Please please help, replaced radiator-sputtering blinking cel
 

I accidentally put a hole in my right radiator, the car was never driven while it was losing or lost coolant. I installed my radiator today and all seemed to work fine. After hooking up, I filled the coolant. When I started it up it was fine until it started sputtering and the cel was blinking. It feels like the maf is bad? When I checked the coolant it was gone from the tank, so I filled it up with more. Now it idles perfectly, but when I start moving, it spotters. So I parked it. I only replaced a radiator!? What the heck could cause a blinking cel!!!??? I'm scared and frustrated. Pleeeaaase help.

By the way could it be that there is air in the cooling system?

Yes. Unless you used a vacuum tool to purge the air out of the cooling system there is probably trapped air. Yes you can crack your heads if you run the car with trapped air pockets in the engine.

Pedro's coolant bleeding instructions worked pretty well for me when I replaced a radiator a few years ago:
http://www.pedrosgarage.com/Site_3/Install_3rd_Radiator_%26_Coolant_System_Bleeding_I nstructions.html

Okay, thanks!

After more research, I will be "burping" the system tomorrow morning. It was a long day of work on the car...it never really hit home that there is a lot of air trapped inside the cooling system. I'll let you know how it goes.

Those vacuum bleeders/fillers are worth their weight in gold. I just used the Airlift model to replace my coolant and it worked perfectly. It completely evacuated all the air, confirmed that I had no leaks by holding vacuum for several minutes, and then completely re-filled the system in seconds. I took the car for a half-hour drive to get it right up to operating temperature and then had to top up the coolant tank with about 1/2 a litre of additional coolant. You do need a compressor that will do a couple of cfm at 90PSI to operate the tool.

And yeah, Pedro's instructions are the best I've found for this particular project. I'd sure love to buy that guy a beer.

Okay, I haven't finished Pedros method, though I have opened the valve and run idle and filled tank. Still getting sputtering and blinking cel occasionally!?

Finished filling coolant the correct way...cooling system is acting fine, it starts, idles, and revs without any issues. When I go to drive a block it spotters an cel begins blinking. Wtf is wrong with my engine? It couldn't be the coolingsystem--no leaks, front hoses to radiator are warm...ugh. Any input is appreciated. Now that I think about it, I did clean the maf while it was non op. Could it just be the maf? It feels like it, though the cel blinks occasionally.

You need to burp the coolant system
 

it has air trapped and this allows spot overheating which can take out your engine.

pedrosgarage.com has an article on adding a third radiator which covers burping.

I did it!!!!! Not coolant issue, nor maf, or 02 sensor! Car had a little fire about a year ago: header touching power steering line informs you very quickly that it's a flammable liquid ;). I found a bunch of wires (5) that had been burned to a crisp and lost their housing. After separating all wires and re-wrapping in shrink wrap...it drives smoother than ever! I done even have a cel anymore due to my cai! Cleaning maf, all tubing and throttle body does work for dirty induction cel. What did I gain from all this diagnosing???

1. Radior isn't hard to replace. It's a fairly easy and very straight forward DIY.
2. Refilling coolant isn't as hard as I thought it to be, when I figured out that it wasn't the problem. Pedrosgarage.com is great for burping instructions.
3. Fire in engine compartment is bad.
3.5 burnt wires cause electrical issues.
4. I am confident I can fix ANYTHING...well that egotistical statement should wear off very soon.......

****************, my computer optical mouse stopped working...well, sooner than expected.

Happy motoring!

Well done, dude! Good catch. :cheers: