well installed a new radiator fan today, wired it up and hooked it up.

started bled the cooling system, heres the problem

so i took the radiator cap off, put a funnel in there, filled it up with distilled water, then some antifreeze, and then more water until it got a little full. turned on the car...

the car heat slowly started to rise and when it hit normal operating temp. the thermostat never turned on so the fan never turned on. it started to steam a little bit but hopefully it was just the coolant i spilled burning off. i left the car on for another 5 mins and nothing just coolant filling the funnel up more and more, so i just turned off the car

any advice?

TIA, helping out a freind

 

The steam is normal (especially if you're messy with it like me), if you have a Helm itd help a lot, but you want to run it until the fan comes on, the Helm actually says run it at around 3K rpms until the fan comes on, then you want to fill it up again because once the thermostat opens it should take a bunch in then let the fan come on again and whatnot.

In fact I believe the owner's manual even has proper bleeding/refilling procedures for the coolant.

 

yeah i was pretty messy doing it. so should i drive on it or hold the rev's? i forgot while i was installing it i didnt disconect the battery and i dont think the wires to the fan ever touched and none of the fuses are blown

 

Bleed it out and make sure the fans come on, I wouldnt drive until I got the fans working personally. I hold the rpms steady to get it hot by pulling on the throttle cable. Make sure you can get the fans to come on though, sometimes it takes a while even if the motor feels hot.

Oh yeah turn on the heat too (almost forgot that bah!).

 

thats what im hoping.

but what about the things i said about no dissconnecting the battery? could anything of happened?

 

As far as installing the fan yes something COULD have happened, I dont think so though you could test the fan, just ground the neg and hook it to the battery and see if it turn on.

Are you still running the stock 2-fans or just one?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KOALA YUMMIES &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As far as installing the fan yes something COULD have happened, I dont think so though you could test the fan, just ground the neg and hook it to the battery and see if it turn on.

Are you still running the stock 2-fans or just one?</TD></TR></TABLE>

just one fan on a half radiator (boosted set up with no a/c)


noob question- how would i ground the negative wire? and would i just get any 12V and touch it to the battery? it still should turn on with solder on it right

 

you do know it takes about 15-20 minutes of idling on a totally cold engine for the fasns to come on?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KOALA YUMMIES &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Oh yeah turn on the heat too (almost forgot that bah!).</TD></TR></TABLE>

Why would you want to turn the heat on, if you want to heat up the engine?

Turning on the heat will draw the heat away from the engine (i.e. what you do when your car overheats & you need to cool the engine down)... unless you meant it some other way.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Cosworth &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Why would you want to turn the heat on, if you want to heat up the engine?

Turning on the heat will draw the heat away from the engine (i.e. what you do when your car overheats & you need to cool the engine down)... unless you meant it some other way.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I didnt know we had a physicist in here? You open it completely to extract all the old coolant. Thus upon refilling the radiator you fill the heater core with new coolant and subsequently need to bleed all the air out of it. This is done by leaving it wide open.

And if you read your helms manual, it requires you to do this procedure. (If you want to do right the first time)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Stock Type SH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you do know it takes about 15-20 minutes of idling on a totally cold engine for the fasns to come on? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Took me about 45min to an hour to bleed the system when i did a flush. The helms says to wait two cycles with the engine at idle.

Start the car up and go have a couple beers and catch some rays

 

well the fan finally turned on after i took it around the block a couple of times, i let it cool and check the coolant level and it was barely messing any at all and i topped it off.

it never went over normal operating temps. did i do this right?

if the fan turns on does it mean the thermostat had to have opened up?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Stock Type SH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I didnt know we had a physicist in here? You open it completely to extract all the old coolant. Thus upon refilling the radiator you fill the heater core with new coolant and subsequently need to bleed all the air out of it. This is done by leaving it wide open.

And if you read your helms manual, it requires you to do this procedure. (If you want to do right the first time)</TD></TR></TABLE>

Cool. Thanks for the info. I never knew that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wsop &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

well the fan finally turned on after i took it around the block a couple of times, i let it cool and check the coolant level and it was barely messing any at all and i topped it off.

it never went over normal operating temps. did i do this right?

if the fan turns on does it mean the thermostat had to have opened up?</TD></TR></TABLE>

At this point I would:

Let it cool.

Turn heater core on full heat

Start up with cap off and let it idle until the fan turns on twice. While waiting, be sure to top off the rad as the coolant level shifts.

THIS WILL TAKE AT LEAST 20 MINUTES.

 

when i changed mine it took me about 3 hours of running the engine and waiting for the fan to come on and refilling before i finally got the coolant level to settle...then again i never switched the heater on :

 

Rev your engine up in between massaging the radiator hoses with the cap off. It helps on alot of cars to slightly jack up the front of the car so that air naturally wants to go to the radiator.

Get it pretty filled up then go for a drive with plenty of coolant in your overflow tank. Let it cool down then check the level and add any if you need to(rare if you did the above steps).

It takes me about 2-3 minutes to completely bleed a coolant system after learning those few tricks.

 

Also, try premixing the distilled water and antifreeze ahead of time. Use one of those pH meters they sell at automotive shops to make sure you have the right combo instead of just hoping for the best. At least that way, if you want more water than antifreeze, you can measure that too.