308 coolant vacuum fill

This post should be pinned to the top of the forum list near the buying guide.

 

After all these years I now only read these threads to see what sort of new mental gymnastics people go through to try and explain a little air pocket in the radiator.

 

A hundred years ago I worked for a shop the specialized in Alfa's, Fiat and Lancia. Later for a short time at a Maserati dealer. I was taught the only problem with air in the system was getting a pocket that kept the system from flowing the coolant. The Fiat Spiders were the worst about this. The X1/9 was never that bad about air in the system. When I did some work on my 308's coolant system I did ask some questions about refiling believing there may be some trick to it but after working on it, it seemed just like my X1/9. I hope this does not cause anyone to have kittens but the 308 and X1/9 really are not too different. the coolant system is the same.
@Rifledriver explanation of having some air in the system is ok does make sense.

Any way, fun thread I have learned.

 

There are some Ferraris where proper filling is problematic. 360 is one of them and without a vacuum filler it is very difficult. 308 is not one of them yet the stupid stories of filling and bleeding persist.

 

I had a problem filling my 328 just once where I got an air lock at one of the heater boxes. It was relatively easy to just loosen off the pipe at the valve there & let it out. Other than that, as you said, its not difficult to do.

 

After adding an overflow tank to the expansion tank, I never had to burp the system again. Most of my problems were a cause of how the expansion tank is designed.

 

My 328 would burp regularly until I discovered that it had the wrong type of rad cap. Once the correct type cap was installed it never did it again other than an initial burp if I overfill it when doing a coolant change.