What is the best way to FLUSH radiator?

[bkshaw]

What is the best way to FLUSH cooling system / radiator?
I was thinking:

Drain the water out of the radiator.
Stick a hose in the radiator while engine running.
until all old coolant is out
close the valve.
turn car off.
drain some water out of radiator
put in radiator flush cleaner
drive around for a few hours
Drain the radiator.
Stick a hose in the radiator while engine running.
until flush is gone...
close the valve.
turn car off.
drain some water out of radiator
put in coolant

OR am I really dumb?

 

[DFG 5OH]

DAMN! All i did last time i did it was drain it VIA lower radiator hose, and stick a garden hose in it, drain JUST the rad, and then filled it up. Maybe i need to do it your way

 

[S/CBlack95GT]

You can drain the radiator, then get under the car and unscrew the block plugs. That will drain almost every drop of coolant from the system except maybe a quart.

 

[MysteryMachine]

they make kits for that

 

[HISSIN50]

sometimes the block petcocks dont like to come out (or I am afraid to touch them) - but Shaun is right on!

another way that works fairly decent is to remove the stat and flush it that way. otherwise, the garden hose cools stuff off so fast (relatively cold water) that the stat keeps closing. makes it a real PITA to flush.

and always be sure to run distilled water once you go to fill it (if not using a premix).

 

[Finally a 5.0]

i kind of used the pressure/force of the hose kind of like the flushing machines do, on a friend of mine's car. what we did was disconnect the upper radiator hose, put the hose inside the upper rad. hose leading to the block and clamp them together, then where the upper rad hose connected to the radiator put a funnel with a tube leading to a 5 gallon bucket next to the car. then just turned the hose on and watched it flush. also to make it a little easier you can take the t-stat out and do it. it worked great on his and we ended up flushing it with 20 gallons and it was clear. that is more or less what the machines do so i tried it out.

btw this is all with the car off of course.

 

[MLC Stang]

All,

Prestone still makes a really simple Flush & Fill Kit that works great to flush all of the coolant out of your engine and replace it with a new 50/50 mix of anti-freeze and water. Most Wal-Marts carry them. They cost less than $10.00.

The kit consists of a plastic T-fitting that you splice into one of your heater hoses. That fitting has a garden hose connector on it, so that you can connect a regular old garden hose to it and use that water source to flush all of the old coolant out of your engine. The other part of the kit was is an angled plastic nozzle that fits into the top of your radiator after you removed the radiator pressure cap. The other end of the nozzle is just open.

When you hook the garden hose up to the heater hose T-fitting, turn on the hose and start your engine, all of the old coolant will pump right out of the top of the radiator through that nozzle, fly across the front of your car, and onto the ground and down the drain. (Not exactly PC today, but it works.) Oh yeah, the heater controls have to be set to full ON high heat for this to work.

Once you are done with the flush, i.e. nothing but clear water coming out, turn off the engine and then turn off the garden hose and disconnect it. Put the cap back on the T-fitting and remove the nozzle from the top of your radiator. Next, drain all the water out of your radiator by opening the bottom draincock. When it’s all drained out, shut the draincock valve. So, now you've got an engine full of clear fresh water and an empty radiator.

Now look up your car's cooling system capacity in quarts/gallons, whatever. Divide that number by 2 and pour that much pure antifreeze into your radiator. This gives you approximately the recommended 50/50 mix of water/antifreeze. (After you add the correct amount of antifreeze, you might have to add a little bit of water to top off the radiator to the correct level.)

PS) The best place I found to splice in the T-fitting on my 95 GT was in the heater hose just above and to the left of the water pump at the front of the engine. Be sure to have the hose fitting pointing in the right direction to get a garden hose connected to it before you tighten up the hose clamps.

 

[HISSIN50]

So, now you've got an engine full of clear fresh water and an empty radiator.

Now look up your car's cooling system capacity in quarts/gallons, whatever. Divide that number by 2 and pour that much pure antifreeze into your radiator. This gives you approximately the recommended 50/50 mix of water/antifreeze. (After you add the correct amount of antifreeze, you might have to add a little bit of water to top off the radiator to the correct level.)

PS) The best place I found to splice in the T-fitting on my 95 GT was in the heater hose just above and to the left of the water pump at the front of the engine. Be sure to have the hose fitting pointing in the right direction to get a garden hose connected to it before you tighten up the hose clamps.

I would still recommend using distilled water rather than tap water. also, one does not want to add the coolant and water separately. the two will take quite some time (if ever) to completely and properly mix.

people do seem to like those kits though.

 

[urban96]

whats the best way to burp the system after a thermostat install?

 

[HISSIN50]

whats the best way to burp the system after a thermostat install?

start with a cold motor. i like to leave the radiator cap off . i jack the driver side front up a little to get the rad neck as high as possible. then i let it idle for a good bit. as the fluid level goes down (as air is purged), top it off. dont fill the rad too high or it can dump some coolant. be careful around the fan and hot coolant and all that.

good luck.

 

[MysteryMachine]

i do anout the same thing but i dont jack up the car adn you can put your hand over the hole frfor a while doing that to keep the fluid in till it gets to hot. Not sure if any of ya's ever heard to stick a tylenol in the t-stat and after the system is done flowing throw enough to get the air out the pill is dissolved