Maybe I am just tired and missing something but I am having trouble getting my 13bt bj74 to take coolant. I drained both the rad and engine petcocks. But now I cant get it fill with coolant without overflowing. I have jacked the front end up and tried pumping on the hoses to get air our of the line. But so far Ive only got about 3.5 liters in. Any Suggestions?
Issues refilling coolant - 13bt BJ74
- Thread starter deepseacruiser
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
70s suck to get coolant in. I just put a new water pump in last week. I have a procedure where I trickle the coolant in while raising and lowering the upper rad hose. Each cycle yields a burp of air. It is probably worth the time to remove the upper rad hose from the thermostat housing and pour the coolant into the hose.
- Thread starter
- #4
Cool Thanks for the help. I'll try that out after I bleed the fuel lines that I didn't realize I needed to do when I replaced the fuel filter 
started the engine and then it died.
started the engine and then it died.
If the fuel filter is filled before installing, then the engine starts and runs to return any air to the tank. Same procedure for cleaning the sedimenter/water trap on the '74.
- Thread starter
- #7
Primed the fuel line and started up no problem.
New Problem with the coolant.
So I drained both the engine and radiator petcocks. I then followed the advice of pouring the coolant down the rad hose. Well in this case I used a radiator flush/cleaner. On my way home to drain and fill it with coolant, the coolant gauge started to rapidly rise. I made it home let it cool and opened the engine petcock.....nothing came out? I pulled the thermostat and it was bone dry in the block. I dropped the thermostat in water with a thermometer and it never opened even at 100c.(88c stat) I am ordering a new thermostat. My question however is did I make some kind of mistake when I filled the coolant or did the thermostat just happen to fail in the closed position.
New Problem with the coolant.
So I drained both the engine and radiator petcocks. I then followed the advice of pouring the coolant down the rad hose. Well in this case I used a radiator flush/cleaner. On my way home to drain and fill it with coolant, the coolant gauge started to rapidly rise. I made it home let it cool and opened the engine petcock.....nothing came out? I pulled the thermostat and it was bone dry in the block. I dropped the thermostat in water with a thermometer and it never opened even at 100c.(88c stat) I am ordering a new thermostat. My question however is did I make some kind of mistake when I filled the coolant or did the thermostat just happen to fail in the closed position.
- Thread starter
- #8
Bump
I've had more Dead-on-arrival new thermostats than I've ever had die in service. As a result, it is one of the few items where I won't just do a precautionary replacement just for the sake of being an OCD bastard. If I do replace a thermostat, I bench test them in hot water 100% of the time, no ifs or buts.