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Coolant change - air relief valve and engine block drain?

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Do any of you guys know where the coolant air relief valve and engine block drain reside on the S15? I've found the the radiator drain plug, no probs there. I have the S15 manual as the car is NZ New, but the picture they show of the air relief location may as well be a picture of Italy as useful as it is!

Looking at the car from the front, where the radiator hose joins the elbow connecting to the block, there is a screw on top of the elbow. There's a little sticker saying "do not open when hot". Now, I'd assume this was it but the picture in the manual shows an entirely different location - is this the screw?

Now as for the engine block drain, the manual gives no clue, it just tells you to undo it! If anyone knows where these things are, please let me know.

thanks
 
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Thanks Nicely, I thought that was the air relief valve! Have you changed the coolant on your car before? The owners manual specifies to drain the coolant from the drain plug on the block as well as the radiator. I called a couple of Nissan dealerships and one reckons the drain plug is located behind the manifold etc and would be a mission to reach. I've heard a couple of alternative methods:

method 1: undo the bottom radiator hose, block it off and then flush water through the radiator until clean water comes out the block. The problem I see with this method is trying to calculate the correct mix of Antifreeze as now the block is filled wiht plain water of an unknown amount.

method 2: undo the heater hoses from the the engine and force water down those...hmmm dubious.

I'm beginning to think I'll just drain and flush the radiator only! Any advice on the coolant change would be appreciated. I'm also going to attempt bleeding my brakes tomorrow too - that should be fun!

ps - new fuel economy record - 90ks from just over 3/4 tank while racing on the circuit! Including the $90 track charge, it worked out to around $8.00 a lap!
 
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the coolant drain pulg is on the bottom of the radiator on the passenger side. You need a phillips head screw driver to undo it. Kinda hard to describe it, but its black and plastic! When my car gets back from the workshop i will try and take a pic of it.
 
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thanks, but there's no need. The plug you mention is the radiator drain plug. What I'm after is the drain plug on the engine block that lets the coolant out from the block. From what I've heard, it's in a hard to reach place and probably not worth the pain!
 
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I found the drain plug on the engine for releasing coolant. In short, I don't think Nissan engineers ever intended for people to drain coolant from here during a fluid change. My advice would be to change the radiator fluid only, then do another change a few days later. That should change about 70% of the total fluid circulating whilst maintaining the correct ratio of coolant to water.
 
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Digging this up from the past!

Trying to bleed my coolant syatem having fitted the Apex rad!

Found a bolt on the thermostat housing to bleed air out, are there any more?

And tips or techniques to bleeding the s15's? I dont feel like I did a good job...
 
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There's no bolt on the thermostat housing to bleed the system. There's a 10mm bolt on the right side of the engine - the air relief plug.

Follow these steps to bleed the system:
1. Take the air relief plug out
2. Fill the system until coolant comes out the air relief hole
3. Quickly reinstall the air relief bolt
4. Continue to fill the system until full
5. Turn engine on, heaters on full
6. Let it reach the correct temperature, squeeze the rad hoses every now and again to stop airlock
7. Top up as necessary
8. Put rad cap back on
9. Fill expansion tank to min mark
10. Take car for a drive
11. Turn car off
12. Once its all cooled down, check all the levels
 
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