Am I missing something here...

[e30Matt]

... or is there some magical hocus pocus way to bleed an '88 cooling system??? I've been out there for an hour and a half and still keep getting air when I open the bleeder screw. At this point I think I've cycled the entire contents of the cooling system three or four times.

I just warmed it up, held the RPMs around 2k, and opened the screw until the bubbles stop coming out... am I a retard? And yes, the overflow tank is topped off so it isn't sucking air in there.

All of my other cars were cake when doing this shit, get the t-stat to open, open the bleeder screw, about 30 seconds later all the air was gone.

[PiercedE30]

Got the heater on?

[e30Matt]

Heat's on full blast, I even stacked up a couple wood blocks and put the front end up on the sidewalk, about 7-8 inches above the rear end... it just acts like there's an air pocket stuck in the thermostat housing that it can't get rid of.

[TwoJ's]

hmm, that's kind of strange. I haven't had problems bleeding the system on my e30. But I did have trouble doing it on my F150 when I lost a hose and was doing it on the side of the road. I feel your frustration.

[turboeta]

What did you replace in the cooling system?

[e30Matt]

You don't want to know what I did, all you need to know is there's a bunch of air in the cooling system that I need to get out. :)