Flushing Entire Coolant System

[Stalker27]

Ok, I just purchased my 170 thermostat from Reische and my car has 79k on her & i know its probably never been cleaned & no telling how badly it might be gunked up in there.

I know i can take it to a dealer but don't want to so please nobody tell me to take it to the dealership

I'm going to use Prestone's Coolant Flush 1st to brak that crap up but i can't really decide how i want to go about the rest of the way.

I had a few ideas:

The 1st being i was gonna unsrew the drain plugs on the block but i have NO idea where they are located

2nd) I read from one member on here told a guy to remove the Tstat then jack the rear of the car in the air to drain the coolant out

3rd) Drain the system by leaving the Tstat out & with a garden hose pluged into the crossover & car running watch it flush itself out until clear. But now you have a problem with all the garden hose water in the block (which i don't want) So this would be a good time to know where the drain plugs on the block are to get rid of that water

4) The Prestone flush kit: But then you have the same problem with garden hose water in the block.

What do you guys think?? Can someone direct me wher those drain plugs on the block are?

 

[Cravinmohead22]

Im in the same boat you are and this is what i will use as a reference. This would have been done yesterday but after i lowered the car i dont have a jack that will go under the car now.


http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/how/435249-03-04-cobra-engine-coolant-flush-how.html

 

[Stalker27]

Man thank you so much for that :beer:. I don't know how I missed it. I was searching my but off. Now if I can figure out how to add this Prestone coolant flush cleaner without getting an air pocket in the system

 

[Stalker27]

I think I'm going to drain the entire system 1st then add the Prestone Super Flush and add garden hose water to it. Drive it for a total 6hr then drain it completly again to make sure all that detergent is out. Then refill with 3 quarts straight coolant and the rest distilled water with bottle and half water wetter

 

[P49Y-CY]

Im in the same boat you are and this is what i will use as a reference. This would have been done yesterday but after i lowered the car i dont have a jack that will go under the car now.


http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/how/435249-03-04-cobra-engine-coolant-flush-how.html

you should link that whole thread (not just that 1st post) because there is some bad info there

for example, the system DOES NOT hold 6 gallons of coolant :nonono:

it holds 4

op unless you pull the motor (or raise it) you ain't gonna be able to open both block drains. but the driver's side is very easy to access.

but even if you do that you are still only going to drain about 2.5 gallons without draining the heater core

best of luck with it, i've been obsessed with cooling system maintenance since i first got the car lol, and flush it annually

 

[Stalker27]

you should link that whole thread (not just that 1st post) because there is some bad info there

for example, the system DOES NOT hold 6 gallons of coolant :nonono:

it holds 4

op unless you pull the motor (or raise it) you ain't gonna be able to open both block drains. but the driver's side is very easy to access.

but even if you do that you are still only going to drain about 2.5 gallons without draining the heater core

best of luck with it, i've been obsessed with cooling system maintenance since i first got the car lol, and flush it annually

Thanx for clearing that up. When i read 6 gallons that didn't sound right

I'm not worried to much about not being able to get to both plugs. As long as i can get to one to get the majority of it out i'll be satisfied

I've made up my mind. I'll go by what the link descibes to drain it. Then i'll dump two bottles of the cleaner in the overflow tank, fill the rest of the overflow with (distilled water), close cap then pour in the distilled water like the process of burping the car.

I know the directions on the bottle just requires you to 1) *With engine off and cool, remove radiator cap.* *Drain radiator then close draincock.
2) *Pour entire contents of Prestone® Super Radiator Flush into radiator and fill with water. *For systems larger that 12 quarts, use two bottles
3) *Run engine with heater on highest temperature setting for 10 minutes after reaching normal operating temperature.
4) *With engine off and cool, remove radiator cap, drain radiator, and close draincock. *Refill with water and replace radiator cap to fully closed position. *Repeat step #3.
5) *Stop engine and allow to cool. *Remove radiator cap, drain system and close draincock. *Add enough recommended coolant to achieve a 50-70% concentration. *Top off radiator with water. *Replace radiator cap to fully closed position. *Run engine for 20 minutes to mix coolant/water.
6) *If equipped with a non-pressurized coolant reservoir, rinse, drain, and refill with a 50-70% solution of the coolant and water.

I read somewhere on the net that its actually recomended that you drive it for 6hrs or 200 miles or maybe just drive it around for an hour then drain it so i might try that. I wouldnt think pouring it in and just letting it idle for 10 or so min will clean much of anything. I think it needs to get good and hot & really move around in there to clean it.

Com back home & drive up on ramps & park it overnite so it can completly cool. Next morning drain everything including the one plug i can get to. Button everything back up and now break out the water hose.

Fill up the overflow tank with water & add water to the crossover plug ill full. Crank car up & turn heater on high. Keep adding water to crossover and continue to let it run for 15 min or untill you know it's clar water commimg out.

Now me being anal & not wanting regular water in my block i'll take back out the plug on the block to drain that water out.

Button everything back up including adding in the 170 stat & refill to the specs i'v already mentioned.

I know all that seems overkill to some of you. Hell even to me lol but i want it to be clean as possible & deff don't want any normal water in there.

So we shall see. Going to pick up two bottles of the cleaner & prob take care of this over the weekend

 

[P49Y-CY]

Thanx
I know all that seems overkill to some of you. Hell even to me lol but i want it to be clean as possible & deff don't want any normal water in there.

doesn't sound like overkill to me

after i do the flush using regular water, then i start getting the system back to almost 100% distilled water. usually takes me about 10 cycles or so, then i should be at like 99% pure distilled water. then i drain two gallons and and add two gallons of antifreeze.

the whole thing usually takes me about 2 weeks lol

best of luck with it!

 

[oldmodman]

To get a complete flush I did the drain, fill with Prestone and hose water. Drove it for two days.
Drained again, refill with hose water and drive until hot. Did that two times to get as much cleaning agent out as possible.
Drained again, refilled with distilled water only. Drove till hot and drained and refilled twice more with distilled water.
Drained one last time. Filled with 50% of the total capacity with Ford Gold coolant and topped off with distilled water. Burped system as needed filling with distilled water. After all this monkey motion the cooling system was filled with clean distilled water and coolant in a 50/50 mixture. This took care of the difficult to remove water in the block. If you make a mixture of 50/50 coolant and then pore it into the coolant system you will never get up to 50/50 in the engine due to all the water left in the block.

 

[Stalker27]

How much junk come out? I'm actually lookin forward to this

 

[Stalker27]

Just got done draining it. I didn't bother messing with the plug on the block.

I drained it from the rad, then took off the long hose that goes from the upper down to the Tstat, then lastly the hose from the rad to the Tstat

Then i put everything back & filled the resivoir. Had the gf start the car, turned the heater to full blast then then took back off the rad hose to the Tstat. Put the water hose on the crossover & let it idle until all the water comming out was clear

I forgot to empty the damn radiator before i put the cleaner in but i think its fine.

So where i'm at now is waiting an hour for the car to cool back off after the refill procedure.

I think all went well burping it but won't really know till i get out on the road. Plugged in the xcal so i can monitor the temps so i know when 184* hit so i could shut her off. Once again with car running had the heater on full blast. One thing i noticed was this cleaner really foams up.

I had almost the top of the funnel covered with water/foam. I was like hmmmm this is gonna make a mess if it doesn't go down after shutting the car down lol

It took a little bit for it to finally go down. After shutting it off i noticed quite a few large pockets of air come up. I was squeezing the hose to the left a few time & that seemed to help as well. Finally it settled perfect in the crossover so i'll be checking it at 2:04pm today.

It was fun, got alot of dirty almost rusty looking water out of it. I have pics but dont want to use imageshack. What does everyone use to make there pics big??

 

[jm@ReischePerf]

My .02 on this

Honestly I don't think there is any way to completely flush all the coolant/contaminants out of the block/system by just draining it. You would have to take everything apart to get it all out. I flush the system out the thermostat housing by simply removing the upper rad hose. Put a running garden hose in the metal tube side and seal it to the hose with your hand as best you can. It will take a good 3-5 mins of flushing but after a while the water exiting the block will become completely clear. Cover the lower rad hose exit and fill the rad up then drain it a few times to flush the rad. This will result in a lot of hose water remaining in the system but at least it's clean. You can do some drain/fills later to increase the percentage of distilled water in the system. Personally I think it's better just to get a good flush every year but if you want to leave the coolant in for a long period of time it's probably more critical to have as much distilled water in the system as possible.

As far antifreeze it's not a good idea to go beyond a 50% concentration and it's detrimental to use more than 60%. In fact I don't think there is any reason to ever use more than 40% unless you live in the Arctic Circle (40% freezes at about -10°) Keep in mind antifreeze actually reduces thermal transfer abilities. http://www.redlineoil.com/content/files/tech/WaterWetter%20Tech%20Info.pdf

 

[Stalker27]

Everything turned out really good and I have to say this was my very first burping experience and either I just got lucky for the 1st time doing it or was the fact I paid extreme attention to detail on your refil/burp procedure. I didn't have NO problem with driving. Luckily I didn't get anything spew out the cap or overheat. Plugged in the xcal on paid very close attention to the temps. This morning when I woke up I checked the crossover and all it needed was maybe a half capfull. Honestly I don't see what all the fuss about. Burping is not that bad unless it was beginners luck

 

[Stalker27]

Finally Installed The Riesche 170 Tstat

Man this thing really shines it's but off in hot weather

So got up 1st thing this morning to work on the car. As some of you know i put Prestone's Super Cleaner in the radiator to clean the system out & man am i glad i did. What originally came out before i put the cleaner in was rust looking water. Then with everything hooked back up to the Tstat housing minus the the hose that runs from the radiator to the Tstat housing we ran the car with a water hose on the cross over plug until nothing but clear water came out. Then we put in the cleaner & i drove close to 6hrs on that

Fast forward to today. Drained the radiator out, unplugged the lines & more rusty water came out but not quite as bad as the 1st time. I then decided to take off the resivior itself cause it was filthy on the inside. Crud was almost glued to the wall & you really couldn't see where the coolant level was on the side where the "add coolant" line.

So when i was at Autozone this morning getting the two bottles of water wetter, gallon coolant, i decided to get some Greased Lightning Blast with orange power. I've used this stuff before & it will desolve just about anything. 1st i started spraying it into the resivoir knocking that crap off the walls. Then i just poured it inside about half full put the cap back on & shook the shit out of it for a while untill all of that was gone. I have pics for that later. Washed it out & got it throughly clean where nothing but clear water was comming out.

Then i moved on to taking the old stat out & putting in the 170. Got all of that done. Poured in the 3 gallons of anti freeze, put every last drop of the two bottle of water wetter in lol, & put in the distilled water.

Had the gf start the car & watched the coolant temps from the x3. I let it go to 175 degrees then shut it off. I then let it cool off for about an hour & some min cause we had something else to run & do real quick. When we got back i noticed the level in the resevoir was very low. When i filled it up i left about an inch before it said "add coolant".

So opened the cap poured in more distilled water to about an inch below the add coolant line. Opened the crossover plug and cranked the car again thinking well i just opened the cap so i just created an air pocket. So i'll run the car a lil bit with the funnel over the crossover so it can bleed itself. Well we did that then took her out for a spin

This Reische thermostat simply kicks ass no doubt about it :rockon::rockon:
Plugged in the x3 while we were driving to watch the temps & man what a freakin difference. Before my normal temps with my adjusted fan settings with the 180 was pretty much 184-186 degrees give or take while cruzing on the expressway then would shoot up to 196 when i would come to a long stop light then my high speed fan would kick in & drop it down

NOW wit the 170 and me on the xpressway cruizing at 70mph the temp was sitting on 174 for the longest, then got up to 176. Then we turned the ac on & that brought the temps up to only 180 freaking degrees & it is hot here today.

So i am cruzing WITH my ac ON and only getting 180 degrees :dancenana:. That is 4-8 degrees cooler than before

When we came to a stop after driving for 20min the temps went to 188. Then we got going again and came to another stop & the temps went to 194 and that 's where i have my high speed fan to kick on. Got going again in 45mph traffic & dropped back down to 188

Stopped and got some gas, popped the hood & noticed that the coolant resevoir was down again but not as bad as before. Got back on the xpressway and guess what? The temps went right back down 176 to 180 WITH THE AIR ON!!!!!!

Pics of dirty Resevoir:

Before:

After:

Drained the radiator:

After Cleaner: