03 Mach 1 cooling system woes

[At1Maverick]

So I've been dealing with a cooling system issue the last couple of days. It started out driving to work, I noticed the heater was still blowing cold after driving approx. 15 mins, and next thing noticed was the temp gauge was 3/4 of the way up. pulled over and filled the overflow as it was low from overflowing.

When I go to work(work for a shop), I decided to look into the thermostat and sure enough it had fell apart into 2 pieces. So replaced it. Still ran hot so decided to replace the radiator as well. Used a Mityvac kit to fill the system up and bleed the system of air, I actually did this before replacing the radiator, hoping it only needed that, and then again after replacing the rad.

The car still would run hot, hooked up a scan tool and it was running around 230+ when it does run hot, the heater blows cold, which tells me there's air in the system, and still spits out coolant out of the overflow when it gets hot.

So, is there a specialized method getting the air out of the system on these motors/cars, I've never really had any problems servicing these cars before, but any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[03SonicBlueGT]

The MOST BENEFICIAL piece of advice we can give is to fill the cooling system with the vehicle on an incline(front of the car higher than the rear). This assists the air purging by making the radiator/overflow tank at a higher level than the rest of the system and air will always tend to work its way toward the highest point.

1) Remove the “burp” plug from the coolant crossover tube.

2) The cap should be off of the coolant bottle.

3) Radiator petcock should be closed.

4) Plug the ½ fitting at the radiator tee. A rubber vacuum plug works well for this.

5) Face the ½ inch heater hose straight up towards the hood. This is where all the system air will escape.

6) Fill the cooling system with the recommended mixture through the burp plug. Fill the system until the proper level is reached in the coolant bottle and standing coolant can be seen under the “Burp” plug. Replace the plug and tighten. A little anti-seize on the threads assists for future
removals.

7) Remove the rubber plug from the Aluminum “T” and connect the ½ inch heater hose to the ½ inch fitting on the Aluminum “T.” Tighten the final hose clamp and installation is complete.

8) Start engine, check for leaks. Heater should be on full during engine warm-up and the coolant gauge monitored for any air pockets. If gauge is erratic or the heat blowing from the vents alternates between hot and cold, there is air in the system. Shut engine down, let cool, check for proper coolant level in coolant bottle and re-start. This procedure may have to be repeated several times to circulate air out.

9) Once vehicle has reached operating temperature and cooling fan has cycled, test drive and recheck for leaks.

10) Installation complete. Reinstall Shaker assembly (Mach 1 only).

 

[At1Maverick]

Can someone post a pic of what a stock cooling/heater hose routing should look like? 03SonicblueGT- from' what you said, I seem to have some modification done to mine, I mean I know the heater hose wasn't stock, as is says GATES on it and different hose clamps too. But I think the heater hose routing has been modified as well. and there's no bleed plug on the cross over pipe, there is however a fitting that supplies coolant to the heater core on it.

 

[Roots-type]

Ford 4.6L DOHC Coolant Refill & Burp Procedure by Reische Performance Products