Adding coolant. To bleed, or not to bleed?

[Terrence R]

I have had my carbs off my 02 Vmax a countless amount of times within the past 2 weeks. I lost a lot of coolant along the way from removing the lines for the heated carbs. I already topped it up with some pre mixed coolant and I'm just wondering if I should be looking at bleeding air out of the system or not. I'm not sure if there's air in there. I've driven the sled around the yard quite a but so it's been up to temp and no light came on. What should I look for in knowing if I should bleed it or not? Thanx.

ps: I've read the coolant bleeding thread in the tech section already. There was no details on it that are related to answering my questions.

 

[mile9c1]

The fill cap is the highest point in your system so eventually all the air will find it's way up there if you top it off after each of a few heat cycles. You'd really speed the process though if you checked the bleed screw screw at the back of the tunnel. It's not hard to get to... leave the fill cap on when you remove the bleed screw... then pinch the rubber cooler hoses to chase the air out (if there's any). That's how I just did it anyway. Burp the hose by the fill cap after that, to get rid of the air that's trapped around the filler hole.

 

[mile9c1]

To answer your main question, you can tell if it's bled if you open the fill cap after it's been run and cooled down, and coolant is all the way at the top of the filler neck. Air collects there because it's the high spot, but it might not collect there all at once. So that's why I'd check the rear cooler vent at least one time.

 

[Devilin AblueDress!]

I haven't ever worried about bleeding due to carbs being removed. I loose very little in the process though. I use the smallest size vise grips and pinch the hose prior to removal, make sure you are only pinching hard enough to collapse hose. If you pinch it to tight you can and will damage hose.