Taking forever to flush radiator...wait til tomorrow okay?

[Chuck1986]

I've been draining and refilling my radiator all afternoon/evening and I still can not get "pure" water as a drainage product! I've gone through about 8-10 gallons of distilled water and the stuff still comes out a little green. I've been putting the water in there, running the heater on high for five minutes, draining, and repeating. The car only has an 8.5 quart coolant capacity, so I don't know why it's taking so long.

Can I drive around tonight and tomorrow with mostly water in the system and just finish the job tomorrow afternoon?

 

[eljefino]

absolutely.

Also you can remove the thermostat to speed the exchange up in your driveway flush. I'd leave the thermostat in for driving around though.

 

[Chuck1986]

Thanks for the advice...another question: Does the fill/drain/re-fill method have the potential to get dangerous air pockets trapped in the system? Could this potentially lead to a cracked head gasket if an air pocket got trapped there?

For what it's worth, after each of today's drain/re-fills, the heater has worked perfectly and the coolant temp gauge is staying right where it should be. Does this mean I'm staying "outta the woods"?

 

[gfcrane]

I flushed my Ranger five times in a few hours and it was still slightly green tinted. I then calculated that a little over 3% of the original antifreeze was still in the radiator. If you drain and fill, it is simply not possible to remove 100% of the old stuff, even with an infinite amount of flushes. I figured 3% was "close enough" since I didn't have forever and would have had to go out and buy more distilled water.

 

[Chuck1986]

Makes sense Gfcrane, thanx for pointing that out.

But now I'm still having just a lil anxiety over air pockets in the cooling system, since this is my first time doing this. Is there anything I can do to ensure this is not the case? My particular concern is over an air pocket on the head gasket, which could cause it to overheat and crack. That would suck!

 

[Buford T. Justice]

http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=37;t=000597

 

[Chris Meutsch]

I just changed out the factory coolant on my '01 Civic and did the dilution method. Drained and filled about 5 times, with a small bit of green still in there when I put the PEAK Global amber in. The key to getting out the air is to let it run with the cap off, and watch the radiator levels drop as it runs. That means the air is finding its way out. Once you keep filling it and it's running, and it won't take another drop, it's full. Go drive and leave it overnight. Check it in the morning and if cold and at the top of the radiator, you're fine. My gauge reads about 10 degrees cooler now and I have no worries about any air.

 

[IslaVistaMan]

Chris, grab some of the Honda Type II "blue" 50-50 pre-mix next time -- no need to go to all that trouble.

First drain, then fill, run the motor 'till warm, drain again and let cool off, and finally, re-fill. You're done.

FWIW (and I know your car is a Honda), Toyota actually recommends using their 50-50 pink stuff for flushing the coolant system -- no raw water, distilled or otherwise, is to be used.

 

[Chris Meutsch]

Not at $13 a gallon. I talked with other Honda owners and the PEAK Global is also an OAT coolant, which is Honda compatible. And it comes in a concentrate.

 

[1sttruck]

"Toyota actually recommends using their 50-50 pink stuff for flushing the coolant system -- no raw water, distilled or otherwise, is to be used."

This is how I flush, just buy twice as much and use one 50/50 fill for a flush. The coolant being drained as well as what's being flushed always look fine. I guess if the cooling system is all scaled up, full of rust and Barrs leak fix, it makes sense to try to flush it with water until it doesn't look like some industrial waste stream. Then use a 60/40 coolant/water mix to fill to avoid excessive dilution from remaining water.

 

[Gary Allan]

I've never used, or heard of, using distilled water before coming here. I've just drained the coolant cold ..filled with water (right out of the hose) cold ..started engine with the cap off and when the thermostat opened ..open the petcock and hung the hose in the still open rad opening ..and regulated the flow. I use LOWTOX so I can feel okay about the mess.

If I wanted to use distilled water, I'd buy a few extra gallons and purge the tap water (replacing the hose make up). After the 5 gallons (or whatever) went through, I'd then allow to drain and add my coolant. I like 1sttruck's 60/40 mix to balance any H2O residuals in the block.

Maybe I'm just lucky. Our river water always appears to have a hardness under 10 ppm.

These engines aren't boilers, folks. They typically have NO makeup water added to them ever. How much scale can really be attributed to the tap water?? Now if I was using the well water at my former plant ..with a hardness of 180ppm ..that might be a different story.

 

[Tosh]

quote:

---

Originally posted by IslaVistaMan:
First drain, then fill, run the motor 'till warm, drain again and let cool off, and finally, re-fill. You're done.

FWIW (and I know your car is a Honda), Toyota actually recommends using their 50-50 pink stuff for flushing the coolant system -- no raw water, distilled or otherwise, is to be used.

---

If I sold a product, I would also try to get away with recommending buying twice as much as needed and pouring half of it down the drain unused. I would like to personally see that wasteful Toyota recommendation.

 

[1sttruck]

"If I sold a product, I would also try to get away with recommending buying twice as much as needed and pouring half of it down the drain unused."

I think that I paid $5 a gallon for the Prestone extended service coolant on sale, and it's not being dumped 'unused', it's being used as a flush. $5 for a flush every 30k miles ? Most people probably spend that more than that every two to four weeks for car wash, and might spend that much in gas driving to the car wash :^)

 

[1sttruck]

If the Prestone coolant we labeled 'Zaino radiator flush' and cost $25 people would think it was a good deal.