Confused about coolant flushing
Discussion
Hi there,
After advice on the following:
I'm bringing a Chrysler PT cruiser (2.0) back from the dead. (I know, I know.)
It's 23 years old and I don't think it will ever have had a coolant change. (Date on the oil filter was 2008!)
Haynes says drain by releasing the valve at the bottom of the radiator, which I have done, but only about half the expected volume of coolant came out. I don't think it has been leaking out, the engine temperature was always fine and the expansion tank was at the right level.
This leads me to believe that there is a fair amount of old coolant still in there....
Haynes now says to flush the system with a hose pipe, which again, I can do. But after I've flushed it for a bit and then drained the water again, won't I be left with an engine that's now half full of tap water instead of half full of old coolant....? If anything that seems worse.
After advice on the following:
I'm bringing a Chrysler PT cruiser (2.0) back from the dead. (I know, I know.)
It's 23 years old and I don't think it will ever have had a coolant change. (Date on the oil filter was 2008!)
Haynes says drain by releasing the valve at the bottom of the radiator, which I have done, but only about half the expected volume of coolant came out. I don't think it has been leaking out, the engine temperature was always fine and the expansion tank was at the right level.
This leads me to believe that there is a fair amount of old coolant still in there....
Haynes now says to flush the system with a hose pipe, which again, I can do. But after I've flushed it for a bit and then drained the water again, won't I be left with an engine that's now half full of tap water instead of half full of old coolant....? If anything that seems worse.
draining the rad will never get all the coolant out, thing to do is drain rad, top up with water and bleed, run up to temp, thermostat needs to open, drain again and repeat until just water comes out, then finaly drain rad until you have enough room for the required neat antifreeze, normally 3l or so. as usually antifreeze only needs to be about 50% off cooling system, just make sure its neat antifreeze not premixed.
And after all that just top up if needed with a premix.
Hope that makes sense.
Either that or take all hoses off and thermostat out and flush with a hose, and refill with the right amount of antifreeze for 50% and the rest with water.
Oh and never put cold coolant into a hot engine obviously.
And after all that just top up if needed with a premix.
Hope that makes sense.
Either that or take all hoses off and thermostat out and flush with a hose, and refill with the right amount of antifreeze for 50% and the rest with water.
Oh and never put cold coolant into a hot engine obviously.
That does make sense as a method, but following the hosepipe flush, there will be a lot of tap water in the engine. I can obviously start adding anti-freeze at that point but I had in mind that anti-freeze should be diluted with special "de-ionised" water, not tap water. Since I'm flushing with tap water, whatever is left in there afterward has to come back out again one way or another before I'm done - doesn't it?
Bennet said:
That does make sense as a method, but following the hosepipe flush, there will be a lot of tap water in the engine. I can obviously start adding anti-freeze at that point but I had in mind that anti-freeze should be diluted with special "de-ionised" water, not tap water. Since I'm flushing with tap water, whatever is left in there afterward has to come back out again one way or another before I'm done - doesn't it?
In an ideal world, yes distilled water is the best, but in reallity tap water is fine.
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