Thread: First Coolant Flush How To

Okay guys, I have looked it up a bunch but I have found a million different ways to do this. So this is how I was gonna go about it... How does it sound?

1. Open radiator cap

2. Drain radiator via drain plug at bottom of radiator

3. Take off tstat housing and take out tstat

4. Replace radiator cap, keep drain plug open.

5. Using a garden hose with a rag to create seal, place it in the opening in the engine block (where tstat was) and spray until clear water comes out of the radiator drain plug.

6. Put new thermostat in (180* for me) with new gasket and replace housing

7. Close drain plug.

8.Open radiator cap and fill with water. Then close cap

9. Run the car for 30 seconds then drain water via plug.

10. Repeat steps 8 & 9 a few times to ensure clean flush.

11. After final drain, refill radiator with water. Run car until tstat opens and water level drops. Fill radiator to top with green coolant concentrate. Run again and repeat.

12. Bleed system via bleeder screw on housing

this is a lot easier .

how to flush coolant.


remove the t stat, put the t stat housing back on, take the upper hose off the radiator, then push it down to the ground to a bucket or let it fly.


get your garden hose out, put it in the rad turn it on, then fire up the car, let it run till clear water pumps out the top hose.


then turn the hose off, run the car till no more water comes out the upper hose. then turn it off.


put your t stat back in, with new gasket, the upper hose back on.





now take 1 gallon of full strength green antifreeze, not the 50/50 crap. ( parts store cheap green is fine to use) dump the whole gallon in the radiator, fire up the car, fill the rad with hose water till its full. top as needed till its ready to be bled of air. it will burp and take coolant as the water in the block warms up the t stat opens up for a few seconds till cold coolant hits it and it shuts again.


now to bleed the air out, let it idle rad cap off till the fans turn on, (when the fans are on the temp is over 195 deg, the t stat is wide open) then open the bleeder screw on top the t stat housing a few turns till a steady stream of coolant comes out the hole, shut the screw, top off the rad. cap it.


done.

Thanks Scotty, my only question is how do I remove the tstat housing without getting coolant everywhere? Won't there be fluid in the upper hose?

very little will come, and your flushing it out any ways, expect a bit of a mess.

Originally Posted by Dadkota

Thanks Scotty, my only question is how do I remove the tstat housing without getting coolant everywhere? Won't there be fluid in the upper hose?

If your lucky, your thermostat will stick the housing and virtually nothing will come out. Make sure your car is cold though so there is no pressure. If there is pressure, coolant will pool out from the LIM. And like Scotty said, hardly anything comes out of the upper hose as is.

Oh and don't be surprised if the drain plug breaks. They get brittle and break off.

why my how to says nothing about the drain plug, f that thing.

It is easiest to just pull the hose off rather than the drain plug, OP.

its easier to follow my how to and touch one hose. the upper one.

screw the lower hose, and the drain plug.

If there is a bit of pressure, what will happen? Lol but I'm gonna follow your instructions Scotty

If there is only a little bit of pressure, only a little bit will pool out. But like what Scotty said, why does it matter? Your gonna make a huge mess anyway.

open the rad cap first, start out with a cold engine too. why get burnt with hot coolant when it flys every where?

parts store has it, they are about 2 bucks most of the time. they also sell a rubber ring that fits around the rim of the t stat, those do go bad. you wont know its bad till its in your hand tho. mine looked like someone smeared rtv around the t stat lol that melted up.

universal coolant. or use dex, it dont matter any more, they fixed the issues with dex.

a lot of use just use the green stuff and dont give a crap lol iirc its cheaper, and im cheap. lol

the t stat you can reuse, why spent 10 bucks to replace a working part? stick with the 195 too.

when i got the new gasket at autozone, i got a habit of looking at the screen with the guy. im like wtf is that? and he zoomed in on it. its in the same section as the gasket in their pc there.

what its real name is, idk lol

if the old one is good still re use it. nothing wrong with that at all. unless its trashed like mine was.