OMG click here :) please i could use some help

[jsbbmw21]

hello everyone, i am currently stuck and need some help. ive been searching around google and this forum to try to find a problem similar to mine.

so heres the deal, i bought my car last December as a rags to riches rebuild. all things concidered its going well, a build thread will be posted soon. i have replaced every gasket in the motor, head gasket, timeing chain cover, ect ect ect. i have a stewart high flow water pump instaled (my previous pump failed) It has a new radiator and all the lines are good.

i do have the fan delete mod done but i have purchased two sets of thermostates and coolant temp sensors to no avail. i am running water wetter distiled water and prestone (i know i know brand x haha im sorry but i got shafted by the bmw parts department dudebag and so after some research i discovered it pretty much boguse. the only difference is bmw coolant leaves no deposits)

THE PROBLEM: the car runs fantasticly but after about 2 miles the temp starts to flux a bit, nothing terrifying but it will eventualy (about 4 slow miles) reach the upper end of the safe opperating range mark (the one just over from the center position) esspecialy if stuck in traffic at all like a grandma turning left kinda deal. but if its cruising at like 55+ it will stay just a hair to the right. im kinda at a loss because the coolant seems to be free of bubbles and there arent any coolant leaks anywhere. im kinda out of ideas? i bleed the system about a million times.

the flux in temp seems to be the only symptom. the oil is free of coolant, i checked there after the first coolant bleed didnt work and it is not low on coolant in the least.

[frontin540i]

bleed it again....lol.

These systems suck to bleed....it took about 3 days for me to fully bleed mine...

[turdlecharge]

get a mechanical temp gauge?

[flyfishvt]

Are you sure your aux fan is comming on? I found the sensor switch in the radiator was bad. It would get very hot on a 90 degree day in traffic. As soon as I turned on the A/C I could watch the temp guage drop like a stone. I did some checking and found the aux fan wasn't comming on by itself like it should.

[Meatball546]

Try jacking up the front of the car as high as possible while bleeding it, set the heater to hottest setting with the ignition on, and add the coolant extremely slowly with the bleed screw out. I just recently changed my water pump, and to bleed it I used a hydraulic lift to raise only the front of the car up about 3-4 feet. It was enough so that I could just reach the coolant tank to fill it. I've bled it before, but never have I raised the front so high before. It took surprisingly little water after the level had reached the top to bleed the bubbles out. What I did then was turn on the engine with the bleed screw off and the reservoir cap off and continued to bleed it. Once the thermostat opens, the level will drop. Continue filling it and bleeding it like before. Once done, just replace the bleed screw, lower the front back down, let it pump a little bit of the excess water back out of the filler hole, put the cap on, and you should be good to go.

[jsbbmw21]

flyfish, i was having that problem too but for trouble shooting purposes i bridged the fan into high speed mode. as long as the car is on the fan is running. it was wierd because the car would get hot and the fan wouldnt engage, i pulled the sensor out and held it over a lighter for a mins or two and the fan kicked on so i know it works i just wanted to eliminate the variable

turdlecharged, good call i think thats stage to of the cooling system repair/upgrades ps i love your sig quote "SPEED NEVER KILLED ANYONE! ITS THE ABRUPT STOP THAT GETS U!"

thanks a million everybody, i guess i will just keep bleeding till the problem goes away. i was thinking air bubbles too but since i have bleed it quite literaly three times i was a bit baffled. i take it our cars have no ability to let air out automaticly like the avery other car. usualy the car just has to reach opperating temp then be allowed to cool and the system auto bleeds the last few bubbles out. again thanks for the replies.

[esberelias]

could be your fan clutch?? I'm running into that same problem now...my car would over heat, my aux fan would come on and i could stop the main fan with my hand easily. Not a good sign. check out some threads on how to 'test the fan clutch' very simple and you only need a rolled up news paper

[jsbbmw21]

fan delete mod, so yeah im pretty sure thanks though

[MostHated]

let her bleed... keep bleeding it they suck to bleed but sounds like u got a air pocket what was the reason for replacing the head gasket was it bad or did u just wana redo the motor?? if it was bad did u get the head shaved before putiin on new gasket??

[jsbbmw21]

in a round about way, yes i did. the head thats on my car was professionally rebuilt with new everything. i bought two parts cars this summer and one of them had that rebuilt head so i tore down the motor in that car ordered all new gaskets and put my car together with the new head. I replaced the hg because it was leaking oil externally, right behind the headers and the car was becoming extremely hard to start. fortunetly for the first time since i have owned the car she is leak free

[Kraut.Burner]

how much coolant did you refill the engine with..... one tip i can give to the assistance of the bleeding process, is to try to keep track of how much coolant you put into the engine. i was able to fit two complete gallons of coolant, and then some.... keeping track of how much coolant you have in your system is a really good way of telling if your system is bled enough...

When i did my complete system (like yours OP) i was only able to fit one and a half gallons at first (first indicator i wasnt done) so i kept filling as the motor was held at 2000 rpm. and eventually i was able to fit the other half gallon.... At the time my system didnt take any more coolant but wasnt overheating either. So i drove it around town for a while and let it cool. I checked under the hood in the coolant tank and saw that it was pretty close to the bottom. SO luckily i had some spare coolant in the trunk and topped off my reservoir. Since then i've had no problems and my coolant level has remained at the specified mark.

[jsbbmw21]

man that's an awesome idea, i wish i would have thought of that. at this point i'm not sure how much i have in it but that's a fantastic i really appreciate all the help you guys, this thread is becoming quite the coolant bleeding tips and tricks resource. thanks again!