The complete repair, rebuild, repaint, and v8 swap of my early model sedan

[dothadance]

hell ya man! shit's dialed. need tire shredding video.

[brianao34]

Great job man. Didn't take you very long at all. Can't wait to hear it

[dirty30]

Initial test results are in: Traction in 2nd gear is non-existent. Mission Accomplished!

That color looks incredible in the sunlight!

[RobertK]

Video!

[MR 325]

WOW.

Fucking wow.

[BUDNUNTA]

Can't wait to see it in person

[e30m3s54turbo]

Dam! It looks so nice.

[Simon S]

From swiss cheese - to show car.

Fuckin A mate. Well done.

[rich4rdee]

just found this thread! everything looks fantastic..the color, stance, and attention to detail really stick out. great work.

[evandael]

beautiful. great job man, hope it provides you with many miles of smiles (as it should, it's practically a brand new car now!)

[JGood]

Thanks guys. Unfortunately, the car isn't drivable for more then 3 minutes, it overheats. I can't get the coolant system bled. I've got about 7 hours into the bleeding process so far, with zero progress. I don't know what to do at this point. I'm frustrated beyond words, because I simply don't know what to do next. What I'm doing is not working, and there are no other methods I know of to bleed a cooling system.

[OoPEZoO]

Are you getting coolant to all the places you are supposed to? Are all of your coolant hoses getting hot? Temp controls on the dash set to max hot air and it blows hot air? Thermostat opening at the proper temp?

Are you sure that you are actually overheating, or could it possibly be something up with the temp gauge circuit and the gauge is reading incorrectly? I don't recall seeing your dash setup. Are you running the factory temp gauge or aftermarket?

Just brain storming...

[JGood]

There is still air in the system, the upper rad hose has water in it until it starts to bubble out of the expansion tank, then the hose is empty. Heat is on, and blowing hot air. All hoses get hot. Haven't verified the thermostat yet.

Coolant sensor is the stock m20 sensor, to work with the stock gauge. Same parts that were on the m50 engine so they should be working.

I just got off the phone with Garey, he recommended testing the coolant for CO2 as a starter to rule out a head gasket issue. I'll start there. Another friend of mine recommended to dump coolant in the upper rad hose with the engine running, to feed coolant to the pump, as it may just be free wheeling in an air pocket. And another friend is bringing me a coolant pressure tester over this evening. So with any luck, I'll at least have the issue narrowed down and a some things ruled out later tonight.

[OoPEZoO]

I know they can be a real PITA some times. We fought with my buddy's E36 M3 for two days before we finally got enough air out of it to feel safe driving it. Even then, he still had to add more coolant over the next couple of days until it finally burped all of its air pockets out. Another trick I've used has been to disconnect the overflow reservoir and replace it with an elevated tank. I used an old E30 reservoir and hung it from the rafters. The added pressure from the elevation change pushed enough coolant through the system to get it all working properly.

[JGood]

Got it bled. My buddy stopped by, blew into the upper rad hose towards the water pump, which pushed the air bubble out, and then we filled the system via the upper rad hose. Reconnected it, and started the car. No more overflowing or overheating.

Well, it did overheat after a while. My 14" pep boys special isn't a good enough fan to cool this monster (big surprise). Time to get a good fan.