Refilling fresh water cooling circuit on a MD7B

[Galliard]

Recently I tried for the first time to replace the impeller and gasket on the fresh water pump. I removed the front plate to access the old impeller and obviously all the coolant from the block and the heat exchanger poured into the bilge. I've put in the new impeller and screwed the faceplate back onto the pump. Now I'm wondering how should I refill the system with the right amount of coolant in order to avoid air bubbles. Start the engine and keep pouring coolant into the heat exchanger until it overflows? Or should I fill the recovery bottle and let the pump siphon the coolant back into the cooling circuit? I have no idea...

Also, what is the recommended mix of coolant and water to be used in this particular heat exchanger? 50/50? Regular water will do or do I need distilled water?

Any help will be appreciated.

[azucha]

I'm curious about the responses to this thread. Don't seem like impeller change should lead to draining of coolant. Seems there must be a step that would prevent coolant draining into bilge?

[Galliard]

Probably I did something wrong, there must be a way to avoid the coolant spillage. The pump sits lower than the engine block and the heat exchanger...