So I finished my y-pipe upgrade today - got the car all put back together. Put coolant in the reservoir and started the car. Heater on high. Waited a few minutes.

The coolant level in the reservoir never went down, the air coming from the vents never got warm, and the temp gauge on the dash stayed all the way at the bottom.

I assume this means that coolant is not circulating in my car, post-upgrade. I waited as long as I dared for the car to start to get warm, and it never did.

So in what ways am I likely to have failed here. Do I just need to take the whole thing apart again and see it there is anything happening inside?

 

Y-Pipe upgrade can mean a lot of things. What all did you swap out? Did you have the supercharger off?

When the car was running, did you have the coolant reservoir cap off (or at least loose)? What about the vent screw?

 

^^ good advice.


Assure that the heat is on (not just on AUTO) and drive around the block. Then check the reservoir. Top off.
THEN take it for a proper drive. Get the RPMs up so that the coolant velocity will purge out of the nooks and crannies of the cooling system. Top off again.

You might need to repeat this over the next 4 - 5 drives.

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Our F takes longer to come up to operating temperature since our plastic pipes were replaced. The thermostat (which was replaced as part of the kit) seems to operate differently. Could that be because the aluminum (aluminium ) pipes dissipate the heat more effectively?

 

Have real-time temperature monitoring during this process with and OBD2 sensor and Torque Pro, OBDFusion or similar.

Did you also change the pump and/or thermostat?

 

I did the whole upgrade job. SC off, replaced y-pipe, and both front and rear crossover pipes, and pump and thermostat (and both belts while I was in there). I ran it with the heater on (temp turned up, not on auto), and the fan on high.
I think I must have had a bubble somewhere in the system and coolant was not getting pulled in, and thus not getting to the thermostat. I shut it down and left it for an hour to cool down, and when I went back out I opened up the reservoir and it sucked in most of what was in the tank. So then I topped it up, and started it up, and it started pulling coolant in as expected. So I think I am probably in good shape. I am going to do as Carbuff2 suggested and over the next couple days I'm going to take it out for short drives, get it up to temp, then park it and let it cool down. I'll keep an eye on temps and coolant levels as I cycle it a few times, and then let you all know how it goes.
I found a lot of great information (Onca Engineering's and adent's write up were invaluable) about doing the job itself, but nothing on how to go about refilling the system and getting everything working again. It looks like it's gonna be fine, but I was anxious about not knowing what I don't know.

 

After I went to a vacuum filler all these types of problems disappeared. One and done. I should have has this thing years ago!
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