So today I flushed my coolant with tap water. Tomorrow I plan to flush again and refill with coolant. My tactic for flushing was to remove the top radiator pipe and stick a hose in the radiator fill point while the car runs, got all the water in the radiator running clear before thermostat opened then got everything from inside engine/bottom of radiator 99% clear while engine ran, then cut water to radiator right before cutting the engine. I plan to do the same tomorrow except cut water a little bit longer before cutting the engine to drain most of the tap water out of radiator. Problem is a lot of that will still be in the cooling pipes in engine. Is the best way to solve this problem to run say 7 litres of diluted water instead of tap water through the system once what's leaving the engine is clear? Also how long should I run the engine for with no water going into radiator to get the radiator empty enough to take 5-6 litres of coolant without depriving the engine of water?
Better to do a full clean and flush. That means radiator out. If you have an automatic, you'll need a small piece on pipe to join the oil lines from the bottom of the radiator. Remove both hoses from the radiator and engine, then undo the overflow pipe. It might pay to take the fan off to get easy access to the thermostat pipe/housing. Remove the thermostat and re-connect the pipe. Use the small radiator hose to connect each water pipe to do a forward and reverse flush of the block. Do a forward and reverse flush of the radiator. Fit a NEW thermostat making sure the air bleed nipple is at the top. Don't forget sealant (not too much) The reason for a new thermostat is if the car has overheated at any point the thermostat is "out" of calibration. Cheap insurance as an old thermostat can seize at any time cooking your motor in a VERY short time. Re-assemble all the components, add coolant concentrate and top-up with tap water. Don't forget to "burp" the coolant system.
In the process of selling the car so don't care for being too thorough. Thermostat came on with perfect timing when flushing today. Just trying to get rid of the crappy coolant that was discoloured from age and additives and put some nice new stuff in for whoever buys it. If they wanna get it thoroughly flushed afterwards that's their choice, I just don't wanna leave crappy tap water in there so that it needs looking into sooner than it should.
Hope this helps Sure its great to use 100% demineralised or distilled water but don't be overly concerned if you still have some tap water left in there, the real purpose of flushing is to just get any particles of rust / algae etc. out so that they don't interfere with the system, such as the radiator, thermostat pressure bleed valve or water pump impellers and you said it was "CLEAR"! :zlove::zlove::zlove::zlove: You have to use coolant but it doesn't react with tap water particulates that would cause enough concern contrary to the label on the bottle instructions. Most of the pictures on the internet where you see corrosion is from motors that haven't had a service for twenty years !:rofl: There is not really enough corrosion over a short time of even a couple of years with tap water (or even sea water :rofl to warrant such a concern because most particulates in these variable waters will still at best offer no more than 2 Celsius reduction to your highest temperature over using 100% distilled water with coolant, so in the scheme of things your really not doing a great deal unless you already have other problems! In summation: You don't need to really worry about it any more than just draining the water from the block as per the FSM (there's a bolt on the bottom of your block for this purpose- see FSM) and its pretty effective! If your that concerned, you could use air pressure to blow air in the passages to force any water parts but I can only recommend as per the FSM as over time any tap water particulates will get flushed as the per the FSM servicing guidelines without any excess corrosion beyond the point of other major servicing schedules (even if you used sea water in an emergency! :rofl: If I had the thermostat housing off, I would replace the thermostat as per grahams advice - but that's just me, the FSM states you should test the one you have in a pot of water with a thermometer :rofl: If your selling it....seeing clear water is enough...fill with distilled and coolant exactly to manufacturers specifications and it will feel loved JC :zlove:
How important is it to let that bolt on the engine out? I figured everything in the system should go through the top radiator pipe and should be able to get flushed out that way?
If you had of mentioned you were doing a dodgy for selling the car I would have said: Drain, basic flush, refill, or why bother. At least if you left the old coolant in there, the new owner would know to do a full flush as part of a maintenance overhaul. Half jobs are never any good.
Not that important to remove the engine coolant drain plug unless you have major issues like lots of rust particles in the coolant when flushing and its difficult to flush these out.....but you stated it was "clear" when flushing and in my books that its generally fine unless its easy to get underneath in your car as the engine block coolant drain plug is easy to remove and will empty out 100% instead of 80-90% etc. Remember that coolant has rust inhibitors, so it will prevent other types of water like tap water from incurring excessive corrosive qualities Always use the coolant to exact specs as more is worse in thermal efficiency terms. JC :zlove:
WA tap water is absolute crap so I would always suggest not using it in a car, The bolt should be undone it allows for air to escape from the cooling system so as to avoid an airlock and overheating issues, it also helps to have the car on a rise with the nose up.
I would hate to be drinking that water Happy to be corrected but I wasn't referring to the plastic phillips screw (coolant system air bleed screw) on the left side of the radiator The bolt I was referring to was the engine block drain plug/ bolt, its really only needed for draining particulates that will not clear. Good point RE: Bleeding air As per the FSM (and you sort of point out) if the bleed screw on the radiator proper is used, at an angle greater than 30 degrees (high enough so that the radiator water chamber sits higher than the heads water chamber). Its important to bleed the air as per the FSM or your temp gauge will fluctuate and your heads/ valves will get hotter due to air pockets being potentially held in the heads as pointed out. The engine must be brought to approx. 2,000 RPM (I think its for one minute offhand) to allow the force of the water to push any air bubble flow from the heads down through the thermostat coolant air bleed valve and into the other chamber so the air bubbles flows through to the radiator. The bleed valve and bleed screw are very effective if you follow the FSM guidelines. The engine block coolant drain plug needs to be put back in before you pour water in or it will run out the same drain plug - it will have no effect on air being trapped when refilling as its only used/ put there for draining/ flushing the system and is not used for bleeding air. Regards JC It was good advice G! I only just caught the 2nd post "selling" after posting myself ! :zlove:
Not trying to do anything dodgy. A while ago i had a leaky heater core. Before bypassing it i tried some stop leak shit which didnt help. Said stop leak turned my coolant white. A buyer thought i had oil in the coolant because it is white and didnt buy the car based entirely on that (even though oil looks fine and car runs fibe and ive been running it for 100s of km with it in there). Aim is to have nice green coolant so this doesnt happen again but also because i dont wanna do anything dodgy i wanna try not to leave tap water in the cooling system for them either. The anti corrosive stuff the stop leak says it has seemed to have worked well though as there was no particles of anything when i flushed. Just white then clear. Can anyone tell me how long to run engine for after cutting distilled water supply to radiator with disconnected top pipe to empty radiator without starving engine of water? Or is there a better way to empty radiator after flush?
G is providing good advice, its just your lack of information in the first post that prompted his response. I would have provided the same response if I thought it was your vehicle to keep There's a drain plug on the radiator too! Its near the bottom drivers side (facing the engine) Its looks like a tap with a little hose attached - this is the way you do it as per the FSM Running the engine without water is not advisable, having said that, I know many mechanics that have run the engine for up to a minute without water without no overt problems for tuning purposes or for clearing water. The engine should be cold if doing it and not allowed to heat up as excess engine heat soak can damage parts after the engine is stopped if it gets hot enough in areas - this will give you a few minutes at best but you should only need less than 1 minute to do the job! I can only recommend using the relevant drain plugs on the block and radiator even though I have done this myself (to check timing belt / timing functions correctly to save lots of work if its not set correctly) This is just my opinion and each to their own - but don't be too worried if its clear when flushing, its more important to bleed the air when refilling on an incline / hill or ramps than worry about the water quality or tap water that's left behind from flushing JC :zlove:
You should degrease the engine and have it warmed up for the new owner to test drive. Tyre black makes tread look deeper too. Also jamming a cotton sock inside the top radiator hose will grab any loose crap.
Seems like the safest way to do it but I can't find it :/ google images isn't helping either. No need, engine bay has no grease in it anyway, car starts well from cold and tires have plenty of tread and even though the coolant was the wrong colour it had no crap floating in it and was the perfect consistancy it should be
its crazy here, up in Gero the gardening outlets actually recommended watering your lawn for no more than 10 minutes because the water was so caustic it would kill your grass, our water testing unit says that while the water here in perth is a heap better than gero (and the further north you go the worse it gets here) it still is a long way off WHO standards for potable water. Apparently it is so hard here to get "good" water that there is no state standard for drinking water only a guideline that is recommended, and as long as the water authorities are "trying" to supply quality water everything is Good to go.
Useless google images - I couldn't find one picture of even a stock radiator myself to show you :rofl: You really need to download the FSM (Z manual) in the tech section! Its on the picture on page LC-13 in the cooling section (if you zoom in, you can see it clearly - the FSM calls it the radiator drain cock) (If its an aftermarket radiator - it may not be there) If its a stock radiator - It's on the opposite side to the lower radiator hose on the engine bay side and about a few cm from the bottom - you can feel it even if you cannot get under there to see it You cannot miss it, its looks like a little plastic tap and normally has a little hose a few cm long hanging off it. JC :zlove:
