Coolant changeout

[gfh77665]

I am bringing a 97' Chevy PU, V6 out of a two year storage. It has been started and ran for 20 minuets once each month. Truck has only 24K miles.

Along with the oil and trans fluid, I am changing out the coolant. Can anyone "walk me through this" with simple step-by-step instructions and tips? I would really like to hear how this forums readers do this. Thanks.

 

[pbm]

I would remove the petcock at the bottom of the radiator and drain it...then fill with Distilled water....drive awhile...do it again...do this until there are no signs of coolant (only water). It may take 4 or 5 D&R's ( make sure you drive it until the t-stat opens). Look in your owners manual for the total capacity of the system and then add half that amount of full strength coolant. I would use Peak Global or G05 if it originally came with Dexcool.

 

[river_rat]

I would just get a $6 Prestone coolant flush kit from an auto parts or hardware store. The instructions with them seem to work pretty good for me. Some people don't like to leave the hose adapter in the heater hose, and just intall it temporarily with a short section of new heater hose to get the job done and then take it out--but I've never had one leak.
Speaking of new hose, since it's a '97 and low enough miles to be worth it, I would recommend changing out all the hoses and belts while your're in there. They can get rotten with time.
I would also use a chemical cooling system flush to clean everything out.

As for the tranny, I'm not much help with automatics. You CAN do this yourself, but the easiest I've found is to just have a garage hook up their machine and do the push-pull fluid flush on it to get all the old fluid from the torque convertor.
Otherwise you may have to buy a bunch of extra fluid and pan gaskets and change it a few times to get the old stuff diluted out. That ends up costing more than a machine flush and takes a lot of time and mess.
Some folks use the tranny pump to pump most of the old fluid out by disconnecting one of the trans cooler lines from the radiator while they keep adding fluid, but I don't know if this works any better than doing several drive-drain-and-refills.
Anyway, I'm not sure how to do this latter method correctly.

 

[JHZR2]

I have a low mileage 98. What I did was the following:

Pull radiator draincock, grease oring with krytox. Drain radiator.

Put drain back in, put hose in filler. Flush with hose, close drain, fill up, drain, repeat.

Drain, fill with distilled water. Add half-strength cleaning solution. Allow to sit for 15-20 minutes (no running), drain. Fill with distilled water again, drain.

Fill with 50/50 diluted outside of the vehicle.

With this maintenance regimen, I just am sure to run to temperature and run the heater to flush fresh coolant through everything now and again. flushing more often than every 5, 10, or 12 years should keep things new for a small cost.

As for the AT, I went to summit racing and got a TCI finned pan with drain plug. It uses the standard delco gasket and filter. Now I'm able to just drain the fluid to keep it renewed, but can just replace the filter by time (and far cleaner because I can drain the pan before pulling it).

I'd get dexron VI in there.

 

[Kestas]

Here is my procedure. It includes a flush and complete exchange of the coolant. This also allows you to switch coolant types. Use short cuts at your discretion.

1. Drain fluid
2. Remove the thermostat
3. Reinstall the t-stat housing and upper radiator hose
4. Disconnect upper radiator hose at radiator
5. Flush system with garden hose through upper radiator hose until water runs clear
6. Disconnect heater hoses, open heat valve
7. Flush heater core
8. Flush overflow tank
9. Run engine for a bit during flushing to get the fluid from the water pump and other dead spaces.
10. Drain as much water as possible from cooling system
11. Run a shorter flush with distilled water to displace the tap water.
12. Siphon water from overflow tank
13. Reinstall thermostat
14. Button everything back up
15. Refill cooling system with specified amount of antifreeze, bring up to level with water, preferably distilled. The specified amount of antifreeze you need can be calculated from the published cooling capacity for your vehicle
16. Run car, top off coolant
17. Keep adding water as required every morning until system is topped off

 

[JHZR2]

My issue is with the removal of hoses - they never come off easily, and Im afraid Im doing more harm than good. Plus, with plastic-neck radiators, the neck where the hose barb is can break very easily in some situations.

 

[gfh77665]

Excellent advice form all of you, many thanks. I forgot to mention I will be using the Trans flush machine for fluid change out that the Lube shops have. I am thinking that the trans filter and trans internals are still clean with only 24K miles, so just the fluid is starting to get old. I will do the Oil change and coolant change. Thank you all again. Great advice!

 

[Kestas]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
My issue is with the removal of hoses - they never come off easily, and Im afraid Im doing more harm than good. Plus, with plastic-neck radiators, the neck where the hose barb is can break very easily in some situations.
I know that's true with Mercedes radiators, but I haven't given it a thought on other makes. I also like to butter the inside of the hose where it mounts on the nipple with a light coat of silicone to prevent sticking for the next service.

 

[oilboy123]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
I also like to butter the inside of the hose where it mounts on the nipple with a light coat of silicone to prevent sticking for the next service.


I do that as well.

 

[onion]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
I also like to butter the inside of the hose where it mounts on the nipple with a light coat of silicone to prevent sticking for the next service.


That's what I do on my own vehicles. A few weeks ago I removed a radiator hose that I installed this way 9 years ago. It came right off without a problem.

 

[George7941]

I used to use RTV till I had the top rad hose slide off the thermostat housing on a Ford 300 inline 6 because there is no ridge on the housing to prevent a hose from sliding off. The RTV made it slippery. Now I take the exact opposite approach, I don't apply anything. I prefer that the hose bond to the metal on the nipple, this way I am assured of no leaks ever, cold or hot. On the rare occasions when I have to remove a hose, I can slit it and peel it off and replace the hose.

 

[gfh77665]

Originally Posted By: pbm
I would remove the petcock at the bottom of the radiator and drain it...then fill with Distilled water....drive awhile...do it again...do this until there are no signs of coolant (only water).


Is it safe to drive awhile with just water? It is very hot where I live... Will "just water" keep the temp in a good range? Thanks.

 

[KrisZ]

Quote:
Is it safe to drive awhile with just water? It is very hot where I live... Will "just water" keep the temp in a good range? Thanks.


Water will do just fine for cooling, but you don't have to drive, just idle the engine until the thermostat opens (top radiator hose is hot), this will mix water and coolant, drain the radiator again and fill with water, repeat untill clear water drains from the radiator.