Flushing coolant, tips?

**Fahrenheit** · 03-12-2012

Im chasing some bugs in my car. I think a coolant flush could help sort some things. I have a question though, my plan to flush is to removal the T-Stat and run 100% water for a few days with some of that flush cleaner. Plan to do it as many times till I get clean water out the rad. Then with a new T-stat put in some fresh 50% 50% and be done. Sound like a good plan? Also how do I bleed the system? And one last question, I see all the anti freeze on the shelfs say can be mixed with anything. I cant seem to find plan green anti freeze anymore (dex cool car from the factory). What should I look for in the stores?

**Fivefingerdeathpunch** · 03-12-2012

i would not remove take the thermostat out and run the car for a few days, sounds like a good way to make things worse.

Just pull the lower rad hose, to drain the coolant. Fill it back up through the LIM with water, put thermo back in
, then run the car till it opens to cycle the water for like 5-10min, then keep doing that untill the water is clear.

Then on the last one, fill the rad and LIM with coolant, any kind, green or yellow, dont matter. put new thermostat in, then run the car up to temp, with the the bleed screw ontop of the thermo housing open about 1-2 turns, wait for all the air bubbbles to come out and just solid coolant stream, it might take a while to completely get the air out.

**bps02gtp** · 03-12-2012

Little advice.

For 2 bucks more u get just a full gallon of antifreeze. Take an empty milk gallon and fill that half way. Pour half the gallon of antifreeze in then the half of galon of water. With the half thing of antifreeze mix it with water and fill that up. Now u have 2 gallons of 50/50 for 10 bucks.

But yeah there's really no point to run ur car with water for a few days. Flush the dexcool out and put the good ol green stuff in there.

**Iceman6669** · 03-12-2012

I just did mine.... I did something like what you wanna do. I drained all the coolant, removed Tstat, and refilled with water. Ran that for about 20 mins or so. Drained and repeated two more times. Then filled just like ^^^ they said too.

**coolone** · 03-12-2012

Just a heads up! But you want to use DISTILLED water when adding/mixing the anti-freeze!

**bps02gtp** · 03-12-2012

says who? never had any problem with good ol tap water. done it on ton of vehicles for years

**tmackster** · 03-12-2012

question about bleeding air out of system. everytime i loosen bleeder valve...i never hear air coming our....can u just unscrew the bleeder valve all the way and then put it on....b/c i thing my bleeder valve may be clogged. idk

**Fivefingerdeathpunch** · 03-12-2012

Originally Posted by tmackster

question about bleeding air out of system. everytime i loosen bleeder valve...i never hear air coming our....can u just unscrew the bleeder valve all the way and then put it on....b/c i thing my bleeder valve may be clogged. idk

You wont hear it. When the car is running and as the coolant passes it and goes back through the thermostat into the block, small amounts of air escape out the hole, once most of the air is gone, coolant will start to bubble out, then solid stream with mainly all the air it out.

**develand** · 03-12-2012

I jsut flushed mine with the green and the car is running liek 10-15 degrees hotter.... is there a correlation from dex to the green stuff?? Also, that 10 degrees pushes my needle a little over the half way mark on the guage.

**bps02gtp** · 03-13-2012

Develand,

Anti-freeze is exactly what it is. It doesn't freeze and it doesn't evaporate so its basically water that anti freezes and doesn't evaporate.

So, the difference between green and dex is that if ur next door neighbor's dog licks the dex it won't die. And dex smells real rotten when its old.

U shouldn't see a temp difference unless u too didn't bleed the air.

**coolone** · 03-15-2012

Originally Posted by bps02gtp

says who? never had any problem with good ol tap water. done it on ton of vehicles for years

First - a few assumptions. One is that most people are not on treated water systems. Therefore the water contains contaminants, i.e., minerals, salts and more. Soooo... even though you might have done a ton of vehicles and noticed no problem. Have you also been with those vehicles over their lifespan?

Anti-freeze is not made when manufactured with TAP water, so why would we assume It's ok otherwise. The minerals, salts and other impurities are akin to taking some dirt and throwing it in the coolant as well. Distilled water contains none. So It's simple. If your not in a pinch, like overheated and need to fill coolant and are going to mix your own anti-freeze, in MY opinion, distilled water is the better choice.
It's a suggestion and by WHO is "me"... Unless for some reason that part was missed in MY original post. The great thing about these forums is that any user can gather a multitude of opinions and make their own decision, thank you very much. But there really is no need for anyone to come off as the End-All answer man by statements such as you've made... i.e., says who???

Anyway... Have a great day!

**NaturallySmashed** · 03-16-2012

what's wrong with the NY tap water??

**Fahrenheit** · 03-17-2012

I have lots of that Dexcool mud, water will be enough to get it out?

**Fivefingerdeathpunch** · 03-17-2012

yes, if you do it a few times.

**bps02gtp** · 03-17-2012

i never attempted to come off as the "end all answer man". i was just wondering says who because i actually want to know who says its so better? GM? Ford? you? other forum ppl? when you do something like This then to me that means its very important and that you cant do it any other way. but you can. so instead of making such an end all statement with such a big font size you should say IMO distilled water is way better than tap and not make it seem like its the end of the world if you do something different. and yes actually i have been with 3 of the many many MANY cars i have done it to and they are all fine. i gurantee that if anything happens to them to where it doesnt run it wont be because of tap water. has anyone had a car go through its life span where tap water hurts?

and when you say most people dont have treated water i assume that u mean they're using well water. all tho i could be wrong i kinda think majority uses city water instead of well. i wouldnt brush my teeth with well water so i kinda hope ppl wouldnt put that dirty crap in their radiator but idk.

so yeah with ppl being able to make their own decision on here based off of peoples opinions it should be because they were informed that there is a right way and a wrong way not a must do because in someones opinion it is better way.

**coolone** · 03-17-2012

Originally Posted by bps02gtp

i never attempted to come off as the "end all answer man". i was just wondering says who because i actually want to know who says its so better? GM? Ford? you? other forum ppl? when you do something like This then to me that means its very important and that you cant do it any other way. but you can. so instead of making such an end all statement with such a big font size you should say IMO distilled water is way better than tap and not make it seem like its the end of the world if you do something different. and yes actually i have been with 3 of the many many MANY cars i have done it to and they are all fine. i gurantee that if anything happens to them to where it doesnt run it wont be because of tap water. has anyone had a car go through its life span where tap water hurts? and when you say most people dont have treated water i assume that u mean they're using well water. all tho i could be wrong i kinda think majority uses city water instead of well. i wouldnt brush my teeth with well water so i kinda hope ppl wouldnt put that dirty crap in their radiator but idk. so yeah with ppl being able to make their own decision on here based off of peoples opinions it should be because they were informed that there is a right way and a wrong way not a must do because in someones opinion it is better way.

No problem... Here's one of the best explanations I could find on the net. I based my statement on something similar I read a very long time ago and can't remember where I did, so this is the next best thing.

Learning Coolant Fundamentals

Again, NYC Tap water is probably the best to drink, lol, but most of us have hard water in various forms. Home water while probably not so bad, if it (your water) is high in the hardness scale and you SOFTEN the water for home use, well then, I would suggest using Distilled water. Especially since most garden hoses are connected prior to the softening system/equipment.

My apologies as well, I wrote that response early in the a.m. and was not a good day, yes even that early. I think It came out worse than I intended.

Regards!