You will have problems due to the thermostat not opening untill operating temp. I drained all i could, filled with water, ran untill stat opened and let water circulate, then repeat. Do this untill no coolant comes out, only straight water.

Then you can put in your favorite scrubber product (like i mentioned above), run for a while, then flush it back to straight water. Drain that out, add 1 gallon dex-cool, top off with water. Run untill operating temp and keep adding water untill it will not take anymore.

The more work you put in, the better your cleaning job will turn out. I used a 2 step cleaning process with the "Cleaner" and then the "Flush", but this is not necessary unless your system is as crapped up as mine was.

 

Thank i plan on doing exactly what you just said because i have some crud in my overflow tank. Where did you drain the system? just open the radiator drain plug or take of the radiator hose?

 

never mix regular green radiator fluid with the new DEX COOL.unless you want junk!pretty sure i was told that DEX cool is silica based and when you mix them it turns into solid like white sand.My buddy works at a garage and occasionaly i help him out we towed a brand new car that was seized up because the guy put green in it only about a half gallon he says it made it about 15 minutes.Do it if you want but I have seen what happens it aint good.

 

I've always had Dex-cool turn to mud in my own cars. This has been with me being the only owner. I am a Honda tech and we have NO problems with our ethylene glycol based coolant. I have switched several of my vehicles to that stuff. It is now blue in color and comes pre-mixed. Every Honda engine is all aluminum, so it will work fine in an LS1.

 

You can completly remove the overflow reservior from the car and clean it out GOOD. Remove the battery, undo the hose from the radiator to the reservior, and yank that badboy.

I put some cleaning **** in it and sloshed it around a whole bunch, then i put my blower nozzle in the cap hole, made a makeshift bushing out of a rag, then blew all that **** out of the hose into a bucket. Got lots of gunk out of there that otherwise would have ended up right back in the system.

I just used the drain plug on the radiator to drain everything. Takes a while, but its easy to close and open. If you take off the radiator cap while you're draining, it helps.

 

There you go, I agree 100%.

Me personally, I'm going to flush my system entirely. I want to try the Evans NPG/NPG+. I've forgetten what the correct type is for our application, but I've got a case of it in my room.

Non-aqueous coolant, that Evans designed for our application. They also offer a high flow water pump.

Before I recommend anything, I'd like to try it first. But it's been highly recommended with factual information and such in most of the magazines. There are a few people on here that run it as well.

 

Where can you find the evan's coolant?

 

I have to replace a water pump gasket soon, and I plan to use the cleaner and flush mentioned ( I work at Advance ), then refill the system with Dexcool. I'm also going to replace the stock coolant reservior with a Jaz recirculating catch can.

FWIW, I worked at a Chevy dealership for a while, and I don't believe that crap about Dexcool going 100k miles, every vehicle I've seen that's had it that long has the "mud" in the system. I flush my stuff every 30k or so, just to be sure. Like it was stated before, coolant is too cheap to not maintain.

Oh, and a bottle of Water Wetter never hurt anything either...

 

i never understood why green would be bad my mechinic asked me why i dont switch to green and i told him cause everyone says the green eat aluminum and the organge is made for it but he was like that makes no sense bmw benz honda lots of companys use aluminum motors and stuff and run green from the factory. so someone please explain this to me. the only thing it seems to equate to me is the orange is suposed to run longer without needing a change and the green needs to be changed more often because it becomes acidic quicker than dex is suposed to. but really we need to change out dex as much as green normally anyway sense it muds up. does this sound right to anyone else

 

ok look...first off anything that hasnt been maintained properly WILL **** up...doesnt matter if its dex cool or not..second for some of u guys that have had problems with the dex cool...draining and FLUSHING or 2 seprate things...3rd for those who have flushed, go to local dealer and purchase the stuff they add to ur radiator as if they were flushin ur vehicle for u and add it while ur flushing...and finally check ur DAMN RADIATOR CAP!!!....that **** will cause dex cool to mud up in heart beat, weather its new or not....o and dont wait to flush that **** at 100,000 miles NOR 5 years...hell i flushed mine at 45k..NO PROBS...it just boils down to basic maintaince fellas....

 

I flushed my 01 Hawk on Sunday. Has 33,200 miles and is right at 5 years since built.

I drained the radiator and disconnected the two heater hoses at the water pump (very easy to reach). I let it drain from there and then I used a garden hose to flush through the heater core. I flushed both ways, what I mean is I sprayed into both hoses for several minutes. I then flushed both inlet/outlet at the pump. Then, I put the radiator drain plug back in and put a finger on one of the pump inlet/outlet tubes and flushed water through on the other tube until it came out clean at the radiator cap hole. I then did the other tube. OK, not done yet. I then pulled the radiator plug and flushed form the cap hole and the pump again. Hell, I even went after the hoses again. I went on the tubes again with everything open as well. I flushed the overflow tank out as well.


The coolant looked like new and there was no crud. I shined a light into the radiator and it looked like new.

I then blew on the hoses for a while until water stoped dribbling out. I then hooked up one hose and blew the block out by closing the drain and putting on the cap. Quite a bit came out of the other pump tube. I reversed the hoses and blew some more. I then pulled the cap abd blew the water out of the overflow tank.

I got under the car and debated pulling the two block drain plugs but decided I did not want to hassle with trying to put them back in while on my back on ramps outside with rain coming.

I filled the system with DexCool/water mix and so far have put almost 10 qts. Manual says 11.6 qts I believe so I feel comfortable I got most of it out. I went 60% coolant to allow for any water still in the block. I used distilled water and premixed the two before pouring in.

I know you are supposed to run when flushing but I saw no reason as it flushed well.

DexCool rocks and and is an excellent product, just don't mix and change more often than me...

As far as European cars, they use a different coolant that contains no phosphates, do your homework and you will see that. I live in Italy and have for 22 years, coolant here is normally blue. Most engines are cast iron block w/alum heads. Water is very hard and the phosphate free coolant is designed for that.

 

When refilling and warming up to purge air, how do you prevent the big burp of coolant flopping out from the radiator neck;
what causes this..., is it the TS opening...?

 

how do you bleed out the air? i used to doing it on my daily driver by loosening the screw on top of the thermostat housing.

 

I just run with heater on for a few warm up cycles and check when cool. A week of this and the air will work out. Unlike some LT-1 engines I have done.