How does Dexcool work? I hae flushed older GM cars and trucks with the green stuff that you mix 50/50 with water but I have never touched the newer Dexcool/pink stuff. Do you still drain the radiator and flush with the garden hose and then refill with 100% dexcool or mix 50/50 with water? What is the best way to do a flush at home? It is on a 2002 Camaro and 2003 Silverado. Thank you!
Flushing a Dexcool system???
- Thread starter Chris B.
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Some have had problems, but I've used the Prestone version of this for 7 years in my Jeep w/ no problems at all. Of course, I change it every year or two.
Easiest way at home is to buy the Prestone flush kit. If you don't want to, just drain your radiator by opening the petcock at the bottom. Fill with distilled water and run the engine until hot, with the heater on High. Drain again, and do this until you get only clear water out of it.. At some point, measure how much comes out. If you have a 12 quart system and 6 quarts come out, you know there are 6 more quarts still in there, so add 6 quarts of 100% coolant to make a 50% solution.
Easiest way at home is to buy the Prestone flush kit. If you don't want to, just drain your radiator by opening the petcock at the bottom. Fill with distilled water and run the engine until hot, with the heater on High. Drain again, and do this until you get only clear water out of it.. At some point, measure how much comes out. If you have a 12 quart system and 6 quarts come out, you know there are 6 more quarts still in there, so add 6 quarts of 100% coolant to make a 50% solution.
Chris,
Most coolants come in a concentrate that you mix yourself, or as a pre-mix, which is normally 50/50 coolant/water. Dexcool is used in the same proportions as the normal green stuff.
To flush, the easiest way is to drain and refill with plain water and repeat the drain and refill till the water is clear, as Mark said.
This is OK for newer systems. Older, dirty, systems may need some sort of mechanical/chemical flush.
Dexcool long life protection will be compromised if it is contaminated with the green stuff.
Dave
[ December 01, 2003, 05:21 PM: Message edited by: DavoNF ]
Most coolants come in a concentrate that you mix yourself, or as a pre-mix, which is normally 50/50 coolant/water. Dexcool is used in the same proportions as the normal green stuff.
To flush, the easiest way is to drain and refill with plain water and repeat the drain and refill till the water is clear, as Mark said.
This is OK for newer systems. Older, dirty, systems may need some sort of mechanical/chemical flush.
Dexcool long life protection will be compromised if it is contaminated with the green stuff.
Dave
[ December 01, 2003, 05:21 PM: Message edited by: DavoNF ]
Chris,
I flushed by draining, filling with water and flush mix and running engine for 10 minutes. After flush mix, I rinsed by leaving petcock off and flushing system with garden hose on high for 5 minutes. To date I've had zero problems and my heater works better than it ever has. By the way, do have your heater on high while doing all procedures.
Good Luck,
Scotto
I flushed by draining, filling with water and flush mix and running engine for 10 minutes. After flush mix, I rinsed by leaving petcock off and flushing system with garden hose on high for 5 minutes. To date I've had zero problems and my heater works better than it ever has. By the way, do have your heater on high while doing all procedures.
Good Luck,
Scotto
If your truck has a sealed overflow then yes (is your radiator pressure cap on the overflowe tank) If it traditional (pressure cap on radiator itself), then you'll have to remove the overflow and rain manually. Regardless of the system type, you will not get all the coolent out of the engine block by simpling fillinf the radiator with water and running that and then draining. The best way is to remove the thermostat and reintall the stat housing, then open the petcock in the rad, and idle the engine and keep the level in the radiator mostly full with garden hose. Do this for a while until clear fuid runs from the petcock, and also do this with heater on high. Another way is to remove upper rad. hose and jam your garden hose in the inlet of radiator where upper hose entered. Install cap on radiator and run garden hose full blast with engine idling. That will for sure push 100% of the fluid out of the engine block. If you do it that way, be sure to add straight coolent to the system when refilling, an amount that is haalf the total system capacity, because there will only be water left in the engine block. Then top off the rest with pure distilled water.
on my 01 Silverado w/ 8.1L draining the radiator also drained the preasurized tank, the radiator drain valve was on the lower left (drivers side) corner of the radiator, it already had a drain hoes attached and was stowed pointing up the side tank of the radiator
there were 2 drain plugs and a block heater blank in the block, I needed large metric internal hex (Allen) drivers, removing those gets most of the coolant out of the block, that only leaves the coolant in the heater core
my system was 2 years old and had no junk or problems (I was draining early to prevent future problems) so I just drained and refilled with dexcool and distilled water no flushing I did not want to introduce clorine and minerals from tap water into a clean system
there were 2 drain plugs and a block heater blank in the block, I needed large metric internal hex (Allen) drivers, removing those gets most of the coolant out of the block, that only leaves the coolant in the heater core
my system was 2 years old and had no junk or problems (I was draining early to prevent future problems) so I just drained and refilled with dexcool and distilled water no flushing I did not want to introduce clorine and minerals from tap water into a clean system
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