Most Efficient Flushing Sequence

[Scraps]

I feel a need to flush my Ford 5.4l of the water wetter/cheap autozone yellow coolant. I've bought the Prestone flush kit along with two jugs of the cleaner. But the cleaner requires a full rinse of the coolant, then a run with just water.

My questions, is there a way to flush/clean using the current coolant, and then just rinse and refill with a good quality coolant mix.

Thanx.

 

[JHZR2]

Easiest way is to use a suction in the radiator cap opening, suck out the liquid in the radiator, replace with distilled, drive, repeat. After doing it a few times with distilled, then start to add 50/50 of the right stuff, but repeat a few more times.

Anytime I open the draincock for the radiator, or try to flush anything, coolant gets all over. It is not a clean driveway job in my experience.

You could also go to a dealer and get them to do a powerflush... Tht would get it done and complete in short order. Don't forget the value of your time doing this stuff...

 

[Kestas]

Coolant Fluid Exchange

The procedure below is the method I use to thoroughly flush the cooling system for every car I own. It is done on a cold engine. It should be done every 3 years or 30K. You may use shortcuts as appropriate for your situation.

1. Drain fluid
2. Remove the thermostat
3. Reinstall the t-stat housing and upper radiator hose
4. Disconnect upper radiator hose at radiator
5. Flush system with garden hose through upper radiator hose until water runs clear
6. Disconnect heater hoses, open heat valve
7. Flush heater core
8. Flush overflow tank
9. Run engine for a bit during flushing to get the fluid from the water pump and other dead spaces.
10. Drain as much water as possible from cooling system
11. Run a shorter flush with distilled water to displace the tap water.
12. Siphon water from overflow tank
13. Reinstall thermostat
14. Button everything back up
15. Refill cooling system with specified amount of antifreeze, bring up to level with water, preferably distilled. The amount of antifreeze you need can be calculated from the published cooling capacity for your vehicle.
16. Run car, top off coolant
17. Keep adding water as required every morning until system is topped off.

 

[StevieC]

I just take the plug out of my block that lets the coolant out and put the garden hose in the radiator fill neck and let-er-rip. I do this until I only see clear water coming out of the back of the engine.

Then with the garden hose still running and fluid still pouring out of the block I start it up breiefly to get any fluid out of the dead spaces/water pump and then shut if off.

I then empty out the radiator of water without allowing the engine to empty. (Hose disconnected) and then refill the radiator with coolant.

Start up the engine and let it mix. It usually comes out to a 50/50 mix according to my test strips I use. FTR: It usually is a 50/50 mix for most cars when this is done this way.

My water is filtered R.O. well water that is why I can use the garden hose without worry. (IMO)

Run it until the thermostat opens and the bubbles come out of the radiator and put the cap back on.

Call it a day! (I do this every 2 years)

 

[J. A. Rizzo]

Originally Posted By: StevieC
My water is filtered R.O. well water that is why I can use the garden hose without worry. (IMO)


That must be one heckuva RO system if the entire house water system runs through it. Does this mean if you water the yard, the grass gets to drink RO water? Seems pretty expensive, especially considering the mineral levels likely to be present in well water. Those systems are usually low-flow drinking water/ice maker systems.

If it truly is hooked up to the hose faucet, that water should be fine for a cooling system or refilling regular (non-maintenance-free) lead-acid batteries. If the hose is not hooked up to the RO system and just filtered with a sediment and/or carbon filter, that water will still be heavy with minerals and should not be used for batteries or cooling systems. It won't be catastrophic (probably) but could lead to buildup of crusty mineral deposits through the system. (or on the plates in the case of a battery)

Distilled water would be the ideal solution, but if high-flow RO water truly is available, it's almost as good, followed by carbon-filtered water that's been run through a softener that recently regenerated.

 

[StevieC]

My folks live in the country on a 2 acre property so the grass gets watered only when it rains.

The R.O. unit is a small unit but we have it connected to a huge storage tank in the basement that is 6ft high and about 3 feet wide and it stores the water and has a booster pump that kicks in when flow is detected.

The R.O. unit came with like a 2 gallon tank that kept running out when we would go to fill pots or water jugs and then you had to wait forever to get water. So of-course dad and I had to "Over-do-it" and we got the big arse tank I spoke about above...

The garden hose can be switched from R.O. water to regular softened, U.V. light treated, carbon filtered, iron removed water or the R.O. water tank by flipping a toggle valve in the Garage between 2 water supplies.

The Garage is closely located to this storage tank so we did this for ease of having R.O. water in the garage for watering dad's tomato plants and such in the green-house which normally would shrivel/die with softened water as we found out the first year they moved in.

We also did it for radiator flushes etc. to have the best water we could since my dad is a mechanic and still does lots of work to keep active.

 

[Drew99GT]

I use the Kestas method. The key is removing the thermostat and reinstalling the thermostat housing. That way you get max flow through the system.

 

[JHZR2]

which while really being the right method, sure is difficult in many applications where there is tight underhood space. Even if just once every three years, it still can be a good amount of work.

More power to those who do it.

For me, keeping the radiator clean and the chemistry topped up seems to work well enough to give good longevity. But the real, kestas method surely is best.

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:
Anytime I open the draincock for the radiator, or try to flush anything, coolant gets all over. It is not a clean driveway job in my experience.


Main reason I use PG/LOWTOX/SIERRA coolant. You can avoid the mess (other than wet), by using the garden hose taps that Prestone sells. You then just put the garden hose in the top of the rad and another garden hose run to the appropriate drain. Regular AF is allowed in my municipal waste water drains.

After it's clear, then the rad petcock can be opened without a mess that needs to be cleaned up.

It appears to take an incredible volume of water to produce a clear discharge from the engine. Even one with a relatively small coolant capacity and even if you initially drain the higher concentration fluid before starting the flush.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Completely flushing the radiator is so easy with Prestone T-flush. Open the radiator petcock, remove the radiator cap, remove the reservoir cap and connect the garden hose to the T-flush, after 2-3 minutes all coolant in the engine is flushed. Let the water drain from the radiator petcock until it stop, close the radiator petcock and add 1/2 coolant capacity with concentrate coolant to the T-flush.

 

[JHZR2]

Thing is, Ive found that if Im just trying to flush the radiator (not the whole system), that inserting the hose in the radiator neck and opening the petcock at the bottom does a pretty decent job by itself.

Ive heard horror stories about those prestone systems cracking and causing leaks, etc.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Thing is, Ive found that if Im just trying to flush the radiator (not the whole system), that inserting the hose in the radiator neck and opening the petcock at the bottom does a pretty decent job by itself.

Ive heard horror stories about those prestone systems cracking and causing leaks, etc.


I do like the procedure posted by Kestas, and that's basically what I do on my old F-150. There's plenty of room to work on everything, it has a petcock, the heater hoses are all easy to get to, and so forth. Obviously, other people aren't so lucky with some vehicles. My Audi isn't bad, but it's not as easy by a long stretch.

I've used those fittings in the past without any problems. I do, however, agree with what you say. Long term high temperatures won't do those fittings any favours. Secondly, I'm always a little unnerved by adding extra joints (and potentials for leaks) in any cooling system. Also, if I am being picky and wanting to use RO water, well, there's a pile of tap water that has to be flushed after using those fittings.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Thing is, Ive found that if Im just trying to flush the radiator (not the whole system), that inserting the hose in the radiator neck and opening the petcock at the bottom does a pretty decent job by itself.

Ive heard horror stories about those prestone systems cracking and causing leaks, etc.


My '94 LS400 and '00 E430 do not have radiator cap, the only cap is on the reservoir/expansion tank.

I used Prestone T-flush on many cars for more than 20 years and never had any crack with the T-flush at all.

I did have some coolant leaks over the years, they were mostly from heater hoses buy not around the T-flush.

The only problem with T-flush is you will have tap water in the engine, since I don't mind tap water in my coolant system, it is perfectly and easy for me to flush my coolant every 2-3 years in LS400 and E430.

 

[rslifkin]

On my Jeep, I can simply drain the radiator and disconnect the heater return line where it connects to a hard metal line, hold it up, stick a funnel in and pour water through until it runs clear out the radiator drain. It feeds backwards through the heater core and down through the engine block, and out the water pump and lower rad hose into the radiator.

 

[PW01]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Completely flushing the radiator is so easy with Prestone T-flush. Open the radiator petcock, remove the radiator cap, remove the reservoir cap and connect the garden hose to the T-flush, after 2-3 minutes all coolant in the engine is flushed. Let the water drain from the radiator petcock until it stop, close the radiator petcock and add 1/2 coolant capacity with concentrate coolant to the T-flush.


That has always worked for me!