From 2000 on up the durangos have electric assist fan don't they, so is it you have a bad connection and the fan shuts off? just a thought

 

Its possible. Though what about my original concern of air in the cooling system? I dont think i have multiple problems you know? idk its tough to figure out. I need more experienced hands looking. i'm not sure what i'm looking for exactly you know?

 

I get what you're saying. Though I'm not convinced that you had air in your system. Do you know how long your reservoir was dry or a rough estimate. If you had air getting into your system wouldn't you have lost coolant in the radiator also? This is a unique situation it seems like.

 

Its weird. Though i may not be assessing the problem properly. And The reservoir was dry for maybe a day or two? maybe not even that.

I mean coolant is coming out of the bleeder valve when I'm burping the cooling system right? Maybe thats why my reservoir went dry. Burping the system multiple times caused it too lose too much coolant?

I'm gonna post a video of my bleeder valve as I'm using it with the heat on and the engine up to full temp and the car on than you can see what i consider air coming out of the bleeder valve. But basically its opened a couple threads and bubbles are coming out than just coolant than again it bubbles quite a bit and this process goes back and forth a couple times.

 

When I burped mine it was 20 degrees so I drove 15 miles with my cap on but not sealed and there was no air in my system. I wasn't aware there was a bleeder valve.

 

well on the 4.7l its like 6 inches past the rad cap on the upper rad hose. the bleeder "plug" on mine takes an Allen wrench/hex wrench. and you undue it a couple threads. yours would be in a similar location .

I work 12-8 today and its 11 now so I'll post the video of my bleeder valve in action when i get home.


Not the best picture since its so up close but this is my bleeder valve and you can kinda see bubbles coming out. I took this with my phone soo yeah you know not to good.

 

the bleeder valve is a new thing... we dont have them on your 98 durangos

 

Ok that would be why I never saw one.

 

the bleeder valve is only on the 4.7l engines, the 5.2 and 5.9s dont have one

 

The same process that allows the radiator to draw coolant from the reservior will allow it to draw air if it gets too low. Do not let the level get low in the reservoir. It may take a couple of tries to get everything full. You need to be checking things daily to make sure it is not getting low.