I have yet to drive it but I did pop the hood. Billman said to top off a 1/2" above the max line to let bubbles take care of themselves overnight. I did. I was surprised to see the level 3/4" below the max line.

I have driven twice in Death Valley (each time a full week) during the "warm season" (around 118 degrees) and the AC did a decent job. Went through Needles CA and that was 123F. The coolant temp went up one or two bars and that was it even in spirited drives up Dantes Peak. I might add I did insert one layer of 3M Thinsulate in the 2 ply part of the roof for noise and as it turns out, helped with the sun.

 

If you had the ragtop down, you'd get the worst sunburn.

 

Man! I wish I read this last month! Bill when I saw you you forgot to tell me you had a writeup!
Anyway using the Lilse funnel, F'ing with the bleeder valve, getting the car good and hot and squeezing the hoses is key to eliminating the air in the system. I started by replacing my thermostat but it wasn't the problem. In fact I got more air in the system due to that. I also replaced my cracked reservoir cap and I got a new radiator cap. I didn't want to put on my new radiator cap until after I cleaned everything up. Turned out it was a big part of the problem.
Good luck

 

Used a Lisle funnel to change the coolant on my 2000 s2k. I have used Lisle on a Accord and Sienna and they worked fine. Lisle definitely makes things less messy, although it still takes a long time. The only thing I want to add is revving the engine help push air to the Lisle funnel. I let it run for 10/15 mins and the heater was only lukewarm, reading this thread I knew the key was to get the heat to piping hot to the touch. By revving the engine I could see the air bubbles pushed out on the Lisle funnel neck and the heat became HOT shortly thereafter. Button everything up and top off the coolant tank. By the way I used Pentofrost A3 bought from rockauto, they were 15 bucks a gallon, bought three for the change. Still have 1 gallon unopen and maybe 1/3 gallon left.

 

@Billman250 need some help please - followed your procedure very carefully - on 3 separate attempts - each time starting from cold start and getting engine up to temp (AP1 so 3 bars on temp gauge and cooling fan kicked in once at least) and then following the process as you described - but failing to get the heater blowing hot - it does get slightly warmer with time but no where near what you could call 'hot'. A few questions which have been niggling me as possible discrepancies in the way I have done things, which I wanted to double check with you:
1. Does it matter if I rev the engine during the 2 minutes that it's running - or should it be left just at idle ?
2. Does it matter how long after turning the engine off after the 2 minutes that you open up the bleed nipple ?
3. Is there a max number of cycles in any one go ? I reached 10 cycles on my first attempt and couldn't bleed any more air out - and then gave up.
4. Is it worth draining out the coolant and just starting again or just persevering with it as is ?

Thanks man, appreciate any help on this - running out of motivation now

 

Just get a spill free funnel, then use Billman's procedure to bleed any remaining air. Bleeder closed while the car is running, then turn the car off and and crack the bleeder ever so slightly. The spill free funnel gets 90% of the air out.

 

I'm not saying this method doesn't work...I'm sure it does

But it never really worked well for me.

I just use a coolant bleeding funnel.

Turn the heat blend to hot (engine off)

Crack open the bleeder near the throttle body area.

Fill the coolant into the radiator until a solid stream comes out of the bleeder.

Close the bleeder.

Fill the funnel about half way.

Turn the engine on.

Let'r eat (let the car run until the heat blows hot).

Turn off. Put rad cap back on. Done.

Super easy and foolproof.

 

Key is to park the car on a slight incline. Front end on the "up" side. This helps get the last bit of bubbles out of the coolant system.

It took me 30 minutes, running and revving at idle, to get rid of the last bubbles.

 

yep that’s exactly what I did - still can’t get anywhere near the heater being ‘hot’

 

Just to clarify- do you just turn the heater temperature to max hot but do NOT actually turn the heater itself on and leave the car idling by itself and let the funnel bleed out the remaining air - no need to mess with bleeder nipple ? And I assume you turn the heater on to see if it’s ‘hot’ to know if all the air is bled out?