Best way to flush coolant?

[Bartman39]

If you drain the main part of it into a pan the amount left in the block to be flushed will be so minimal when mixed with the water that your using to flush it with... Remember the water hose is your friend...:biggrin:

Just a note we dump our crawfish boil water on fence lines to kill small trees, grass and just about anything else... Antifreeze doesnt have anything on this stuff...😎

 

[kornphlake]

If you drain the main part of it into a pan the amount left in the block to be flushed will be so minimal when mixed with the water that your using to flush it with... Remember the water hose is your friend...:biggrin:

Just a note we dump our crawfish boil water on fence lines to kill small trees, grass and just about anything else... Antifreeze doesnt have anything on this stuff...😎

Maybe I should start dumping my used antifreeze on the neighbor's blackberry bramble that's slowly trying to consume my yard as well. Do you think the neighbor's would notice a pail of colored water swishing over the fence?

 

[alkemyst]

eh, like I said, if it doesnt damage anything after 100k+ miles, I am not too worried 😛

with how often I mess with the coolant on my bikes I would go broke if I bothered to use distilled water all the time.

I would guess not ever changing the coolant is far worse than using some tap water atleast

usually the more expensive the toy, the more it matters.

If buying distilled water is a deal breaker, well it doesn't matter then.

 

[Bartman39]

Maybe I should start dumping my used antifreeze on the neighbor's blackberry bramble that's slowly trying to consume my yard as well. Do you think the neighbor's would notice a pail of colored water swishing over the fence?

Nope... Just do it at night...

 

[alkemyst]

Nope... Just do it at night...

no don't dump antifreeze fucking retards.

 

[Howard]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/maintenance/1272246

Unless your town has a coolant collection setup, pour the old antifreeze into a household drain, clothes-washer pipe or a toilet. That's an environmentally safe approach. Don't pour it on the ground or into a storm sewer. If your car has a copper radiator or heater core, the coolant is contaminated with lead solder. Many municipalities have hazardous-waste disposal facilities that will take it.

 

[kornphlake]

no don't dump antifreeze fucking retards.

well it was a tongue in cheek comment, but I guess that doesn't come across well on the intarwebz. Nevertheless dumping in my neighbor's yard would be no less environmentally negligent than pouring it down my drain as my municipality doesn't treat waste water for anti-freeze. If it's safe for you to flush your own anti-freeze that's great, tell us where you live and what water treatment plant your drain runs to so others who are on the same system can do the same thing.

 

[WackyDan]

I'd believe that any cooling system could remain air-locked unless you follow the FSM directions, both old and new engines. And I also agree that it can take a day or two to get all of the air out, but that's hardly a "very long time."

I default to "skeptical" whenever some random person on the internet (no offense intended WackyDan) makes such a blanket statement. It's not to be facetious, just skeptical. If it turns out that WackyDan owns his owns his own radiator shop, I'd believe him. If he had trouble bleeding the cooling system in his Corolla after it overheated from hauling rocks... I wouldn't put stock in his statements 😛

No offense taken... It is the internet. Look, I don't bat an eyelash at flushing my circa 1960's designed motor in my 99 Dakota... and not worrying about air locking.

My wife's late model Malibu... Yes indeed. There are bleed "ports" there for a reason. These newer, more compact motors have far more intricate cooling channels.

In an earlier post, I recommended referencing the factory service manual for the car/motor... I stand behind that as that should be the final authority on flushing/fill and any nuance procedures related to your late model vehicle.

Hey, if you want to create hot pockets in your motor with it's all aluminum block and heads, and just drive around hoping that the air lock that may or may not exist magically disappears with some driving... Well, feel free. 🙂

 

[Howard]

Found it. Standard procedure is to disconnect the lower radiator hose, drain, and refill. Special procedure (complete drain) is to do the same, and also disconnect the upper radiator hose, top up, reconnect and run. These steps are repeated until "consistent flow is seen in the surge tank".

Note: if you have my car, do not follow these steps. Abbreviated.

 

[DrPizza]

It is more about the minerals on the metals than cooling capacity.

I have incredibly hard water. The amount of minerals in the water - IF 100% of the minerals were to be deposited - are a negligible amount over the surface area of the cooling system. Yes, it's not hard to find plenty of sites that say "minerals are bad!" - but I haven't seen a single one that bases that on actually studying the difference. If that were really the case, then your hot water tank would drop in efficiency by a significant amount after using it for a very short while. The difference is negligible.

 

[BUTCH1]

Some interesting reading for you too... Guess for your car they lowered the miles/km...? Your going by time not miles...

http://www.dex-cool.net/

http://www.sancarlosradiator.com/dex-cool.htm

http://consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/08/gm_dexcool.html


BTW I have never read these articles till now but have known for some time Dex-cool is not a good idea if you want it to last...😉

That's why it got the nick "Deathcool", LOL. I did a drain/refill at 2.5 yrs./45K to try and be safe, I always check coolant level whenever my hood's up, apparently once it drops too far and air gets in dexcool goes bad fast. No way was gonna trust it for 5 yrs/100K..

 

[Bartman39]

no don't dump antifreeze fucking retards.

kornphlake... You just have to ignor him he`s one of the special ones we have on here...:whiste:

Around here it is illegal and you can get jail time for dumping crap like antifreeze or oil (very big deal)... As for what I mentioned about our boiling water its not considered a harmful product, more like organic...

If you want to take care of his black berry vines taking over then Roundup will do a better job otherwise just pick his crop and reap the benifits...:biggrin:

 

[alkemyst]

well it was a tongue in cheek comment, but I guess that doesn't come across well on the intarwebz. Nevertheless dumping in my neighbor's yard would be no less environmentally negligent than pouring it down my drain as my municipality doesn't treat waste water for anti-freeze. If it's safe for you to flush your own anti-freeze that's great, tell us where you live and what water treatment plant your drain runs to so others who are on the same system can do the same thing.

Well the problem is with you 'tongue in cheek' comment is I believe you thought it was truly ok at first.

Howard took the time to actually post a pretty valid explaination of it. However; if you do live in a place where you can't dump it into a water-treatment drain then you will have to take all that liquid to a waste-management location.

In the end servicing your cooling system is one of those things it's better to just pay the $50-75 to have done and disposed of for you.

 

[alkemyst]

kornphlake... You just have to ignor him he`s one of the special ones we have on here...:whiste:

oh you are in Texas...probably one of the types that think burying your motor oil in a folgers can is totally safe, amiright?

 

[Zargon]

funny the dexcool in my garage says its safe to dump in the sewer

No offense taken... It is the internet. Look, I don't bat an eyelash at flushing my circa 1960's designed motor in my 99 Dakota... and not worrying about air locking.

My wife's late model Malibu... Yes indeed. There are bleed "ports" there for a reason. These newer, more compact motors have far more intricate cooling channels.

In an earlier post, I recommended referencing the factory service manual for the car/motor... I stand behind that as that should be the final authority on flushing/fill and any nuance procedures related to your late model vehicle.

Hey, if you want to create hot pockets in your motor with it's all aluminum block and heads, and just drive around hoping that the air lock that may or may not exist magically disappears with some driving... Well, feel free. 🙂

yeah, my old 3.1 had a bleed point, one the top left side of the front head

 

[JCH13]

No offense taken... It is the internet. Look, I don't bat an eyelash at flushing my circa 1960's designed motor in my 99 Dakota... and not worrying about air locking.

My wife's late model Malibu... Yes indeed. There are bleed "ports" there for a reason. These newer, more compact motors have far more intricate cooling channels.

In an earlier post, I recommended referencing the factory service manual for the car/motor... I stand behind that as that should be the final authority on flushing/fill and any nuance procedures related to your late model vehicle.

Hey, if you want to create hot pockets in your motor with it's all aluminum block and heads, and just drive around hoping that the air lock that may or may not exist magically disappears with some driving... Well, feel free. 🙂

Of course the FSM is the end-all, be-all, and I wouldn't bleed a cooling system without consulting it first. There may be more steps involved with various extra bleeder ports, but there shouldn't be any appreciable amount of air left when you're done.

 

[Throckmorton]

eh, like I said, if it doesnt damage anything after 100k+ miles, I am not too worried 😛

with how often I mess with the coolant on my bikes I would go broke if I bothered to use distilled water all the time.

I would guess not ever changing the coolant is far worse than using some tap water atleast

It costs like $1 per gallon.

 

[JCH13]

It costs like $1 per gallon.

Seriously... it costs more to put 2-3 gallons of gas in my Miata than it does to change the coolant.

 

[Zargon]

It costs like $1 per gallon.

its highway robbery! I pay like a penny a gallon for my municipal water 😛

seriously thopugh. the expensive part is obviously the coolant, ~10/gallon for the generic yellow, 14 for dexcool

I will check but I thought the prestone dexcool had corrosion inhibitors so that you could run tap water without worrys

last track day I did was in october, so I did a flush with the hose and filled it up with tap water, and put in new antifreeze and distilled water the next weekend

 

[Howard]

its highway robbery! I pay like a penny a gallon for my municipal water 😛

seriously thopugh. the expensive part is obviously the coolant, ~10/gallon for the generic yellow, 14 for dexcool

I will check but I thought the prestone dexcool had corrosion inhibitors so that you could run tap water without worrys

last track day I did was in october, so I did a flush with the hose and filled it up with tap water, and put in new antifreeze and distilled water the next weekend

I'm sure Dex-Cool has chelating agents to prevent scale formation, but it's a little dicey to depend on that. Some regions have very hard tap water.

 

[Zargon]

I'm sure Dex-Cool has chelating agents to prevent scale formation, but it's a little dicey to depend on that. Some regions have very hard tap water.

ah, yeah

I live by one of the top 10 water sources in the USA. my water rocks. (not literally thankfully 🙂 )

 

[JulesMaximus]

:awe:

J/K Don't do this.

 

[alkemyst]

:awe:

J/K Don't do this.

Actually in most parts of the US this is the way you do do it.



To others. Corrosion inhibitors are not usually designed to handle very hard water. The Dex-Cool packaging doesn't say tap water is ok. More than likely your owner's manual may.

They just state water.

For most it's not so much an issue, but in higher mileage cars it's turning out the effects of poor cooling system maintenance is taking it's toll now that almost everyone is on-board with oil changes regularly.

 

[Bartman39]

oh you are in Texas...probably one of the types that think burying your motor oil in a folgers can is totally safe, amiright?

Not exactly... We export it to area`s like where you live cause no one cares about little shithole places like that... Sometimes we even sell it to your local Starbucks and they refine it and sell it in solid form in your local store... So next time your drinking what you think is coffee just remember its more like Texas Tea...😵

 

[alkemyst]

Not exactly... We export it to area`s like where you live cause no one cares about little shithole places like that... Sometimes we even sell it to your local Starbucks and they refine it and sell it in solid form in your local store... So next time your drinking what you think is coffee just remember its more like Texas Tea...😵

The only people that hate S. Florida are those that can't afford to live here...most of them are from Texas