I'm following this link and have to say- I don't understand what is all
the fuss about. One cannot fill the rear reservoir completely full.
About half full is right, there needs to be room for expansion. The
front (inside) bottle needs to be full all the time. but a properly
function pressure cap and air tight hose to the expansion tank will keep
it topped up.
I NEVER take out the grille and bleed the radiator. Even last month when
I put in a different engine and quite a bit of coolant was lost, I just
filled it up at the pressure cap a couple of times, started it up and
refilled it with the engine at operating temp and revved up to about
2000 (had someone else hold it there), and put on the pressure cap and
hose before releasing  Then tighten down the valve on the thermostat
housing.
Sure, there is a little .air in the system, but it will self bleed out
in a few cycles. Maybe this might be a big problem with the a/c on in
the summer if it was 100 degrees outside. But I doubt it.
I've never owned a 1.9 gas car and they might quite possibly need more
care than this. The same procedure works for my 82 diesel, however.
I'll check the radiator bleed valve sometime. I realize that large
amounts of air might not be able to get out of the radiator without
bleeding. Maybe in our climate 1/2 a radiator is enogh to give me good
cooling.
Al Brase

BJ Feddish wrote:

>I'd like to share something that someone on this list shared with me years
>ago. This is done after you've done all the "jack-up-the-front" stuff from
>Bentley, etc.  After driving the van to full temperature let it cool down
>overnight. There will be some air in the rear reservoir.  Open it up and
>fill it with coolant again. Drive it again until it's hot then let it cool
>overnight again. There will be more air there. Fill it back up. Keep doing
>this for about a week or until air stops appearing in the tank.  After I did
>this the temp gauge is always below the led when I'm driving and when it
>idles it only goes a hair passed the led even on hot days. The light has
>never blinked.  I'm convinced that most head problems people have are from
>too much air in their systems.
>
>Bryan
>
>
>