header tank?

[James.UK]

My semi tame mechanic did a water change on my ZX for me.. But -- I saw no bottomless plastic lemonade bottle around? so asked him about it..

He had the engine running at about 2500 rpm and told me to open the bleeder valve near the top by the heater hose, when I did that water shot out about 2 feet! lol..

He then kept the engines revs at about 2500 till the fans cut in, (that took quite some time) then stopped the engine, we had a quick coffee then he topped the rad up and he said that's it job done..

His comment was -- if the water pump is working properly then you should not need to use a header tank on a ZX diesel, the water pump will quickly shift any air from the system??? .

What do you thinK? The car is running perfectly ok, heat guage as steady as a rock with no signs of any overheating.. Oh and we also changed the oil and oil filter..
.

[MikeT]

Citrojim will tell you, we just massaged the hoses (once hot) and it bled itself. No need for a header tank.

[CitroJim]

As Mike says, what your mechanic did was absolutely fine. As long as he left off the pressure cap and kept it topped up then all air will bleed a treat.

The massaging of the top hose is important and allows you to positively check the operation of the 'stat. As Mike can vouch, this method works fine even if the bleed valve is out of comission

I've used this method for as long as I've run XUD and XU powered vehicles with nary a problem