Yes, you are suppose to leave the valve open until it sprays out a steady stream of coolant. Have you flushed your radiator? I would back flush the heater core, then flush the entire system with a good radiator flush. Open the valve, pour in new coolant, let it sit for a few minutes,topping it off. Then start the engine and let it purge out air until you get a steady stream. If that don't happen, check your water pump.

 

ok, after i top it off should i leave the cap off when i start it and open the purge valve or cap it? i think i would prefer the waterpump being the problem rather than the heater core...had a bad experience putting a core in a honda prelude one time...going to buy a new cap tomorrow too cuz its still got the original and i think they are just like 5.00 so it couldn't hurt

 

fill the radiator when its cold and not running. let it set for a time and do it again. then bleed air, start car bleed air again and refill if it will let you. then drive around the block and bleed again. let cool and refill. it may take a few times but if theres no leaks in the system the air will come out. sure sounds like a head gasket or intake maniflod gasket.

 

When I did mine, I topped it off then had someone start the engine and as the water level lowered, I filled and when it was full, I put the cap on but I left the valve open unitl it purged steady stream of water. I then closed the valve, shut the engine off, let it cool then checked the level and topped it off again.

 

Thats kind of what I was thinking too but he said the hoses were not pressurizing and with our head gasket leaking into the coolant system, it didn't take but a couple minutes before the system pressurized the hoses. I guess could also depend on how bad the head gasket is leaking.

 

thanks for the info guys, i just printed off a 300 dollar parts list of things it could possibly be so i'm going to investigate a little further tomorrow and see what i can find out. may send it to my mechanic and let him checkit out. he usually finds the problem for free and lets me decide if its something i want to attempt or if not i let him do it...long as the price is right. water pump would be no prob, but when it starts getting into head gaskets and such i'm not to patient about taking half the engine apart on these 4th gens just to do sum'n simple. i can do it but i curse the layout of these engines through out the whole job....i should just sell them all and buy me a '69 without all the extra wires, hoses and electrical crap so i could have enough room to sit in the engine compartment, do my thing and eat a sandwich at the same time like when i used to help dad on his old cars.....i'll keep you posted on my results. but if anyone comes across an answer to why my air and heat cuts out completely when going uphill or kicking down to pass please let me know because that totally puzzles me

 

when you fill the radiator have the front of the car up as high as you can. if i have to drain mine or do any work on the cooling system its always up on jack stands so i make sure to do the first fillup while the front is up. seems to help alot so it may work to get the air outa that heater core. at least thats what i would say is happening. the only time i have seen a heater go cold in a matter of seconds is when the coolant level is low, usen to happen alot on the old 78 truck with the leaky heater core. lol. heat would go cold before the motor would overheat so i used it to let me know when to add. only other thing i can think of that would do that is if the a/c is coming on somehow like if the vacuum switch went wacko. never heard of that though.

 

g'mornin everyone, i got up early and flushed the radiator, backflushed the heatercore and started to bleed the air when i realized that i was not getting any air or coolant coming from the valve. let it run 30 minutes and it never got above 210 BUT i also noticed there was no circulation through the upper or lower hoses and they never got hot. at that temp i should have gotten sprayed by hot coolant when i took the cap off but nothing happend and the coolant was cold. the heater core hoses on the other hand got very hot and the heater was blowing really hot air after warm up.....no circulation= water pump....correct?

 

wrong.im thinkin the thermostat is stuck or system has an air lock or blockage.

 

how would i go about finding the problem? i wondered if there may be a blockage in the radiator itself considering i couldn't get it to hold much coolant. but today after the flush and backflush its doing the opposite of what it was yesterday, the core hoses are heating up but the upper and lower are not? forgive me for being "stupid" but cooling systems aren't in my knowledge base....i try to do all my work myself but i'm starting to get lost on this car.