PDA

View Full Version : Coolant flush writeup



Chevyguy
11-12-2011, 02:29 PM
Went to flush out the coolant in the Marauder today. It has 73K not sure if it was ever done so part of my winter preperations I go at it..

I first looked up the coolant fill procedure on a 4V Cobra on my 2001 Service CD. Very sparse writeup. OK fill thought the crossover, I had cracked that loose earlier in the year just to make sure it was not stuck. Remove crossover plug and pressure cap, open drain. Not much comes out :alone:

Fill it with water start her up, I did not burp it all that well as I had opened the expansion tank at one point. Did not get hot for a while, but it was cold overnight. Drained it out and waited for it to cool some then found this article

http://reischeperformance.com/refill.html

So good thing I shut it down, did have heat but some air no doubt was in there.

Drain and fill via method, works much better, thermostat opens very quickly this time. Drain and fill again, feed some water through the funnel with the drain open. Shut it off, drain and fill and add flush solution. Now I have pushed 5 gallons of water through the engine and ponder... crap I normally flush clean with water then drain the system and get at least 2 gallons, now I get less than a gallon I am screwed:censor:

Ponder the system more DUH gotta remove the thermostat to allow the engine to drain as well!! Plus I did get a Motorcraft thermostat and O ring from the dealer but was maybe going to wait till I did the coolant mod in the spring.

So drove around some to let the flush work let it cool for a bit..Drove Fine never got hot plenty of heat etc.. Drained the radiator again, unbolted the thermostat.. about a gallon and a half came out
:burnout: Put in new stat Filled it up, took over 2 gallons this time :banana2:

Flushed through another 5 gallons letting it cool now and will loosen up the thermostat housing again and let it drain the engine out.

The famous burp method works so good with squeezing the upper hose I hardly get any air and the heat comes on nice and fast no funny heat problems.

So moral of the story gotta unbolt the thermostat to drain the engine (actually there is still about 2 gallons left in the block and heater core at this point, but you can't access the block drains easily)


Keywords

Coolant flush procedure Burp

Mr. Man
11-12-2011, 03:25 PM
Seems very time consuming. Does the dealer have a machine to flush out all the old coolant?

Chevyguy
11-12-2011, 03:35 PM
Perhaps, If I had caught on to removing the thermostat earlier it would have gone much faster!!

I force fed 2 gallons back in there letting it cool down with the funnel jammed in the crossover tube hole now.

'm a do it myself kinda guy so $35 for two gallons of Peak coolant (minus a $8 rebate)from Autozone vs a $100?? coolant service which may or may not be done correctly

fastblackmerc
11-12-2011, 05:20 PM
Seems very time consuming. Does the dealer have a machine to flush out all the old coolant?

Not if you enjoy working on your vehicles and you want to makes sure the job is done right.

71cyclone
11-12-2011, 08:17 PM
DUE to HAZ-MAT containment laws. most FoMoCo dealers have a VAC -Containment System that completely evacuates the cooling system /then replenishes it with the liquid GOLD

myrodr
11-12-2011, 08:28 PM
drivers side block plug is easy to get at with a floor jack.

Chevyguy
11-13-2011, 05:55 AM
Still leaves half the block full, plus removing block drains can be a bit tricky if they are not removed semi-frequently. My Laguna had nothing come out after removing the drain!! Had to ream it out with a center punch!! Even could not budge one of my old 2V plugs with the engine swinging from the hoist

http://i348.photobucket.com/albums/q329/folingo/1996%20Town%20Car%20Signature/Engine%20Swap/SL372342.jpg


Checked the rauder this am, the "Degas" tank had lowered to a visible level as my milking of the upper hose was forcing coolant in there making the level go up quite a bit

Pulled the COT plug and fed maybe a 8 oz or so in there Now I have solidly over 2 gal of Anti-freeze in there now. I almost waited till today to remove the flush, it got pretty cold last night good thing did not wait.