Dutch7

Today I decided to flush my cooling system so I started off draining it and noticed that it was a red tint color instead of green or orange. I bought this car from a guy who always had it serviced at a Ford dealership maybe they have a special coolant? Also another oddity is that when I drained it only about 7-8 qts came out instead of the 11.8 it says it has as a capacity. When I went back to fill it up I was able to only put in a gallon and a quarter of Dexcool when it should've held 2 gallons. I found some brown gunk on the dipstick before which led me to do the flush so maybe it is backed up somewhere not sure. The strange thing is though it held perfect temp at 210 during the drive and the radiator stays full on fluid, at this point I am stumped as to why it did not take 11qts nor did it spit out 11qts and the the red color is strange. Any thoughts or ideas as to why my car is so weird?

JohnR

iTrader: (1)

If the engine and heater core were all dry, then it would probably take 11 qts.

As for the brown gunk you found, you might have to actually run some radiator flush to loosen things up. Or, take it to a service station that has the proper radiator flushing equipment to really get it clean.

John

gongshow71

iTrader: (1)

Just some advice: look on your upper radiator hose and see if you have the power steering cooler option on your car. It will be a metal piece with lines going to the power steering pump.

If you have a minor failure in the cooler at this moment, it will result in some brown sludge in the radiator overflow tank due to power steering fluid being introduced into the cooling system. The oil floats to the top of the radiator near the cap and it gets sucked into the overflow tank when the engine cools down because physics.

You can also keep and eye on your power steering fluid to know if you're having a problem. It will be low or contaminated. This may also destroy your power steering rack but that is speculation on my end.

If you do have the power steering cooler on your car, don't wait until it goes out completely. It's a headache and a half days work to flush all the power steering fluid out of the radiator/engine/overflow tank properly. Delete the cooler and use an upper radiator hose from a Firebird/Trans Am without the power steering cooler option. Delete the lines going to the power steering pump and close them off. The power steering cooler is useless in my opinion.

​I learned all of this the hard way

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Your coolant to water dilution may have been off, causing the hue to be brighter. Whenever you see that, you can get a cheap coolant tester from the parts store and check your ratio.

Your system still has an old gallon of coolant in it, which was sitting inside the engine block and in the heater core during your flush.


There's just over one gallon in the radiator. The other two gallons are in the overflow tank, the heater core, and the engine side galleys. I just went through this and was able to get the full three gallons out - but it sucked - a lot... https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...k-coolant.html

So, in order to really flush things out, I had to:
- Take out the battery and overflow tank. (I drained and washed out the tank.)
- Disconnect the heater hoses.
- Open up the side galley ports on the engine. (In my case, I had to pull out some special tools and remove my alternator to get to the ports.)
- Jack the rear of the car up really really high so the coolant will run out of the heater core and the sides of the engine.
- Clean up the total mess the coolant tsunami made, and put the coolant ports back on the engine with engine thread sealant.
- Fill the system and run it through several heating cycles to bleed the air out.


I haven't seen a good how-to on our site for this flush, but you can find some marginal ones elsewhere. The thread above shows the block port behind the alternator. The other one is smaller and oriented differently - just above the starter.

Dutch7

Ok so yeah I checked my power steering fluid today and it is milky pink which is like you guys said because the PS cooler is failing and letting coolant into the PS system which explains a whine I get when turning the wheel whenever its hot. So now I'm not sure if I should replace the cooler or just do the bypass like everyone says. Also I just installed a new PS pump about a month ago if I drive like this for maybe a week or two will it cause any damage to the pump?

gongshow71

iTrader: (1)

I would say just delete the power steering cooler and bypass it. I have never had a problem with power steering fluid getting too hot. Any used cooler you find for sale will most likely fail in the future and any new OEM cooler you can buy probably costs $$$. It also removes some clutter from the engine bay.

Will it ruin your new pump? Long term yes and also your power steering rack. But I don't think driving on it for a week or two will hurt it too bad. Just be sure to do a thorough power steering system flush once you figure out your coolant problem.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

^ I agree with this assessment. If you delete the cooler, you just need to be prepared to have more frequent P/S fluid changes/flushes to avoid boil-overs.

JohnR

iTrader: (1)

I replaced the upper radiator hose with a non-cooler type. I also replaced the lost P/S fluid with Redline Synthetic Fluid. After every oil change, I use a Mityvac to suck out some of the power steering fluid and replace it with the Redline Synthetic.

BTW, I also suck out the fluid in the clutch reservoir and replace that with DOT 4 fluid after every oil change.