Drained everything and took the alternator belt off to check the water pump. It's making a strange squeelinf noise when I spin it forwards but is quiet backwards.
Pulled everything off and yanked the water pump. PumP was weeping and making a strange squeel when I turned it. Not sure how it could be related? Maybe sucking air through and pressurizing the system before the thermostat opened ?
It really does work like a charm. Fills the engine to the very top and removes all trapped air regardless of whether the thermostat is balanced or not.
I like buying tools so ended up ordering a vacuum filling tool for the cooling system. Pulls a vacuum on the entire system and the sucks in the coolant getting all the air out.
Park on a steep incline with the radiator uphill(obviously, lol) and then fill. Any air in the system should get pushed out of the intake into the radiator.
SBC’s are easy. Remove the stat, fill the rad slowly until you see coolant start to come up in the intake where the stat was, reinstall stat, run engine until stat opens (may puke out of the radiator once), and once it’s open (you’ll know) top off the radiator. Buick’s are very similar. Jason has the trick. The whole idea is to get coolant behind the thermostat. No drilling, no air-lift tools, no fancy funnels needed.
Believe me I realize this shouldn't be a complicated issue. Just with how things were going whenever I tried to fill it had me wondering wtf was going on. The going bad waterpump may of been sucking air or cavitating causing the surging issues emptying the rad. Or maybe a malfunctioning t stat opening and slamming shut constantly. Either way I'll have the new pump and t stat today. Hopefully get it all back together and have things go as they should. I'l have the vacuum tool already so I'll give it a shot, whenever I've seen them used on TV by the big builders it' works incredibly well
