bleeder bolts on the nissan skyline RB 30

[harry3]

I was wandering around a wreckers place and saw several nissan skylines with the same 6 cyl engine as in the VL
to my surprise, they also had the 2 bleeder bolts, along with the sticker warning about undoing them with the engine hot

the water passages in the intake manifold were also higher than the top of the radiator, I had thought the bleeder bolts were a special modification for the VL, due to the engine having to be squeezed into the engine compartment that hadnt been designed fot it

but as mentioned, the bolts were also on the skylines, Ive never heard of skylines cracking cyl heads due to steam traps so what gives??

also saw some 6 cyl VLs with the heads removed, the pistons had areas removed for the valves, is this to stop the pistons from hitting the valves if the cam belt breaks? I thought the engine was the interference type, in other words if the cam belt brakes, the pistons collide with the valves, causing an expensive repair bill

this yard is called harveys, SW of melbourne and has a good collection of VLs, but you have to take the parts off yourself with your own tools which isnt always easy

[ucwepn]

Yeah we got a wrecker like that over our way (pick a part) in campbellfield and we spend allot of time there sometimes LOL. I have also noticed what you mentioned with the r31 rb30e bleeder bolts and all I could suggest is that holden had specified nissan to add them for the holden engines and to reduce cost nissan just put them on all the intake manifolds. The nissan engine definately sits very high in the bay of the R31 thus the large bulge in the bonnets.

[sed8]

these bolts are for bleeding the air out of the cooling system
if there is a air pocket in the cooling system is will make the car get hot spots in the engine with most the rb series engine having alot off alloy componetry on them this is a safety system to protect motor from detonating fords and vn's have the same type of system but they use the reservoir for this same thing

[doctor]

25 years in wrecking yards , only reason VLs overheat is intake and outlet in radiator are on the same side. Bafle in rad tank falls down , the hot flows stright back into motor not thru core.

[VL Berlina 5speed]

bloody nissan had to design it badly, but hey its a radiator i can be replaced, but the legend of the vl cant

[genIIIbandit]

I could b wrong but i think the radiator is holden's brillant design, thats why skylines dont have head issues. I repeat I COULD B WRONG!

[VL Berlina 5speed]

I could b wrong but i think the radiator is holden's brillant design, thats why skylines dont have head issues. I repeat I COULD B WRONG!

i was refering to where the pipes connect to the motor, both on the same side, causeing holden to redesign teh radiator

[ucwepn]

Yeah If you've got a 3 core radiator or an aftermarket 4 core unit you will prolly get rid of this problem mostly. might be my next mod, even though I have a spare complete head sitting there I'm not keen to use it yet.

[harry3]

a bit off the subject now but I read somewhere that theres a baffle in the VL radiator to cope with the both hoses being on the same side, and if this baffle falls down or is missing, then, yes the water goes from the outlet hose, straight down to the inlet hose with almost no cooling having taken place, resulting in serious overheating, the temp gauge on my VL berlina is difficult to see on a sunny day and impossible to see wearing sunglasses, which of course doesnt help

the RB 30 engine is famous for steam traps causing overheating and cracked heads in the VL if the bleeded bolts arent removed with water being forced in until it flows out both holes

so back to the original question, one assumes the bleeder bolts on the nissan skyline are there to be used, or since this engine was a special for australia only, enlarged from 2.8 I think, did nissan include them just to keep things simple??