Bleeding Coolant on the 2.7 after draining radiator

Hey there,

I finally bought my self a Tacoma about a week ago (95 2.7 4x4). I'm going to be taking it on a long trip so I have been going through and changing the fluids since the previous owner had not really kept anything up to date.

Anyway, today I drained the coolant out of the radiator from the drain on the bottom of the radiator. I then rinsed out the radiator with a hose and let that water drain out. About a gallon of coolant came out when I drained it ( I believe the system holds about two gallons total so I thought this made sense since I just drained the radiator and not the rest of the system).

I then mixed my coolant with distilled water and filled my radiator back up as well as the overfill reservoir. I started the car up and ran the heat with the blower fan on and left the cap off waiting for the level to drop and bleed out the air. I ran the car at idle for quite some time and also revved up and held the rpm's around 2k for a bit.

The coolant level never went down, the car temp came up to about half way but the level never went down. The heat was working in the car and I had the blower fan on. Both the upper and lower hoses had no coolant in them and I did try squeezing them

I was wondering if there is a bleeder valve ? Ive heard of cars having this but never changed coolant on a car with one.

Also about how long should I expect to have to let the car run for the system to bleed out? I think I ran it at idle for at least 1/2 hour and revved at 2k for 5 min.

Any ideas as to what I did wrong would be greatly appreciated.

 

Yeah there is a think a bleed valve on the side of the block but I prefer not to mess with that thing in case u can't get it sealed back up. Yes the system is about 2 gal. One gal in radiator and one in the block. What I do with my 2.7's is drain and fill with distilled and run, then repeat until not much color comes out, usually twice, then just simply put in a gallon of concentrate not premix 50/50 and you're good to go with a near perfect 50/50 mix. You didn't do anything wrong you just won't get it outta the block without using the drain on the block, no biggie. There was no or not much air since the block stayed full, thats why the level never changed. And for the hoses you thought were empty don't stress it it was working the thermostat pry just never needed to fully open when the truck was just setting. They are usually always real squishy when you feel em. If there were a problem that temp gauge would a told you so.


Even pulling the bottom hose and thermostat won't drain the block.....

 

Thanks for the help. I guess my main concern is that my thermostat may not be opening. After filling the radiator up once, and running the heater with the fan on the level never dropped. Also I never felt coolant go through the upper or lower hoses. I just took the truck for about a 20 min drive and the temp gauge stayed just a hair below the halfway mark but after the drive nigher of the hoses seemed to have coolant in them. Is this something to be concerned about ? I haven't done a coolant change in a while but I thought your supposed to let the car warm up so the thermostat opens and then top the coolant off.

 

Since our thermostat is on the bottom hose virtually none of the water from the engine is drained. That's why you never really had a big burp in the system and needed more coolant on the refill. As I said before seems most eveeytime I've grabbed my rad hoses they have been real squishy and not at all totally firm and filled with coolant(like what you'd expect). I don't really have a good answer for you on that. But I can for sure tell you things are working because that 20 min drive alone woulda melted ya down had no coolant been flowing.

 

There is no bleeder valve. The Toyota repair manual doesn't say to bleed it or anything. The plug on the exhaust side of the block is to drain the coolant. It sounds like your coolant level is good after the 20 minute drive. Just fill up the overflow tank, so if any air is expelled, coolant will get sucked back into the radiator. I bet when you let the engine cool down and remove the radiator cap the coolant is at the top indicating no air in the system.

If you put the interior heater fan on, then the engine heat is being taken out by the heater core, so less coolant will need to go through the radiator and thermostat. That might partially explain why the radiator hoses didn't feel hot. The lower one should feel fairly cool since the coolant is cooler from passing through the radiator.

 

By bleeder valve we meant block drain plug....