How much coolant is lost when heads are removed?
Thread Starter
Launching!
Joined: Apr 2015
Posts: 257
Likes: 1
How much coolant is lost when heads are removed? I'm just starting a head/cam swap and I'd like to know how much coolant will leak out when the heads are removed. I've become an ardent reader on this site and I've printed the head/cam swap instructions from LS1HowTo. I will have drained the radiator and removed the water pump and hoses by the time I take the heads off. Shouldn't be much coolant left but in the top of the engine but never having done this job, I don't know what to expect. Many posts mention the importance of removing all coolant from the head bolt holes, so I'm guessing some coolant remains in the heads until they are removed. Will this be a flood or a trickle?
Thanks so much!
Thanks so much!
Thread Starter
Launching!
Joined: Apr 2015
Posts: 257
Likes: 1
This should work This is not an original idea, but I put this together to blow the holes out. The straw is just a little too small for the nozzle, so I dipped it in boiling water and coaxed it onto the nozzle. Once cooled, the straw makes a tight connection with the end of the nozzle and it's easily replaced if it blows off after some use. Using more info I learned here, I'll make a thread chaser from one of the old head bolts. Used together these two should work well enough! Thanks again for the replies!
TECH Addict
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,305
Likes: 126
From: Monroe,NY
I taped a straw to my shop vac so all the suction was working through the straw and had all my bolt holes dry in 10 minutes. I thought I had most of my coolant out but when I pulled my heads the back of the block(because of the tilt of the engine) still had a good amount of fluid. If I was to do it again I would take my shop vac and suck as much coolant out through the water pump holes as possible. I forgot to do that before I pulled the heads.
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I used a plastic tote from Walmart and positioned it the best I could under each side the best I could to catch as much as possible. Worked pretty decent but some still spilled onto the floor.