I drained all of my coolant out of my disco but did not take the drain plugs out the cylinder block. I just put a water hose in the reservoir and in the lower connection on the radiator. Also followed the rave on refill but I bought a gallon of water and a gallon of coolant, after I put the water in there only half of the coolant could go. 1 gallon distilled water and 1/2-1/3 gallon coolant but fluid was coming out of the bleed screw solid. I stopped filling it and restored everything and then I ran the engine with the heat on. The temp never rose about half way which is the normal but the entire time water was running out of the overflow breather hose on the reservoir. I ran it for around 10 mins verifying it would not get any hotter. Once I shut it down I checked the reservoir and it was empty. I read disco mike say check it cold and refill for bottom of filler neck with bleed screw off. I just want to make sure I get the correct amount of coolant in the coolant system. Is all of this normal? Should I just be able to keep toping it off for the next couple of days with straight coolant to get the mixture right?
Any comments or questions are appreciated.

 

When you bleed the system do you take your top radiator hose out of the fan shroud retention indentent and when filling do you take the expansion tank out of the bracket and raise it higher than the top of the engine? You may need to do this three times before you get all the air out of the system. If your system was empty you should hold just over 2gallons of coolant. Hope you didn't go back with Dex and in the future buy the pre-mixed coolant so you get your mixture correct.

 

No need to pull the block drains, you will be fine.
If you want you can check the freeze/boil protection level with a tester, you can buy them for like $5.

 

I pulled the top radiator hose and also raised the reservoir and then the water started running out of the top radiator hose so i reconnected it and filled till bleed port was solid fluid. I was being cheap not buying premix should have just bought it. I live in Florida so its never cold but right now i guess it is hot everywhere. I just dont want it to over heat. I did not go with the dex, it is crap. I only know enough to be dangerous. Now aircraft/jet engines is another story. So as long as I keep filling it with 100% coolant and the temp is ok she should be fine? Thanks for the help. Is the coolant tester at most parts stores?

 

After running the engine and shutting down, is your expansion tank empty? If so you still have air in the system. so your an A&P?
What do you do in the turbine engine business? Turbine engine are my livlely hood.

 

Yes you can buy the tester at any autoparts store, they are usually hanging on a end cap or suck next to the coolant.
I always buy the pre-mixed stuff because it is idiot proof and I cant screw it up.
To me its worth the extra money for the piece of mind.
If I were you I would drain out what you did and just use the pre-mixed IF your test shows to low of a boiling point, otherwise I'd leave it alone.
The tester has floating ***** in it, you suck up coolant, how many ***** float tells you the boil/freeze protection.
Pretty simple and takes about 2min to test.

 

If you had drained out all, lets say 90% of the coolant, you would have had to replace it with at least 2 gallons of a 50/50 mix. Sounds like you were way short of that amount. Are you using a 50/50 mix or a bottle of straight coolant and a gallon of distilled water?

 

I bought 1 gallon 100% coolant and gallon of distilled water. At first it only took mostly water but after 3-10 min runs it has taken almost 9/10 of the gallon of coolant. I just let it cool down after each run at least 4 hours and removed the bleed port and refilled. This last time it had just a little air and then coolant. So I topped the reservoir off and I am going to wait to actually drive it for a good bit and recheck. It has taken enough fluid just not sure about the mix. Lesson learned,dont be cheap, buy the premix. I am in the Air Force I worked on KC-135's for almost five years as a crew chief (A and P).