Replacing cooling system parts---anything else while I'm in there?

[JohnnyGraphic]

OP-Check out the YT video from 50’s Kid if you haven’t already. It’s called the E46 Radiator and Coolant Expansion Tank Replacement video. From about 24 minute mark, he pops in the new ET and it looks really loose, but the clip and everything else snugged into place.

He also takes off the bracket for the radiator so you can get a better idea of how everything else fits together.

Hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TXRedDevil]

Gents,

Mission freakin' accomplished!

Thanks for all the help and friendly advice. So I ended up taking off the bracket and it wasn't too bad getting it off. If I had to do it a second time, I'd partially unscrew the fan shroud off too to give myself more wiggle room to get the bracket off. The hardest part though was getting off a one-time use fastener at the top left hand corner of the fan shroud, which holds the bracket to it. If it was meant to pull off, I broke it lol. So I pulled it out far enough and then took a coping saw and cut it off to get the bracket off. I'll have to buy a replacement one.

Putting it on the bench was much much easier. I could control pressure on both ends while snapping it into place. Plus, I used more lube on the female and male ends of the ET and bracket ends than I ever did in all my years of marriage. Ok, more than last time

The other hard part was wiggling the bracket with the ET on it back into place along w/ the fan shroud.

Oh, so I was simultaneously researching how to bleed air out of the system and in my 4Runner forum, one of the guys swears by this device called a Lisle Spill-free funnel, which basically burps air out of your system while filling it up. There's nothing more annoying than bleeding air out of your cooling system. I'm eager to give it a go. This'll be arriving tomorrow and the pressure tester on Wednesday. Vid link. I'll let you gents know how it goes.

One question: I'd add and circulate 2 gallons of clean distilled water through my cooling system to get out as much as that coolant leak dye out of the system. Do y'all think it's worth the effort? Or will 2 gals of Zerex dilute the dye so much that it wouldn't matter? Opinions and advice welcome.

[JohnnyGraphic]

Congrats!!! I know how frustrating things can be, been there many times myself. I’d say the coolant system burping thing should work out good. I never used one myself, but have seen many.

What year/model 4Runner do you have? I have a 2021 Off Road Premium in metallic black. Nicknamed Max. So far, we have about 18k miles on it. We had a 2000 4Runner that we sold at 200k+ miles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GeorgeH]

Is the dye safe for cooling systems? If so, I'd leave it.

For bleeding, the internet is full of ways to do this, but I've done it basically one way for almost 20yrs without issue.

I remove the bleeder screw and fill until it comes out of the bleeder screw. I reinstall the screw and continue filling until absolutely full. Install the cap and warm the car to operating temp (so the thermostat fully opens and you get coolant flow through the rad) with the heater on. Let it cool down to cold and adjust the level as needed (99/100 times I have to add).

[TXRedDevil]

I still have a '98! Has about 278K. What a freakin' champ the 4Runner is. It refuses to die and the repairs/maintenance have been very miniscule. It still has the original factory radiator. Water pump has been replaced twice. The original lasted about 150K miles (guesstimating).

[TXRedDevil]

George,

Thanks fore the advice. I'm pretty certain that the dye is safe. It's this brand: Tracer

Mine ZHP is a manual, so are you talking about the blue bleeder screw that's right underneath the expansion tank?

[JohnnyGraphic]

George,

Thanks fore the advice. I'm pretty certain that the dye is safe. It's this brand: Tracer

Mine ZHP is a manual, so are you talking about the blue bleeder screw that's right underneath the expansion tank?

Hey Tx! I think he’s talking about the bleeder screw up top next to the ET and air box. It’s part of the upper hose. It’s plastic so be careful with it. It doesn’t take much force. Just a good snug.

Thumbs up on your 98! In some ways I miss our old 4Runner.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TXRedDevil]

Hey Tx! I think he’s talking about the bleeder screw up top next to the ET and air box. It’s part of the upper hose. It’s plastic so be careful with it. It doesn’t take much force. Just a good snug.

Thumbs up on your 98! In some ways I miss our old 4Runner.

Ah sorry, my mind has been so focused on bleeding that i read that too fast. Yes, just a little snug as you and others have said. I bought a brass screw too as some have recommended while others have said plastic is fine.

If the Lisle contraption doesn't work, I'll give the other method that George does.

[TXRedDevil]

(Mostly) Success!

For other newbies like myself, I'm going to document things I learned along the way on the power steering pump and cooling system fluid draining, filling, and bleeding.

Power steering reservoir and steering hoses notes
- To recap, I needed change my PS suction hose due to a leak at the top of the hose. Given that I was going to change that hose, I decided to change the return hose at the same time. Which led to another decision to change the pressure hose as well since it sits in the same place as the
return hose. To remove the pressure and return hoses, I bought the Lisle fuel and AC Disconnect pliers from FCP. A good investment because it make taking off those hose fittings a breeze. FCP part number LIS-37300

Filling/bleeding- This is where things went south. After draining as much as possible from the reservoir and the hoses that I replaced, I poured in the fluid and did lock-to-lock turning of the steering wheel. 10 times, then go to the reservoir and add a little more fluid. I really do not know what happened but at some point the steering wheel became harder to turn. So I sort of muscled it and then i heard a loud pop. I think what happened was this: my floor jack was sorta by the front tire. I think somehow it might've gotten underneath one of the tires, hence the steering wheel getting somewhat jammed. When I was able to turn the wheel, I think there was too much pressure which forced the hose to pop off. After cleaning and cursing, I had to do it all over again.

Use factory clamps- Related to the above, I bought aftermarket hose clamps and used it on the leaky PS hose. What a damn mistake. The hose came with a worm gear type screw on clamp, but I opted to go with the crimp style. Hence the advice to put a towel on top of the alternator. Right now the PS fluid is slowly leaking out of the alternator, but i'm pretty sure that alternator will live a shorter life. I hope i didn't blow seals.. Edit: 3 days later, it's still slow dripping. I sprayed electrical contact cleaner in there to dilute it, but it's still slow dripping.

Cover that alternator w/ plastic and a terry towel or something absorbent! Here you see the right worm gear-type clamp I should've just used from the get go.

Burping the air out of the PS system consisted of lock-to-lock steering, but i also massaged the lines that produced bubbles. Because I messed up above, I was a bit agitated so I mildly slammed the door out of frustration. Well lo and behold, that door slamming resulted in a lot of bubbles coming out lol. Don't go ape shit, but a nice firm close of the door produces air to release out of the system.

It took a few tries. I think I did this about 5 times before I didn't see bubbles. Remember, don't overfill. The cap's stem has 3 segments. I have read that it should be right in the middle when cold.

Oh, I used Redline D4 ATF. I must've read pages and pages of back-n-forth and went with Redline. The nice thing too is that the manual transmission takes the same fluid, so next time around I'm gonna change both at the same time by purchasing 3 bottles, which will cover them both.

Cooling system
The main reason I was doing all this work is because the expansion tank cracked. See my notes above. Draining is pretty simple on this car. There's blue cap drain plugs underneath the ET and radiator. Also, there's a coolant return hose that is connected to the ET. These are the easiest ones to remove. I used a angled pick to get the hose clips unseated. I used a flat bladed screw driver or a small pry bar with gentle persuasion to get the hoses off.

As for the ET, all my self-induced drama is documented above. I did replace the upper radiator hose too. Removing it was a bear. I ended up using a small pry bar with gentle pressure.

Unbolting the engine drain block was not as challenging as some wrote. I used two 6" extensions on a swivel head for the 13mm socket. It was not difficult to remove. Make sure you use a replacement aluminum crush washer. It's an M14 x 18 x 1.5. None of the big box stores had this size so you'll have to order from your online BMW store. And yes, you're gonna get wet. I had a rectangular container to catch as much as possible. I did it twice during my flushing w/ distilled water. Next time around: a) devise some sort of large tube (I've read some ppl using down spout hoses), b) Buy a new bolt (this one is sorta deformed at the corners), and of course have the right sized aluminum washer (gasket) on hand.

On another mental midget note, I totally forgot I had a stubby ratchet.
I have one similar to this one. I noticed a little weeping from the drain block plug, so I cleaned it off and sprayed it w/ brake cleaner. Came back and a wee bit of weeping. So I used the stubby ratchet w/ the 13mm socket, tightened it down, and cleaned/sprayed it again. Came back 10 mins later and no weeping. In the future, I'm going to use it vs the combo of extensions, etc. that I used the first time around. This was the only bolt I didn't torque down to spec due to space reasons.

Since the e46 community has put the fear of God in me about the cooling system, i bought a pressure testing kit. It worked well enough. I bought it because the manual online clearly said they had a fitting for both the e46 and my 4runner. The Bentley manual i'm told says no more than 21 psi, but I could only pump it to 18. This didn't bother me too much because the kit said not to exceed 20 or be under 15. The drop rate should be 1 psi per 2 mins. It held per instructions and most importantly, I didn't see any leaks. Pic below. Brand name is humorous.



Filling and bleeding: I also bought a Lisle cooling tank bleeder contraption. Here's the kit and what it comes with. The black fitting is missing because it's the one that fits our e46s:





Let me tell you it works and it's pretty hands free, though I wouldn't walk away from it due to possible overheating. With the front elevated, I used the proper fitting and put the big funnel on top. Poured in 1 gallon and watched it do its thing. It was a few minutes before the heater core /thermostat engaged and then the coolant in the funnel started to go down so I added more coolant in it. You want to keep it about 1/3 - 1/2 full, so have your coolant ready. I had to let the engine cool down at some point, so I repeated this over 3 nights. Also, when the engine cools down, there will be a contraction and the fluid in the funnel will go down very rapidly. I was not ready the first time. The second time around I was ready to add coolant. I retired for the night after that and repeated for 2 more nights. And yes, I used the firm door closing technique to good effect.

Even when it's being worked on, it sure is purdy:
.
As you can see, the green dye I put in is still visible in the new blue coolant, but the flush did get the majority of it out.

I just took it out for a drive---the company let us out early so why not. Turned on the heater to 91F again and drove around the neighborhood. Success- the heat was coming out with gusto and the temp was sitting at the half mark. Decided to take her on the highway and gun it a few times. All good

Edit: Stretched the Devil's legs out for it's first freeway trip to our local Korean market after all the work for some Christmas day Surf n Turf dinner for the wifey. We had a very simple and chill Christmas dinner alone (yay).

Grocery getter today:


Christmas dinner for two:




This is Chinese okra sauteed w/ garlic, olive oil, and a little water. Really healthy and tastes great. Very common Taiwanese dish.


OTHER:
- Next major repair is the Vanos and I'll add more new oil after it's fixed as the oil is 1 years old now on 1K of driving (previous owner).
- I changed out the manual tranny fluid with Redline D4 ATF. That crappy notch shifting in 1st is all but gone. This was a big win for me. I hated that notchy shifting.

[Will]

Great job on all of the work!

Looking forward to the photos.