Did I flush the cooling system enough?
06-01-2010, 10:55 AM
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Did I flush the cooling system enough? Well I added in some dexcool after my head swap to my car without thinking about mixing coolants since my neighbor, previous owner, switched it over to the green coolant. It has only been mixed togethor for a day.
I removed the thermostat and flushed it through the top small coolant tube until it was coming out pretty clear and did the same with the radiator until it was perfectly clear. The reservoir only has dexcool in it also. The coolant remaining in the bottom of the block and the heaters is most likely mainly orange dexcool also so would I be fine just filling it back up with dexcool now?
I removed the thermostat and flushed it through the top small coolant tube until it was coming out pretty clear and did the same with the radiator until it was perfectly clear. The reservoir only has dexcool in it also. The coolant remaining in the bottom of the block and the heaters is most likely mainly orange dexcool also so would I be fine just filling it back up with dexcool now?
06-01-2010, 11:22 AM
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Take thermostat out of houseing and put housing back together. No gasket is fine. Leave plug out of bottom of rad. Put house in top of rad, turn on house, start engine. Let run for 15 min or longer. Up to you. Or until water is crystal clear. Let drain, put back together and fill. Some will complain this is bad using hose water.
06-01-2010, 11:34 AM
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Just filled it completely with water and let it run for a couple minutes and drained it again and it was clear, couldn't really see a orange tint. I'll try taking out the thermostat too though. Thanks.
06-01-2010, 02:58 PM
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Take thermostat out of houseing and put housing back together. No gasket is fine. Leave plug out of bottom of rad. Put house in top of rad, turn on house, start engine. Let run for 15 min or longer. Up to you. Or until water is crystal clear. Let drain, put back together and fill. Some will complain this is bad using hose water.
This is my method also. . . . Next time though after running hose water I think I will run through a few botles of distilled.
06-02-2010, 11:23 AM
#7
It takes alot of flushing to clean out the block completely. The crap and dirt rolls around in parts of the block and sometimes won't come out, thats why some people pull the pluigs out of the block to do it. If you let it run for 30 minutes you'll pretty much get it all out, depending on whats in there. PS fluid or tranny fluid in the cooling system is HELL to get out, it rolls in the turbulence in the block and doesn't want to come out. It took me forever to get it all out when I had those fluids in there.
Its really hard to get all the crap out with the stock petcock drain, most of the dirt and crap goes right by that little thing, keeps flowing through the system, and it will never get flushed out.
I have a large drain that I put on my radiator, it drains fluid almost as fast as my hose sprays it in, its hard for anything to get by it.
I do this:
-Cold engine.
-Remove radiator fill cap.
-Remove the t-stat from the housing. Leave the housing attached to the rubber radiator hose, just remove the 2 housing bolts and pull it away from the water to pump to get to 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 the valve itself. It'll drain faster with it off and that’s what you want. ((Buy a new petcock valve before starting this flush process, sometimes they break when you remove them all the way just because they're cheap plastic and they get briddle over time, they're like $2.00))
-Take a hose and stick it in the radiator fill cap, running medium to high.
-Start the engine.
-Turn heat on full blast
-Let it run for about 15-20 minutes or until the water is running out the drain CLEAR.
-((If you want to, you can wait till it runs clear, close the drain valve, add a bottle of radiator flush and let it run for 15 minutes, then drain it all again. Then open the drain and put the hose in for about 5 minutes run it all out till its CLEAR. The flush chemical will help break up the crap thats stuck DEEP in there.))
-When it runs clear your entire system is clean.
-Remove the overflow reservoir from the car and clean it out real good. (I had to use gasoline to clean mine out because the sludge and grime was so thick inside. The gas broke it all down and then it flushed right out. I filled it about 1/3 up with gasoline and shook the hell out of it real vigorously, the black stuff kept coming out. I did that like 4 seperate times with gasoline till no more chunks of black crap came out. Make sure the lines that go to the reservoir are also cleaned out. My sludge came from my power steering fluid leaking into my coolant system.)
-Put the t-stat back in.
-Put the overflow reservoir 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. I rapidly squeeze the upper radiator hose like 20 times while its warming up to help move any air bubbles through the system and by the t-stat on the engine side. You’ll see the level drop as you squeeze it, its sucking the coolant through the system. You wioll soon see the coolant start to flow in the radiator fill neck, once it starts to flow the level should drop down alot, 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 hose during the whole process to keep any air bubbles moving through. Always works like a charm. Just keep checking your temp gauge until the t-stat opens for the first time to make sure it’s not sitting there 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 the upper and lower radiator hoses again. Then start the engine again and see if the t-stat will open. Sometimes you just have to work those hoses to move the air through. Even after it seems topped off after a couple cycles…check it the next time you have a cold engine…top off if needed.
.
Its really hard to get all the crap out with the stock petcock drain, most of the dirt and crap goes right by that little thing, keeps flowing through the system, and it will never get flushed out.
I have a large drain that I put on my radiator, it drains fluid almost as fast as my hose sprays it in, its hard for anything to get by it.
I do this:
-Cold engine.
-Remove radiator fill cap.
-Remove the t-stat from the housing. Leave the housing attached to the rubber radiator hose, just remove the 2 housing bolts and pull it away from the water to pump to get to 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 the valve itself. It'll drain faster with it off and that’s what you want. ((Buy a new petcock valve before starting this flush process, sometimes they break when you remove them all the way just because they're cheap plastic and they get briddle over time, they're like $2.00))
-Take a hose and stick it in the radiator fill cap, running medium to high.
-Start the engine.
-Turn heat on full blast
-Let it run for about 15-20 minutes or until the water is running out the drain CLEAR.
-((If you want to, you can wait till it runs clear, close the drain valve, add a bottle of radiator flush and let it run for 15 minutes, then drain it all again. Then open the drain and put the hose in for about 5 minutes run it all out till its CLEAR. The flush chemical will help break up the crap thats stuck DEEP in there.))
-When it runs clear your entire system is clean.
-Remove the overflow reservoir from the car and clean it out real good. (I had to use gasoline to clean mine out because the sludge and grime was so thick inside. The gas broke it all down and then it flushed right out. I filled it about 1/3 up with gasoline and shook the hell out of it real vigorously, the black stuff kept coming out. I did that like 4 seperate times with gasoline till no more chunks of black crap came out. Make sure the lines that go to the reservoir are also cleaned out. My sludge came from my power steering fluid leaking into my coolant system.)
-Put the t-stat back in.
-Put the overflow reservoir 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. I rapidly squeeze the upper radiator hose like 20 times while its warming up to help move any air bubbles through the system and by the t-stat on the engine side. You’ll see the level drop as you squeeze it, its sucking the coolant through the system. You wioll soon see the coolant start to flow in the radiator fill neck, once it starts to flow the level should drop down alot, 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 hose during the whole process to keep any air bubbles moving through. Always works like a charm. Just keep checking your temp gauge until the t-stat opens for the first time to make sure it’s not sitting there 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 the upper and lower radiator hoses again. Then start the engine again and see if the t-stat will open. Sometimes you just have to work those hoses to move the air through. Even after it seems topped off after a couple cycles…check it the next time you have a cold engine…top off if needed.
.
