Coolant flush procedure??

[Wyle]

I've seen coolant threads recently and its getting that time to flush mine out. Dumb noob question is how??

On other vehicles, I've had the old Prestone Flush and Fill connect-the-garden-hose tee that goes in the heater line. Now, it seems the more I think about it, the stupider I get and I'm scratching my head.

1) During a flush, isn't the T-stat closed?? How does the block get flushed?
2) Flushing with ye ol' hose puts tap water in the system. I've seen posted that only distilled water should be added.
3) After a flush, how do you get the flush water out? If it can't be drained you have lots tap water in there. How to you get the right concentrate of coolant then?

"Flushed" my old truck, drained the radiator and could only add 6 qts of concentrate coolant to the 17 quart system. Thats about 35% mix assuming the rest was flush water.

Pulling the lower radiator hose might be a suggestion, but does that really do more than opening the drain on the radiator?

Thanks for the forthcoming education.

 

[khill]

From my service manual:

Draining:

Filling:

Flushing:

 

[Mark20]

Didn't read the procedure posted but you can use drinkable tap water. I have very hard water and went with distilled just so I don't overload the engine with too much minerals.

 

[gmcman]

I bought two 5-gallon homer buckets with lids (only really needed one) from Home Depot and about 6 gallons of distilled water from walgreens. I drained the radiator and filled the system back up with distilled water. I let it run for about 5 min and drained the radiator again, at that point I pulled the hoses and the thermostat.

Wouldn't hurt to change the temp sensor at the time of the stat replacement, can save some future aggrivation.

Put it all back with a 50/50 mix and all is good. The inside of the radiator and from what I could see into the block looked practically new.

I wouldn't put anything in there except distilled, JMO.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Why is there no petcock in newer vehicles? Did all that brass get too expensive? </sarcasm>

Has anyone installed an aftermarket petcock in their radiator, and are there any suggestions about a good place to do so? Are there any potential issues with the dexcool reacting to brass?

 

[Wooluf1952]

I believe the tank is plastic where the drain goes.
I have seen an adapter that fits in the lower radiator hose, but don't remember where I saw it.
Has any one replaced a radiator on a 2002? Did the replacement radiator have a drain built in?

 

[Mark20]

There was a petcock until 2003 or 2004. Don't know if the design of the radiator changed then.

 

[Wooluf1952]

From what was posted on the OS, only the 2002 had a drain.
My '03 doesn't have one.

 

[Mypetropig]

What is J38185? The rest of the procedure is easy enough to follow.

 

[Steve A]

What is J38185?

Hose clamp pliers, bout 25 bucks or so...

 

[Mypetropig]

Hose clamp pliers, bout 25 bucks or so...

Thanks

 

[deepblue]

Has anyone been successful in removing the "block drain plug" mentioned in Step 9 of the coolant draining procedure above ?