These are just SO cool. Special thanks to Robert Crowndog for telling me about them! Bleeding the last gasp of air from your Ferraris cooling system is a royal Pain! And having a little air trapped in your system often results in your car peeing a little fluid every time you park! (See embarrassing photo of me below). But this uber-cool Automatic Bleeder Valve will take the place of your bleed screw and allow air out, but shut instantly when liquid contacts it! And they are inexpensive, too. The Radiator one is a direct replacement for your regular bleed screw and is $25. The Thermostat Housing one comes with a special adapter for the different thread, and is $30. Shipping for one or both is $5 to any USA address. Installation is Very easy: The Radiator one literally installs in less than a minute. Simply remove your existing bleed screw and put this one in its place finger tight. The Thermostat Housing one is also easy, however you must position a rag to catch leaking coolant and work quickly, or install it when doing a coolant change. They are guaranteed by the manufacturer for 5 years. Send me an email if you would like a set. I have 8 sets ready to go. [email protected] Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
These simple little devices are great. I'm glad you are making them available. Adapters for the tstat housing has been a bit of a hassle.
Similar methods have been use here on the form. Do a search and you'll find similar parts with pictures.
I installed this at the radiator on my old GTSi and it worked very well. I didn't seem to need the thermostat housing one. The supplier for these valves is a UK domestic radiator spares company. The brand is Aladdin and the radiator takes the 6mm (which is apparently increasingly rare in the UK market). UK price is ~£10 iirc.
Yes, this is no secret! If you are in the UK, it makes more sense to find them locally. Here in the US it costs between $20 and $25 plus 2-3 weeks for delivery to order them. I am only trying to make it easier for Fchat members to get them. Obviously I have very little markup in them! Cheers, Robert
I am curious as to the reason for the need for these on 308. 328 cooling systems dont have these problems. What did they change? Do these issues still happen on a system which has successfully passed a cooling system pressure test? If air is getting drawn into the system when cooling this would indicate a leak but maybe there is some other issue going on.
Check out Birdman's Guide to Bleeding your system here: Bleeding the Ferrari 308 Cooling system You can see just how painstaking and lengthy it is. In my mind, having this done automatically is a no-brainer!
Out of abundance of caution, what do you recommend for tq spec? I'm installing tonight. Thanks again.
I don't believe it's anything to do with 328s vs 308s. Yes, my GTSi passed a pressure test. I suspect the leak was in the heater circuit. The one-way vent is a good temporary fix until you're able to solve the root issue. These valves are placed on UK domestic heating radiators for much the same reason: a quick fix for hard to find micro leaks.
These automatic vents seal with an o-ring, so just finger tight is all you need. The Coolant System has very low pressure (not much more than atmospheric), so we are not fighting pressure, really. We are only needing a sound seal.
I believe so. The Radiator thread is 6mm, and the Thermostat Housing thread is 8mm. Jim "Kabinroller" reported this: "Just wanted to let people know these parts are very good quality and really easy to fit. I installed them on my 89 328 GTS today everything went perfectly and worked as described..... not needing to manually bleed the system is great. I look forward to the next coolant change now without all the mess."
Well there must be some difference between the 308 and 328 if that procedure is needed on the 308 because the 328 takes around 30 seconds to bleed.
Robert, I have the bleeders installed on my '81 308 GTSi now. It'a great solution for having to manually bleed the air out of the system after a service. Thanks Image Unavailable, Please Login Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I’ve got these installed on t Stat housing and radiator , but they don’t seem to let that much air out until I bleed them manually. That said the set up for the t Stat housing makes it much easier to bleed manually and both form a nice seal with finger tightness
Yes, for sure. Just like you say these are not for bleeding the system of large amounts of air like after a fluid flush (although they do make this manual bleeding Much easier--with just your fingers). These valves are for getting the last little bits of troublesome air out that are so frustrating to remove manually. And very importantly, they will continue to do this every time you run the car. So bleed "normally" after a fluid flush, and then these valves will get the last little bits of air that you couldn't remove, as well as air that gets introduced as time goes by.
Is there an option for those with early thermostat castings without the “bump” to drill and tap? Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat