I just installed a new water pump and t-belt. Got everything back together and fire her up but the water pump has no coolant in it so it sounds really bad. Looking at my manual it says to fill system and bleed with the valve on the return section of the radiator hose. Should i run the car with no coolant in the water pump until it reaches normal operating temp and the thermostat opens or is there something i am misssing? thanks for looking.

 

unplug the bottom hose of hte radiator, let it all drain into a bowl (or something big enough to hold it all), then plug it back in and poor it all back into the resevoir...

 

Well i got it all sorted out ...sort of. The noise i heard was my power steering pump groaning for fluid. Now when i put the water pump and t-belt on i also replaced the distributor o-ring because it was leaking oil on the trans. I marked where the distributor was oriented and put it back like i found it but now my car seems to be missing some and it runs rough. the car shut off on me at idle when i was purging the coolant system.