draining coolant

[62dog]

I found a bit of slush in the rad(in 85) this morning, temp was -34c(-30f) :eek: , and found that I really should change the coolant.
I recall reading here that there is no drain plug in the block, is this true(its cold and dark outside to check)if not how does everyone drain the coolant in the block?

[NH2112]

Take off the lower radiator hose and remove the thermostat housing cover, then jack the truck up as high as you can get it. You won't get it all, but you'll get most of it.

[CleviteKid]

That is: jack the REAR of the truck up as high as you can get it. You should be able to get about 2/3 of the coolant out this way, so if you refill with straight ethylene glycol antifreeze, you will have the max freeze protection you can get.

Dr. Lee :cool:

[62dog]

Thanks, I had to think about that for a second. Would soft water through a water softener be suitable, or should I stick with distilled water?

I was planning on running straight water through the cooling system before adding fresh coolant.

[NH2112]

I had a BAD rust problem in my truck's cooling system and I kept putting off a flush till it was too late in the year to drive with just water in the system. What I ended up doing was getting one of those flush kits that puts a fitting in the heater hose, then hooking up a garden hose and running it inside the shop with the heater on and radiator drain opened (and the exhaust vented outside) for about 2 hours. By this time I was ready to go home so I just drained the radiator and added straight antifreeze. Next day I checked the coolant protection and it was only down to about -10F so I sucked out a gallon and added another gallon of straight antifreeze, which put me right about -30 (generally good enough for this area.)

I think if you're running a new or newly-rebuilt engine distilled water would be the only way to go, but on a high-mileage engine it won't help very much. It definitely won't hurt, though.

[CleviteKid]

Distilled water (about 80 cents/gallon at the grocery store) is what you want. Softened water is loaded with sodium ions (and should not be consumed by heart patients) which will encourage rust formation inside your engine.

Dr. Lee :cool:

[arveetek]

Another way to drain the block is to remove the block heater. If the heater is more than 5 years old, it needs to be replaced anyway. More than one of us has had a block heater pop out while going down the highway....not a good thing. The reason they popped out is that the clamp and screw corroded and let go.

Watch out if you pull that heater, though.....you're gonna get wet!

I just got done flushing and filling the coolant on my Power Stroke. I pulled the block heater on it to drain the coolant. I reused the heater, though, because it looked like new, and because it actually screws into the block instead of being held into place by a clamp in a freeze plug opening. I liked how this was engineered....a good idea I think.

I stuck a garden hose down the radiator and let water run through the system until clear water was running out of the block and radiator drains. Seems to work pretty well doing it this way!

Casey

[TonyL]

How much coolant will the system hold? More specific will a five gallon bucket hold everyting in the radiator and whatever you can drain out of the block?

[CleviteKid]

Nominal cooling system capacity is just under six gallons. Get two buckets - they are easier to carry half full.

If you drain just thru the radiator drain, you will get about 3 gallons. I do this once per year, replacing the drained coolant with DEXCOOL and genuine distilled water. The average residence of my coolant is thus 2 years, very conservative for DEXCOOL and a clean cooling system.

Dr. Lee :cool:

[Fumes]

Can you mix regular anti-freeze with dexcool?

[ZZ]

From what I've read, that is a definate no-no. They aren't compatable and don't mix

[CleviteKid]

You CAN mix pink DEXCOOL and Green standard ethylene glycol coolants, but you lose all the benefits of the DEXCOOL and are back to frequent changes of antifreeze.

If you are doing a changeover, do like Casey and let the garden hose flush out as much as possible of the old coolant. In an emergency, adding the wrong coolant is better than adding no coolant, or just water, especially tap water.

Dr. Lee :cool: