So I'm coming home last Saturday night in the snow and, of course, I slide off the road and blow out my radiator. Now, when I went off the road, I didn't know I messed up my radiator and I pulled back onto the road and continued home. I was probably about 2 miles from my house, and about a mile down the road my "Low Coolant" light came on and I knew something was wrong. So I got home and looked under the car the next day and see that. I ordered a new radiator and put it in tonight. It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, but I'm having problems. Everything is put back together, but I could only get a gallon of dexcool in it. I know the car takes more than that. It will start up, kind of, and run. The heat won't get hot, but it says the coolant is about 150 degrees. I let it idle in the garage for a good 10 minutes and everything seemed fine accept the heat not blowing hot. I backed it out and it cut off. I tried to start it back up and it didn't want to run. I sat there for a minute, and cut it on and it ran long enough to pull into my spot and it cut back off. It's like the coolant isn't cycling through the engine and the car doesn't know what to do. I filled up the coolant tank and even pulled off the upper hose and added some there, but I know it takes more than a gallon, and why won't it stay running? It's not leaking anymore, and I bolted up the fan shroud, condensor, and oil cooler just fine. The oil pan looks fine, and I cannot see any signs of an oil leak, and even if that were the case, the car would tell me to check the oil, right? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

no low oil light on the car just low oil pressure take some coolant with u and go drive it turn the heater full on sounds like an air pocket

 

I thought it was an air pocket. I talked to a mechanic I work with and he told me to let it idle for a while and rev it up every now and then and pop the coolant cap off to let the air out. That seemed to be working-ish until for some reason the temp started spiking up to 220. I cut the car off and let it go back down, and started it back up and it went back up to 220 again and coolant started leaking, pretty badly, out of the bottom of the reservoir and when I saw that, I cut the car off and it stopped leaking. Is there some kind of pressure release valve under there? The whole time I was doing this, the heat got a little warmer, but the bottom radiator hose stayed cold the entire time. This is driving me insane. I love my Bronco, but I don't love driving it every day haha. I want my SS back!

 

the fill procedure is to fill through the top hose then top off the coolant recovery tank fire it up hold the rpms at 2300 for 3 min then shut it off top it off coolant shouldent be coming from the bottom of the tank and there is no presure relief on it other then the cap

 

You may need a thermostat if the car got ran hot. If the thermostat is stuck closed it won't circulate/bleed.

 

t-stat is possible i had a simular problem and it was air locked

 

Your car spiking to 220* with no rad cap on is normal.. Ive gone through 2 radiators busted them from bottoming out. The last one i put in i filled it up drove it with the rad caps on not too tight though, and ssaw nothing but temps of 220, on the way home it acctaully hit 237 and shot down to 170

it grabed an air pocket

 

my buddy said it could be a blown head gasket. i did the topping it off through the upper hose and ran it at 2000 for 3 minutes and let it idle for 30 seconds and everything was fine. i cut it off and checked the fluids and nothing was leaking and i drove it around my neighborhood and pulled out of my neighborhood and my low coolant light came on. i turned around and went back home and pulled into the driveway and the car cut off. the coolant wasn't low and the car wouldn't start after that. i had to give it gas to make it start and pull it into the spot and it cut back off. that was about 45 minutes ago.

 

i'm hoping that it's something stupid like the thermostat, but i will say this, if for some reason it is the head gasket, i'm going to turbo a 2.4 and drop it in there

 

So can anybody tell me how to un-airlock it? The car won't even start now btw Could have I tripped something in the computer making the car think there was something wrong thus stopping the fuel delivery?

 

Cel?

 

i drove mine and would stop and check it every so often and top it off

 

yeah, but my intake sets off the cel all the time, so that's nothing i'm not used to. unless there's something new.

 

i drove mine and the low coolant light came on and it started bogging down when i got to operating temp, and when i pulled into my driveway, it cut off. the coolant level wasn't low in the tank but the bottom hose was cold. now it just won't start. i checked the fuel rail, and it's getting pressure.

 

disconnected the battery last night to try to reset the ecu and it still won't start. tries to, but just won't turn over. anybody?