I have a 2000 trans am and am kind of new to the radiator flush thing. What is the best way to flush the system out properly and also I’m using Zerex G05 coolant. My next question is do I need to mix it with distilled water? I live in Florida and it’s mainly hot here throughout every season.

 

 

https://ls1tech.com/how-tos/a/camaro...coolant-418006

 

ALWAYS used distilled water when blending with coolant

 

My write-up:

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

-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))
-Let the entire radiator drain out.
-Take a hose and stick it in the radiator fill neck, running on medium.
-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 its real durty, or you have some power steering fluid in the cooling system, you can wait till it runs clear, close the drain valve, add some degreaser (1 quart) and let it run for 15 minutes circulating through the engine, then let it sit for a couple hours. Drain it all again. Then open the drain valve again and put the hose in for about 15 minutes run it all out till its CLEAR. No foamy water should remain...if its still foamy, keep rinsing. The degreaser will help break up the crap thats stuck DEEP in the BLOCK that sits and swirls and doesn't like to come out.)) Formula 88 is good, it won't hurt aluminum.
-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 separate 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. Or just buy a new piece of 3/8” heater hose and replace that line, 3 feet will do, then cut to fit. 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 petcock drain valve back in. Use the new one, what the hell.
-Put half a jug of coolant in...or whatever you want to put in there.
-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. 20 years with my LS engines, never used distilled water. Systems have always been clean like new.

**Bleeding the system of air:
Start it up from a COLD state, and let it run, radiator cap OFF. Let it warm up till the t-stat opens. I rapidly squeeze the upper and lower radiator hose like 20 times while its warming up to help move any air bubbles through the system and get by the t-stat on the engine side. When the t-stat opens you’ll see the coolant level drop, its sucking the coolant through the system. You will also see the coolant start to flow in the radiator fill neck from the small cross-over line in the filler neck, once it starts to flow the level should drop down a lot, immediately top it off with coolant/water. Then the flow will stop when the t-stat closes. 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.

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In order to fully "flush" the coolant out, you have to open everything up.

The factory procedure is to:
- Drain the radiator
- Remove and drain the overflow tank
- Disconnect the heater core and drain those two lines
- Open up the two coolant galleys on either side of the engine block and drain those (HALF of the coolant lies here!)

^ This will get all the old stuff out, vs. circulating it through the system and letting some of it avoid the drain ****.

This thread helps in finding the two drain plugs on the block: (they area a real PITA) https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...k-coolant.html

 

I need to do this, but I'm afraid my neighbors would hate me if I left my loud car running for 20 minutes outside their window :

 

Regularly flushing the coolant system is just as critical to longevity as regular oil changes.

 

If you do it the way GM instructs, you hardly need to run the car at all...

 

I've searched around and found this. Is this what you are referring to?

 

No, below is the procedure for the late model F Body. You will notice that this is extremely lacking in diagrams and descriptions. The thread I posted above will help with the missing pieces and details around where the engine block plugs are.

We've also found that in order to get all the coolant out, one (in addition to this procedure!) needs to disconnect the two heater core lines and drain those, too.

 

Thanks a lot for that info!

 

You can also just do simple drain and refills. An $11 gallon jug of straight DexCool will get you 2 drain and fills and about a 75% flush. When I got my car in 2012 it had never had the coolant changed. And the system wasn't gunked up. So if it can handle that.....a few radiator/lower system drains and fills every 3-5 yrs should be fine. My car only has 19K miles with good hoses. I'd prefer not to take apart original factory connections for that extra 25%. On a car where you are planning on doing hoses and/or thermostat anyways, then certainly do a full level flush.

 

Build yourself two "Quiet Boxes". Home Depot. $40.00 worth of supplies. Wooden boxes about 2 foot x 2 foot cubes. 1/4" plywood. Buy some cheap hose that runs from your exhaust pipes to the boxes. Aluminum flexi hose. Clamp them on the tail pipes and run them to the TOP of the boxes so the exhaust points downward into the boxes. Put a baffle or two inside the box for better silencing so the exhaust has to travel further to reach the exit ports. Then the boxes need some holes (exit ports) around the bottom perimeter of the box to let the exhaust out.

My friends has these and the car is almost silent from 20-30 feet away. If you want them almost 100% silent....make two more boxes and allow the first two boxes to then run into the second two boxes with about 6 feet of the same aluminum hose connecting them.

Make them with hinges so they fold down flat. You can store them easily anywhere. The hoses are like a slinky, you can fit them into a shoe box. My friend did this about 10 years ago, I use them all the time when I work on my car at his house because he has neighbors that would absolutely call the cops if we left our cars idling for more than 10 minutes.

When he runs his little Honda generator when we have parties at his house he uses the same two boxes and wraps them around his generator....can hardly hear the exhaust pipe of the generator. It just muffles the sound and bounces the sound waves straight upward to the sky.

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