Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Burping after water pump change

At 208,000 kms my temperature gauge suddenly spiked to very hot and I immediately sensed that the water pump had finally let go.There was one crack on the impeller, otherwise it was intact.The impeller did turn freely ,when I grasped and held the outer pulley, this is not right, I would think. The new unit would not allow me to turn the impeller when i grasped the pulley.I changed the thermostat at the same time.
My question is how many start ups and cool downs on average might I expect to do in order to get any air pockets out of the cooling system?
The engine is running hotter than normal (gauge had been between 'N' and 'O'and now is up there at the 'L').
Or is there a better way to bleed the air out of the system?

When you refilled the coolant, did you pour it very slowly? That always helps... As to your question, let the car idle with the coolant cap pff, adding coolant as necessary, this should be the last time you have to fudge with it, and should get the air bubbles out of it. -Nick

How's your heater working?
If it blows really hot air, then it might not be an air pocket. If there is no heat when you turn the heater on that might be a trapped air blocking the proper circulation of coolant.
When i change the coolant I refill new coolant very slowly (it's hard to do) and once it is filled then i start driving few blocks with heater on fool blast carrying some of coolant with me.
Usually i notice that there is no hot air for a while then it start to blow out hot air at certain point. I stop my car at that point and refill more coolant. This worked all the time.

heater works fine..and it appears the system is settling down. My son had it out today and the temp gauge is a bit lower than yesterday.We shall see what happens tomorrow, and let you know.
I did add a lot of coolant all at once, and that is where my problem most likely originated, after the water pump change.

Not unusual for wp impeller crack to cause loss of adhesion at shaft, therefore no pumping, however usually bits of impeller would also have broken off.

Don't think air bubbles are the problem. Did you replace 'stat with proper temperature one and did you re-assemble correctly?

The thermostat taken out was a 180 as was the one put in.The impeller was intact except for the crack which did not extend all the way inward.
It was a no-brainer for the reinstall..everything went back in the right way.

The temp is still up there on high, around the 'A-L' marks on the gauge.Normally, before the change it had been at the 'N-O' mark.Should I be content with that or, continue try idling in the driveway, (for how long I do not know)with the expansion cap off in hopes that the air, if any, may purge out of the system ?

What brand thermostat did you use? Motorcraft or Stant (which is stamped Motorcraft) which have a burp hole? This engine can be tricky to purge, hence the burp hole. Some brands don't have it.

Perhaps your new thermostat is defective? Did you check that it was stamped 180 degrees? Perhaps it was a 195 boxed wrong? NAPA has the 190 incorrectly listed as OEM for the '95 & '96.

Did you replace your WP belt also? Tensioner OK?
A slipping belt can cause problems. Did you use an Autozone belt (Kelly Springfield brand)? Some folks have reported that the KS WP belts for this engine are the wrong length. I would use only a Dayco, Gates, or Goodyear. (BTW, Autozone can special order Goodyear belts & hoses now!)

If you only replaced the WP guts, & not the entire housing (Motorcraft unit), did you check the cone in the housing?

Did you thoroughly flush the cooling system w/a radiator flush product added to the coolant? If not, perhaps some crud got loosened up & is causing a blockage somewhere or got into the new thermostat. (Ideally, the engine & heater core should be flushed separately, w/thermostat removed, as shop manual recommends.) Are all radiator hoses warm?

Personally, I would not settle for a higher than previous running temp. You could drain cooling system again, & flush if you didn't already, & fill very slowly this time - I'd try that first. Next, I'd remove & test the thermostat, & replace w/a Motorcraft/Stant if it's a different brand.

If that doesn't work, I'm wondering if your engine overheated when the WP pump went & perhaps caused some problems somewhere. I've had customers w/blown head gaskets from overheating for just a few moments w/this engine. But let's hope that didn't happen!!! You would have other symptoms - no oil in coolant, no milky oil, right? But that doesn't rule out a blown gasket. Also, just had a customer w/an overheated V6 from a bad WP that damaged the coolant temp sensor.

Just some ideas.

Keep us posted.

Janine..the engine did not overheat to the max and I was about a halfmile from home when I observed the heat gauge starting to rise...so I shut it off quite fast. What 'cone' in the housing are we talking about here?
I did replace the coolant quite fast so, i may try to redo that aspect of the job again and see what happens.

thanks

Check out this discussion - one of many here:

Water Pumps