New Coolant Hoses+Spal=No heat, no fan

[E30Bastard]

Two problems I am sure are related -

I replaced all the coolant hoses to spec and deleted the secondary tstat. I jacked up the car and I bought a spillproof funnel. I've tried every trick from Jlevie instructions to youtube videos.

Filled the thing up and now I have no heat and the spal fan doesn't kick on. I have the spal fan wired to the hi-speed fan relay and when I jump the two prong 82 Celsius temp switch at the radiator the fan kicks on.

I thought maybe I have the heater core hoses flipped but the top goes to the T-Hose which goes to Tstat housing and expansion tank and the bottom of the heater core is connected to a hose coming from cylinder head. Forum searching reveals this to be the correct configuration.

When I start the car it goes hot and then temp drops before rising again, which I assume is when tstat opens.

I feel like I am damaging the engine trying to bleed air. Is it air? It can't be? I crack the bleeder and nothing but coolant comes out. The only reason why the fan wouldn't kick on in my mind is if liquid isn't hitting the temp switch...

...Honestly don't know anything anymore.

[E30Bastard]

Received a message with some good points and just wanted to notate for transparency to all:

Heater hoses are correct - cylinder head hits bottom pipe of the heater core.

"Do you hear a "thunk" in the car when you turn your heat knob from cool to hot? That solenoid valve needs to open to let coolant through the heater core." - Yes, I hear a thunk, and the heater blew hot before I replaced the radiator and hoses.

"On the spal fan, normally the fan stays off unless you turn on your ac or your temps go really high. The mechanical fan is enough to keep the engine cool" - I installed a new mishimoto rad along with a puller spal to replace the mechanical fan. The temp switch is a simple two prong 82 celsius temp switch made by febi for an older BMW. Once it sees 82c it bridges the hi-speed relay and kicks the fan on. I've tested by manually bridging, so this should kick on whenever it sees 82c regardless of AC, no AC, hot temps, low temps.

"If you're still getting hot temps.....check your temp sensor, confirm your temps with an ir thermometer....t-stat housing should be about 190 degrees. Worse case scenario is the water pump impeller separated from the shaft or your radiator is clogged." - I am seeing around 130-150F depending on thermostat.

"Usually reving the engine helps pull out air pockets that won't come out at idle. That's what the spill proof funnel is good for." - I took off from work early and ran the car for about 20 minutes with heater on high, fan on 4, watching the temp rise and the water in the spill proof funnel rise until tstat opened and most of the coolant was sucked back into the motor. At one point I had to jump the fan as it was no longer able to stay cool even with tstat wide open. I rev'd the motor and cracked the bleed screw as it warmed up, and only coolant came out.

[SethB]

Not sure I'm following perfectly, but if I'm understanding your symptoms correctly, you shouldn't see water get sucked back into the engine when the tstat opens. That makes it sound like you've got air in the radiator, since that's the path the tstat is opening up to. It doesn't explain your no-heat issue directly, but flow issues in the radiator could be hurting that too. Try squeezing the top radiator hose, does it feel solid like it's full of water, or can you squeeze it pretty easily?

Have you double check the hoses on the front of the engine just to double check that all they're all going to the right places?

Where's the temp sensor for your fan located, on the radiator?

[e30austin]

Your cooling system is not full. You don’t have enough water entering the radiator to turn the fan switch on. Fill your cooling system through the upper hose with the expansion tank cap installed, until coolant is slowly pouring out of the radiator or upper hose. Fill through expansion tank with coolant bleed screw open and small hose removed from top of radiator.

[Sonny]

New Coolant Hoses+Spal=No heat, no fan

Your cooling system is not full. You don’t have enough water entering the radiator to turn the fan switch on. Fill your cooling system through the upper hose with the expansion tank cap installed, until coolant is slowly pouring out of the radiator or upper hose. Fill through expansion tank with coolant bleed screw open and small hose removed from top of radiator.

Second this, my car had absolutely no heat when she was leaking constant coolant from a torn heater core hose. I was still topping it off but not fast enough. As soon as I replaced it heat came on.

You might have an issue with low coolant and some stuck air taking the space of coolant, do not drive until 100 percent fix. Also make sure your heater core is good, you DO NOT want that thing blowing up at your feet and legs as I’ve heard of this happen years ago, 3rd degree burns on the poor guy.

[E30Bastard]

Okay guys,

Did as you all suggested - I drained the radiator and topped it all off via hose and expansion tank. Started it up with spillproof funnel and still no go with hot air or fan kicking on via sensor.

I then proceeded to lose my shit and went out to throw some more money at this car...bought a coolant bleed/fill tool along with a 20 gallon air compressor - Drained radiator again, hit it with the tool and left it at -25psi vacuum for 1 minute to stabilize. turned off valves and watched gauge for 30 seconds with no drop in vacuum. No leaks. Good. filled the whole system back up via the venturi tool out of a 5 gallon bucket filled with blue coolant to make sure no air entered system.

The car still does not blow hot air and the side of the radiator with sensor is ice cold to the touch after running the engine to the point of frightening me.

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[Sonny]

New Coolant Hoses+Spal=No heat, no fan

Okay guys,

Did as you all suggested - I drained the radiator and topped it all off via hose and expansion tank. Started it up with spillproof funnel and still no go with hot air or fan kicking on via sensor.

I then proceeded to lose my shit and went out to throw some more money at this car...bought a coolant bleed/fill tool along with a 20 gallon air compressor - Drained radiator again, hit it with the tool and left it at -25psi vacuum for 1 minute to stabilize. turned off valves and watched gauge for 30 seconds with no drop in vacuum. No leaks. Good. filled the whole system back up via the venturi tool out of a 5 gallon bucket filled with blue coolant to make sure no air entered system.

The car still does not blow hot air and the side of the radiator with sensor is ice cold to the touch after running the engine to the point of frightening me.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Please forgive for quoting the mess at bimmer, but I found it might help you as I bookmarked this for future use for myself. It’s for DIFFERENT model so please understand this beforehand. Up to you bro, please be safe. https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...Conversion-DIY

[Sonny]

[wilholl]

You need to make sure that the bleed hose at the top of the radiator (driver side) is not blocked all the way into the recovery tank (reservoir).
If this is blocked you will have air trapped in the radiator and will have consistent problems like this.

[Sonny]

New Coolant Hoses+Spal=No heat, no fan

You need to make sure that the bleed hose at the top of the radiator (driver side) is not blocked all the way into the recovery tank (reservoir).
If this is blocked you will have air trapped in the radiator and will have consistent problems like this.

There’s definitely some air going on in there, but I don’t know as much, has the op tried simply squeezing radiator hoses to see if a burp gets going? PLEASE Make sure you have enough OIL in your motor before you keep her tilted for hours on an incline and starting her.

[E30Bastard]

Guys,

Thanks to all of you for the great help. That schwaben style coolant tool is awesome and I definitely got all the air out before I posted last night. Received another message with the golden ticket.

Long story short:

I am an idiot.

Took some back and forth to find the right belt as my aftermarket 150amp alternator with what I believe to be an m3 pulley but just look at this pic...

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[E30Bastard]

No belt on the damn water pump. It runs ice cold, blows hot air, and the spal fan kicks on as planned when i idle it with no heat blowing.

Case closed.

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[Sonny]

New Coolant Hoses+Spal=No heat, no fan

No belt on the damn water pump. It runs ice cold, blows hot air, and the spal fan kicks on as planned when i idle it with no heat blowing.

Case closed.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Make a thread and Go on with the build...

[SethB]

No belt on the damn water pump. It runs ice cold, blows hot air, and the spal fan kicks on as planned when i idle it with no heat blowing.

Case closed.

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Hahaha, nice. Hate when that happens.

[tomstin]

The self inflicted wounds are REALLY frustrating! Been there many times.