Bleed it? No. Burp it? Yes. Gen1s are fairly susceptible to air bubbles in the cooling system, but I haven't heard of one losing coolant because of it. I suppose it's possible that any air in the system could result in a steam buildup which would drive out coolant and the more coolant lost, the worse the steam issue and so on. Steam could cause the upper radiator hose to become tight, but my question would be what caused the heater hose to rupture? Possibly only old age, but possibly the pressure was already there before you started making steam. Dunno.

I certainly would continue to watch the coolant level.

The best way I've found to "burp" the Gen1 coolant system is to fill it, open the heater controls, warm up the engine and drive it over the roughest road you can find.... potholes are your friend. Take it hard into a few corners (preferably rough ones), bump a curb or two and do some jackrabbit starts and some panic stops. That should take care of any air bubbles. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Frank