Hey Scotty, you have great videos. Thanks.
I have a question for you about a cooling system. Is it best to just a coolant drain or flush with distilled water?
COOLANT FLUSH
drain the system, Fill it with distilled water do a couple of iterations of that until the liquid is clear. Start up the vehicle let it warm up turn on the heat all that jazz, drain and repeat. How do you then remove all of the distilled water completely?
COOLANT DRAIN
I’m guessing you were just drain whatever comes out and then you were just replace the volume that was taken out.
when doing a coolant flush or drain how do you get the fluid past the thermostat. Since it’s closed....
Also how do you get new fluid in with past the Thermostat when it’s closed....
So more of a general question not really a vehicle Specifically.
well it can't be a general question because the cooling system is different on every vehicle. The location of the thermostat is different. The flush/drain/fill procedure is different. There is no one size fits all.
it depends. What are you driving? How long has the coolant been in there? What type of coolant is it? It's a little different for each vehicle. If you don't understand your vehicle's cooling circuit, then you might want to pick up a service manual and follow the instructions, or leave it to a professional mechanic. If you want every drop, it can be a complex procedure.
If you change it regularly, a drain and refill is probably sufficient for most people as long you do it often enough.
How do you then remove all of the distilled water completely?
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Simple, … you don’t have to! Just find out total volume of your cooling system. Next, divide that by 2. Go to auto supply store and buy at least that amount of full strength coolant of type recommended for your chariot, and roughly, same amount of distilled water. Finally, dump that calculated amount of full strength coolant into the radiator, … top it up with distilled water, purge the system to expel any air. Done, ( … and maybe check the concentration of your coolant with a cheap hydrometer to verify that all is cool.) Easy-peasy.
F.S.
Amazing how the math works out without even really doing the math.
Just drain and fill, don't flush. This is for all cars, regardless of make and model. This is a one size fits all situation.
If the thermostat is easy to get to and replace (as it is on my 08 Camry), change out the thermostat. For reasons unknown, occasionally a flush or drain and fill is accompanied by an old thermostat that refuses to cooperate with new fluid.
As has been said, a regular drain and fill will extract quite a lot of the old coolant.
The thermostat problem is solved by getting your vehicle up to operating temperature and turning on the heat. Depending on the vehicle the thermostat valve might be quite accessible and it's just a couple of bolts to remove (mid 2000's VW were not at all accessible)
I can only speak from my own experience of a flush with distilled water, as I was changing from the Ford Motocraft antifreeze over to the Green Prestone universal about a year ago.
1. Remove the radiator cap if your car is fitted with one, and remove the cap of the expansion tank.
2. Drain the radiator via the drain tap or bottom radiator hose ( this will extract about 40-50% of the coolant)
3. Refill with distilled water, run your engine with the heater on full power and high heat for about 10 minutes to allow the water to circulate. Drain again as in step 2. You may repeat these steps once or twice more until the radiator drains clear water.
4. Refill with coolant, and run the engine again for about 10 minutes or so, this time with the expansion tank cap removed to allow the system to belch out any air pockets.
5. Keep an eye on the coolant level over the next 5-7 days and top up to the fill line if necessary.
My '07 Focus takes 7.3L of coolant, and me being the slightly nerdy type I measured the amount of coolant drained and it stood at just shy of 7.3L so in my book that's as good as a compete flush as is possible.
Note that I'm located in Ireland, so I have the advantage of a moderate climate, neither extremely hot or cold. I would recommend to do this process on neither a very warm or very cold day as your engine will temporarily at least be using plain water in it's cooling system.
Hopefully this might help you.
https://www.holtsauto.com/prestone/news/how-to-do-a-coolant-flush/
A more in-depth version of the above
After back flushing the system (running water the opposite direction) I blow compressed air through the thermostat housing to get all the water out. This way, when I refill with coolant, I know if it's getting the specified amount, to include the radiator and heater core. Then burp the system properly and top up the overflow.
