refilling radiator after changing water pump
 

I just changed my water pump, and I could swear it only took about half as much coolant as I expected. I know there is some serious air bubbles in there...and since I'm obsessive-compulsive,..how can I get the air all out QUICKLY so I can quit worrying about it. For some reason I figured if I started it..it would immiediately suck the coolant out of the radiator and I could just fill it and be good with it. But apparently not,..and it's been so long since I've done this I can't remember. By the way,..I don't even think my original water pump was bad,..The o ring looked like it had shrunk a bit, or something...was really NO bigger than the slot where it went,..the new one was a bit bigger..which I'm sure was to exert pressure.

I know our 12 valves have a valve you can open to bleed air on the Tstat housing, but I just looked through my 20001 service manual and it shows nothing like that, nor does it show any special bleeding procedure, so I would say you should be safe, just make sure your overflow container is full to the line and watch it.

On my 98.5 it helps a lot if I get the front of the vehicle at least 3 feet up from horizontal.

If I don't do this I get an empty overflow each heat cycle until it's full.

You can pull the thermostat on an incline with the front of the truck uphill and get most of it. Make sure the heater core gets filled or you will get a nasty airlock. Running the heater on high doesn't make any difference either as it just adjusts the airway, not the flow of heated coolant....

I do not pull the t-stat, but keep the engine running until it reaches operating temperature so the t-stat opens.

I only had an airlock one time in probably 4 or 5 flushes and refills. Seems it really helped to park it up a steeper incline to get all the air out....