Flush Cooling System

[savegoodautonfg]

I might need a new radiator but for the meantime until money situation is good, im going to just flush the cooling system.

anyone have step by step instructions on how to do this?

Thanks in advance all.

-Nick

 

[cenok is family]

if you're standing at the front of the car looking towards the back, there's a drain on the bottom left corner of the radiator. screw it in to make it drain (if i remember correctly).

 

[Aryan15]

I hooked up a garden hose to the metal heater tube on the intake, disconnected the bottom radiator hose, and let it rip.

 

[DucatiRdr]

I literally JUST finished doing this myself. Here's what I did:

What you need:

2 gallons of your favorite antifreeze. I used Peak only because Danica Patric's pic was on the bottle, but they are all the same IMO.

5 gallons of distilled water.

Access to a garden hose

10 gallons of container storage to collect the discharge. Dumping this into the ground or sewer is horrible and should be something that keeps you up at night.

With the engine off drain the radiator into a container. The petcock is on the passenger side of the radiator near the bottom. Open it up and let 'er rip. Close the petcock and fill the radiator with the garden hose. Start the motor and idle with the radiator cap off until the thermostat opens up. Re-open petcock and drain until discharge runs clear. Until this point all of the discharge should be collected and recycled. After this there should be only a negligible amount of coolant in the system.

With the engine still on and petcock open flush by keeping the radiator full with the hose. Every so often you should rev the engine a few times so the water pump circulates the water around. At this point there should be nothing but tap water in the system. Shut engine off and let radiator drain to empty.

Close petcock and fill radiator with distilled water and start the engine. Keep draining and refilling the radiator until you use 4 of the 5 gallons. Remove the 2 fasteners and drain the overflow tank. Once you get to this point, close the petcock and refill with a gallon of antifreeze. Start the engine and rev a few times to mix things up. Wait a minute or so then test. Keep draining and filling with antifreeze until you get a good mix. Button things up and make sure the petcock is tight and call it a day.

 

[glowstang93]

A quick google search will yield plenty of instructions for flushing and replacing your antifreeze. I basically drained it into a pan. Then flushed it out with garden hose. Then filled system back up with water, started car, let it reach operating temperature. Turned car off, drained system, then repeated flush again. I cheated on the refill, i bought the premixed so there was no doubt on the mixture.

 

[glowstang93]

http://www.prestone.com/carcare/howto.php try this link, it has some how to videos.

 

[savegoodautonfg]

thanks all

 

[No.11]

just wanted to say that I tried this since my coolant was all brownish orange, and ran into a problem. while waiting for the tstat to open with the radiator cap off, my coolant kept overflowing in large amounts and gushing out until I shut the car off.

lately the car has been running like crap and stalling when it gets up to temperature. is this a sign of a stuck tstat?

edit: or is that what it's supposed to do and I'm supposed to open the petcock real quick? I thought when the tstat opened the water level was suppose to go down?

I literally JUST finished doing this myself. Here's what I did:

What you need:

2 gallons of your favorite antifreeze. I used Peak only because Danica Patric's pic was on the bottle, but they are all the same IMO.

5 gallons of distilled water.

Access to a garden hose

10 gallons of container storage to collect the discharge. Dumping this into the ground or sewer is horrible and should be something that keeps you up at night.

With the engine off drain the radiator into a container. The petcock is on the passenger side of the radiator near the bottom. Open it up and let 'er rip. Close the petcock and fill the radiator with the garden hose. Start the motor and idle with the radiator cap off until the thermostat opens up. Re-open petcock and drain until discharge runs clear. Until this point all of the discharge should be collected and recycled. After this there should be only a negligible amount of coolant in the system.

With the engine still on and petcock open flush by keeping the radiator full with the hose. Every so often you should rev the engine a few times so the water pump circulates the water around. At this point there should be nothing but tap water in the system. Shut engine off and let radiator drain to empty.

Close petcock and fill radiator with distilled water and start the engine. Keep draining and refilling the radiator until you use 4 of the 5 gallons. Remove the 2 fasteners and drain the overflow tank. Once you get to this point, close the petcock and refill with a gallon of antifreeze. Start the engine and rev a few times to mix things up. Wait a minute or so then test. Keep draining and filling with antifreeze until you get a good mix. Button things up and make sure the petcock is tight and call it a day.