antifreeze and never had a problem since. Should I have burped it? I drive the car about 3,000 miles a year since its no longer my daily driver. Since its been fine for 4 years or more years, did I get lucky or should I have a mechanic burp it just to avoid problems later?

Only need to burp the system if it has a crossover tube.

[88LTDCV351]

Oh, ok. Thanks.

[MMcactusflower]

thanks again to all
that is what i get for reading the procedure for changing coolant in the grand marquis/crown vic repair manuals...
they have been of some help with such things as removing door panels and such...but not this type of job of course
i saw the plug on the crossover tube...wondered about whether to remove it to check on things...

man this job was really simple on my gto's back in the day

ah but i sure do like the ride and comfort of this mm...

so tomorrow...i will make sure my baby is better taken care of and fixed properly

[fastblackmerc]

thanks again to all
that is what i get for reading the procedure for changing coolant in the grand marquis/crown vic repair manuals...
they have been of some help with such things as removing door panels and such...but not this type of job of course
i saw the plug on the crossover tube...wondered about whether to remove it to check on things...

man this job was really simple on my gto's back in the day

ah but i sure do like the ride and comfort of this mm...

so tomorrow...i will make sure my baby is better taken care of and fixed properly

Hopefully the plug is not a B**** to get out. You don't have to "gorilla" tighten it since there is an o-ring seal, and a small amount of anti-seize on the threads will make later removal easier.

[MMcactusflower]

i had to use a large flat blade screwdriver to loosen the plug...not too bad but was very careful so as to not damage it in any fashion

am going out early this morning to finish this job on the baby...i hate that it got so hot yesterday but did not drive it but about three miles coming back home and it cooled off quickly and it was early in the morning here and it was still pretty cool outside in the morning air...am surely hoping no damage was done to the heads or other parts though...do not think so

now i know how to do this job and next time...will do it right the first time

[bugsyc]

I put a new upper hose on.No leaks.Filled resevoir on top that has big cap..I used pure antifreeze,no water..Question 1...is there an overflow hose and where is it??2..should resevoir be filled to top?Did the burp thing with car front raised a few inches..guage reads half way between H&C..Everything sound as if it were done correctly???Thanks..bugsy

[SC Cheesehead]

I put a new upper hose on.No leaks.Filled reservoir on top that has big cap..I used pure antifreeze,no water..Question 1...is there an overflow hose and where is it??2..should reservoir be filled to top?Did the burp thing with car front raised a few inches..guage reads half way between H&C..Everything sound as if it were done correctly???Thanks..bugsy

Did you just top off with antifreeze, or re-fill the whole system? Should be running at least a 50% - 50% mixture of antifreeze and water.

Antifreeze itself is not a good conductor of heat; but water is, however, you can't use water solo or it'll freeze or boil. Long story short, a 50/50 mixture is best. I know a lot of folks that use a 50% antifreeze, 40% distilled water (the distilled water prevents mineral build up in the radiator and heater core), and a 10% addition of "Water Wetter". The "water wetter" improves thermal conductivity.

Here's more info:
http://www.sctoa.org/helpdesk/PureAntifreezevs50_50.pdf

Question 1."is there an overflow hose and where is it??" AFAIK, we've got a closed system on our cars, the degas bottle is the "overflow," it's designed to flow excess coolant back and forth between it and the radiator.

Question 2. "should reservoir be filled to top?" No, doing so leaves no room for coolant expansion. If you look on the side of the degas bottle, you'll see coolant level lines, you should maintain coolant at that level in the bottle.

[crouse]

I usually just freshen the anti-freeze every two years or so on my vehicles. I open the drain plug on the bottom of the radiator and open the cap on the reservoir and let it drain. I buy a gallon of anti-freeze and a gallon of distilled water and dump both into a 5 gallon pail. Whatever is left over, I dump back into the anti-freeze jug and mark it 50/50.