a tee in the heater hose to flush

[Donald]

Years ago when you could fit one in, I would buy the little kit from Prestone, that had a tee and a garden hose adapter and a spout to flush the system. Is this still a good way to flush the system assuming I can fit it in? Or better to bring it to my friendly shop and have them do the flush?

My Suburban has a front and rear heater core, are there any tricks to making sure they both get flushed? There is a tee in both the supply and return heater lines under the hood to feed both heater cores. Unsure if there are any one way valves tn the plumbing.

 

[Crashbox]

I've got 'em in my '75 Dart and my '77 Chevy pickup- the Prestone tee thingies are OK in my opinion. I like to open the radiator petcock and adjust the hose flow to equal the discharge from the petcock, begin with engine cool and idling after I have the correct flow.

However, antifreeze on the ground is not environmentally-friendly and ethylene glycol is quite toxic to mammals such as dogs. Yeah, I still do it but I hose down the area real good after I'm done. Too bad I don't have some Bitrex to spray down the glycolized solution with.

Just my 0.02-

 

[Russell]

I thought about putting a tee in my bmw. However, it has a second water pump to keep the flow to the heater high while idling. Not sure how if a tee would work. Instead, I first drained the radiator (disposed the old coolant properly) and filled it with distilled water and Prestone engine cleaner. The type you drive 3 to 6 hours and then drain.

Next I drained the block and radiator and poured the old antifreeze down the sanitary sewer. its ok in my area. I then flushed out the system with distilled water. Again pouring the old coolant/water down the drain.

I then flushed it one more time with distilled water and resealed block and radiator and refilled with 50/50 Zerek G05 and distilled water. Just my experience.

 

[beanoil]

The tee is fine for flushing. IMO it is not for long term though. Every one I've ever left in began to leak coolant at the screw cap. Now I insert the tee for flushing, and replace it with the proper size brass hose barb when done.