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How long to bleed T-line? Been over a week!

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J So

Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2004
Location
Sacramento, CA
So I got my system together a week ago Sunday and every day I notice bubbles in the T-line and the water in it is slowing dropping. Mind you these are Don Ho sized tiny tiny bubbles but enough is enough. When is it going to be over? I thought 3 days would be enough.. mind you 3 days got rid of a LOT of them but these are the energizer bubbles.

At least my pump is almost silent now that I don't have the cavitation noises going anymore. I'm going to have to consider a res on my next setup..
 
Um, It takes me about 1 hour to bleed with a tee line. Sure, bubbles will continue to come out for some time, but I still have tiny bubbles in the top of the tee and stuck to the side, nothing to worry about. Just fill the tee line up to a good level, cap it off and away you go.
 
yea... i almost went to a res.. i got 1/2 tube and it went down 8" befor it stoped bleeding. first time tho i had a leak in the pump its self.. good ol epoxey
 
Do you hear any noise occasionally comming from the rad? There may be a pocket in there that is letting off a little at a time.

You may have a less than optimal connection on one of your tubes. If there is no water leakage, you might see if you can tighten up the connection at the inlet of the pump, as a leak there would suck air in but not allow alot of (if any) water out.
 
What I do is fill the system then tilt the rig to remove as many big air bubbles as practical. After turning the pump on, I'll top off the T-line then check/top off again hourly then daily then weekly then monthly as required until the level isn't dropping anymore.

One time I had alot of trapped air and was checking/topping every 2 weeks for 2-3 months; the level would drop an inch in 1/2ID tubing each time. I have found the rad (especially heatercores) tends to trap small bubbles when the flow velocity is slower. Tapping or shaking it when checking the water level helps speed the bleed process.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not worried about it.. just more curious/semi-frustrated with it.

To answer your question Guderian, I do hear noises coming from the system but I has just attributed them to cavitaion noises in the pump. I can't pin point anything in the radiator. It's gotten a LOT better since last Sunday. As I said before my system is almost silent right now.

The thing that has me thinking that it's not a leak is that the water level keeps droping but there is nary a drop in the entire case. I can't clamp down on the inlet hose any more that I have. It's on there pretty good.

gungeek, I noticed that tapping it did get a lot of air out :) I will try moving the system around some to see if it frees anything up.

Greenamn, it's a L35

thanks guys!
 
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it can be a very slow leak

for instance, my Via 1300 leaks very slowly around the case. If I put a paper otwel around it for a week, there are traces of orange (my antifreeze)

I don't even care that my via leaks, it so slow, and I know it's my fault because I fubared the housing

good luck
 
greenman100 said:
it can be a very slow leak

for instance, my Via 1300 leaks very slowly around the case. If I put a paper otwel around it for a week, there are traces of orange (my antifreeze)

I don't even care that my via leaks, it so slow, and I know it's my fault because I fubared the housing

good luck

Green you have me thinking, I have been hitting the case up with a blacklight looking for anything reactive and have not found anything so that's another reason I thought I didn't have a leak. Does the UV dye still glow if it dries out?
 
well i got no idea.... i know if you take lime and it drys it still glows..

all this makes me wonder if my setup is leaking.. ..or maybe its evaprating throw the tube??
 
It can evaporate out your t-line if you dont have it snugly plugged. Still, its most likely just more air working its way out of the system, prolly got a good bit trapped in the ol RAD. Take your time when you initially fill the system to get it as full as humanly possible before kicking it on and stirrin up all that water :D
 
The thing that has me thinking that it's not a leak is that the water level keeps droping but there is nary a drop in the entire case. I can't clamp down on the inlet hose any more that I have. It's on there pretty good.

It may not be a leak in the way we normally think of them. You wouldn't see a drop in water level if you were intaking air at the pump inlet. You might even see an increase in the t line level.

Also as Gman said, slow leaks are pretty hard to spot without the aid of additives, or construction/news paper. Put some newspaper under the pump. Once that stuff gets wet, it almost never returns to its original texture. Or construction paper, since it fades noticably.

To be honest, I'm still leaning towards air pockets in the rad. Mine was unbelieveable difficult to bleed to the point where I don't hear anything when I put my ear next to the rad.
 
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