So I just finished flushing my coolant system on my 2000 SS, but I don't know if I added enough coolant.

Here's what I did:

Put the car up on ramps with about a 6 inch lift. Pulled the drain plug and let everything come out. I then filled up the radiator with a bottle of Prestone radiator flush and the rest water. Ran the car for 15 minutes. Drained everything out again and filled with just plain water. Ran it for another 15 minutes. Drained out all the water. Then I filled with Prestone 50/50 but only managed to get in 1.5 gallons between filling the radiator and filling the reservoir.

I bought three gallons because I read the car has a coolant capacity of 12 quarts, but only half of that when in the car. What's the deal? Was there really 1.5 gallons of coolant that never drained out? Do I now have to worry about the right coolant/water mixture since I flushed twice? I doubt the ramps would have done much because it still looked like the drain plug was the lowest point in the engine bay.

 

You can't do a real 100% coolant flush like that. It takes alot to actually get it all out.

You should have just bought 100% anti-freeze and filled the radiator with one entire jug and then topped it the rest of the way off with water. That would be pretty close to a 50/50 mix. There's no way to get a prefect 50/50 mix unless you drain every drop out of the entire system and engine/heads/heater core and then measured exactly whats going back in. Nobody does that.

What you have in there is probably just fine.

I flush like this, it gets every drop of the old coolant out. Takes about 15 minutes.

Best/easiest way to flush and get every drop of old coolant out.

-Cold engine.
-Remove radiator fill cap.
-Remove the t-stat. (2-3 minute job)
-Put t-stat housing back on. (1 minute) Just put one bolt in, no need to put them both in, there’s no pressure in the system during the flush.
-Take the entire radiator drain valve (petcock) "off" and let it drain, don't just open it. It'll drain faster with it off and that’s what you want. ((Buy a new petcock valve, sometimes they break when you remove them all the way, they're like $2.00))
-Take a hose and stick it in the radiator fill cap, running medium to high.
-Start the engine.
-Let it run for about 15-20 minutes or until the water is running out the drain CLEAR.
-When it does your entire system is clean.
-Put the t-stat back in.
-Put the drain valve back in. Use the new one, what the hell.
-Put half a jug of Dexcool in the radiator. (Or if you live in very cold places, 1 to 1 ½ jugs of Dexcool)
-Fill the rest with water.
you do not need to use distilled water, clean hose water is just fine, just make sure your city water is clean and not total crap quality.

**Bleeding the system of air:
Start it up and let it run and warm up till the t-stat opens, you’ll see it flow in the radiator fill neck, once it starts to flow the level should drop down, immediately top it off with coolant/water. Then the flow will stop. Wait one more time for the t-stat to open again and start to flow, if it drops down again top it off again. Do it a 3rd time if you want to make sure. I always massage the upper and lower hoses while its warming up to help move the air bubble by the t-stat on the engine side of the t-stat. Squeeze it rapidly and fully like 20 times each until it starts to flow. Always works like a charm. Just keep checking your temp gauge until the t-stat opens to make sure it’s not overheating from a trapped bubble. May take 10-15 minutes for the t-stat to open the first time.
If you do start to get hot while sitting there and the t-stat will not open…..you have an air bubble on the engine side of the t-stat. Shut the engine off and rapidly squeeze those hoses again. Then start the engine again and see if the t-stat will open.

.

 

Good tips. Thanks

 

Just a couple questions concerning this thread. I'm not sure where the thermostat housing is.. is it where the lower rad hose goes to the engine?? I'm old school and just used to seeing it come off the upper hose. When taking it out, is the gasket usually reusable?
Pet ****...You talked about taking it out. Does the valve on the end pull out? It seems to only twist so far and stop; maybe I'm just being a wennie about it. How hard is it to take out the over flow tank; does it come out the top or down from the bottom?
I removed my stock power steering cooler before it took a crap so things shouldn't be too gunked up.

 

the petcock on the radiator just unscrews and comes out, it can be hard to get started but once it does it should come out easily from there.

the overflow tank is also the battery tray, so you need to remove your battery and remove the bolt below the battery to remove the overflow tank at which point the only way to go is UP.

 

Thanks for getting back to me. I still have the question about the t-stat housing about where and the gasket if there is one

 

T-stat housing is located on the engine end of the passenger side radiator hose. It's an O-ring rather than a gasket.

 

Ok. My car has been randomly overheating. I've changed the waterpump and new tstat. Waterpump had a leak. Was obvious. Car ran perfect for 2 months then out of the blue it started overheating. So changed the stat. Drained the old fluid and flushed it with water on the radiator side only. Car ran perfect again for bout 2 weeks. So put a new stat worked good. Heated up today. Changed the temp sensor it looks bad put a new radiator cap on too. And still overheating. So I'm assuming I have air in the line. I've squeezed both hoses stil not working. It's annoying. Have an interview at 10 am so need to get this resolved in the morning. Please help.

 

So it ran fine for two weeks after the last part you changed? Did you drive it daily during that period? Any overheating issues that are the result of air in the system would not have taken two weeks of regular driving to show up IMO.

Are you sure the fans are working?

 

Yup. Changed the pump came with new stat. Worked for 2 months driving daily. Then out of the blue it overheated. I didn't do n e thing and all sudden started working. Stayed working, changes the stat thinking maybe it got stuck that last time,stat looked fine but put a 160 on. Again worked fine for 2 weeks driving daily. Did it again yesterday sat on the side of the road and worked good til I got home. So changed the sensor and put a new cap. Still did it last night. So this morning I followed a step I read above. Unplugged the coolant line from the td let the car run also cap off ran water slowly in the radiator while car was on until water came out the hose of the tb. Drove bout 25 miles to my interview and back total maybe 45 miles and hasn't overheated. But it's filled me b4. Just scratching my head. As far as fans yes they come on. But yesterday they were stubborn for somereason. All the other times when it overheated i would turn the car off and the fans stayed on. And seem to be working now.

 

Oh and kept a Actron old scanner plugged in and it ran the whole time at around 205. Never going more than 230. Gage on dash showed just a hair under the 210 mark. This is with a 160 stat in.

 

OK, I found the t-stat no prob and got it off but i CAN NOT get the t-stat out of the housing !! Is there a trick to this ? Rather than break it, I just put the whole thing back in and did the flush with it in. I got it all done but probably just took a little longer. it's s stock t-stat and housing. Any advice ??

 

I think it is the 01/02 model that have the LS6 style t stat. It's a bitch to get the t stat off the housing, but it does come off. Just use a flat head and push the bracket down (compressing the spring slightly) and eventually it'll come off.

 

Thanks for getting back to me. I thought I was going to mangle or break the damn thing trying to get it separated. I ve decided if it ever needs replacing, I'm getting the t-stat and housing together! ! At least it's easy to get to.

 

Good idea. I'm holding onto my stock housing which I separated from the t stat in order to use for future flushes

 

Old post but did anyone think about the radiator & the air conditioner condenser were caked up with bugs & grim? I've had car/truck just needing a good pressure wash @ a manual car wash.