Radiator flush

[supton]

Have a 3 day weekend and I'm contemplating doing the timing belt on my Camry (eek!). One thing I need to do is change the coolant--some prior shop put in green stuff, and I want it to be Toyota Red. I know I am going to drain some of the block, and can drain the radiator; but once the belt is done, how much water should I run through it to flush the heater core? [I'm assuming it won't drain on its own.] I figured I would flush with distilled water, so I need to pick up a few gallons on the way home.

It's a '99 Camry with 5SFE.

 

[Kestas]

I typically flush with a garden hose for a complete flush, then try to displace as much tap water as I can with distilled water.

 

[supton]

It's been a couple of years since I bought bottle water, but it used to be 50cents/gallon. Figured I'd skip on having to flush water with water, before flushing yet again with coolant.

I was kinda tempted to not flush--just drain as much as i could, then refill with proper coolant, and then try to flush that out (run a bit of the good stuff through, until I thought it was clean enough. Whatever is left in the bottom of the block and in the heater core can't be that much... but it seems better to run some water through, as I have no idea what is in it at the moment (other than it never froze up).

 

[mclasser]

When I last did a coolant flush, I used 5 jugs of DI water. I had good heat so I didn't feel the need to mess with old hoses and flush out the heater core separately. I had the heat running the entire time so the old stuff in the HC got cleaned up enough to me. Final fill was with Rechochem Asian concentrate.

 

[nthach]

Timing belt and water pump is child's play on those.

It's an iron block/Al head motor, and if the conventional green left behind silicate dropout a flush with citric acid shouldn't hurt things. The block drains on many Toyotas does a decent job of draining most of the block, and the heater hoses are easy to access - I think it holds a quart in the heater core.

If you want to play it safe and do multiple drain/fills, I think the cooling system holds a little more than a gallon and a half.

 

[SirTanon]

You should definitely perform a flush - Don't want to mix those coolants, or the overall functional life will be greatly reduced, and you could potentially be risking precipitation of the chemicals.

Drain
fill from the hose and run the engine for a couple minutes
drain again
fill with distilled water and run for a couple minutes
drain again
fill with Toyota red to get to 50%.

Done. Should be plenty to get almost all of the green stuff out.

 

[Linctex]

I use only distilled water, as drinking water has calcium chloride (a corrosive salt) added to it for taste.

1) drain as much as I can,
2) fill with distilled, drive one full day
3) drain hot and
4) filled with distilled again, drive one full day

Drain out,

then add full strength coolant to mix with existing distilled water.
Usually about 1.25 - 1.5 gallons gets trapped,
so 1.25 - 1.5 gallons of full strength gets me very close to 50/50

 

[JamesBond]

Do the oil pump seal and "o" ring while you're there.

 

[dlundblad]

How hard is the thermostat to get to?

How warm is it up there? 65 here today.

Can you remove the tstat and fill with distilled, run for a bit, drain, repeat?

 

[SZR48207]

If there's one great piece of advice I've learned over the years about radiator fluid changes/flushes:

Buy 100% concentrate. Take the vehicle's coolant capacity and divide that number by 2. Put that amount of 100% concentrate into the system. You'll get a perfect 50/50 mix.

The rest of the equation is figuring out if you're going to only use distilled water or you're OK with garden hose water -- and figuring out how to get all of the old stuff out.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: JamesBond
Do the oil pump seal and "o" ring while you're there.


That's why I'm doing this job. Nasty oil leak someplace, so I'm assuming it's the seal. otherwise I wanted to wait for warmer weather--but not only do I have a 3 day weekend but it's supposed to be in the 40's. Hopefully this goes well. The one tool I don't have is a seal puller, am hoping I can improvise on that.

Originally Posted By: dlundblad
How hard is the thermostat to get to?

How warm is it up there? 65 here today.

Can you remove the tstat and fill with distilled, run for a bit, drain, repeat?


It'll be in the 40's, or so they say. Freezing overnight. I'm not crazy about doing the job, as both my driveways are snow covered. Ground is frozen too, so any antifreeze that spills on the ground is apt to stick around.

But no real choice: I bought all the parts already, was putting the job off as long as possible. But I can't drive the car right now, due to an oil leak that is landing on the exhaust pipe. Did the valve cover gasket (which I don't recommend doing in 10F weather) to no avail. I'd like to get my 29mpg back! better than 16mpg in the truck.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: Reddy45
If there's one great piece of advice I've learned over the years about radiator fluid changes/flushes:

Buy 100% concentrate. Take the vehicle's coolant capacity and divide that number by 2. Put that amount of 100% concentrate into the system. You'll get a perfect 50/50 mix.

The rest of the equation is figuring out if you're going to only use distilled water or you're OK with garden hose water -- and figuring out how to get all of the old stuff out.


That's a good point, wish I had thought of that. I do have concentrate; this would save me having to mix it! Thanks!

 

[JC1]

You are doing this job outside without a garage? Have you changed timing belts before?

I changed the timing belt on a 98 V6 Sienna. It was a pita, I did it in July. I hope you've got all the right tools including a good air powered impact gun to remove the Crankshaft pulley bolt.

The 4cyl motor should be easier, but still sometimes you run into problems.

Also beware of the motor mount bolts that gave a tendency to seize and snap.

 

[Kestas]

Coolant Fluid Exchange

Here is the detailed procedure I use for every car I own
It is done on a cold engine.

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 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.

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted By: JC1


I changed the timing belt on a 98 V6 Sienna. It was a pita, I did it in July. I hope you've got all the right tools including a good air powered impact gun to remove the Crankshaft pulley bolt.

The 4cyl motor should be easier, but still sometimes you run into problems.


The 4 cylinder crank bolts aren't on as tight as the V6/V8 and M/JZ motors as well, Toyota specified 80ft-lbs on these. A decent air impact zipped it off when I did one for a friend. Unlike my parent's Sienna which I had to fashion an equivalent to the Lisle socket using a cheap Autozone 36mm socket welded to the outside of a black impact 22mm so that a Milwaukee 18V brushless impact can loosen it.

The tricky part might be tensioning the timing belt, it's a simple spring but it can be touchy to set the tension.

 

[JamesBond]

Originally Posted By: supton


That's why I'm doing this job. Nasty oil leak someplace, so I'm assuming it's the seal. otherwise I wanted to wait for warmer weather--but not only do I have a 3 day weekend but it's supposed to be in the 40's. Hopefully this goes well. The one tool I don't have is a seal puller, am hoping I can improvise on that.



You don't need a seal puller, just a small knife, screwdriver, pick.

The oil pump seal is different than the oil pump o ring.

A breaker bar and the starter is how I got my crank pulley bolt off.

If you're leaking on the exhaust pipe it's more likely a rear main, or something like oil pan or valve cover. The oil pump will leak closer to the passenger tire.

Just use prestone or supertech coolant for a few months until you know that you've got it fixed. You could even run water for a couple of days if it's warm enough. It's a shame to fill up with dealer coolant only to find out you screwed something up and have to take it apart again.

 

[barkingspider]

When I did the coolant flush on my daughter's Camry (@ 105K miles), I just drained from rad petcock, fill w distilled, drive w heater and repeat till it came out clear (about 6-7 gallons). Then filled w 50% oem Toyota and topped off w distilled. Now I'm good for 5 years. If I could do it again, I would have removed the thermostat before the drain and fills. Would have saved some time.

 

[supton]

I have not done a timing belt yet. Found this link a while ago, and it makes it look like a simple job. Ish. Have impact wrench, not worried about the crank bolt.

Not much recourse. Park it until spring, or pay a shop to do it now. I drive 500+ miles a week. I had not planned on a blown RMS when I bought the car; and I'd hate to blow my car repair budget this early in the year.

Technically I haven't had a good chance to get under it to see where the leak is; perhaps I'll bail on it, once I get it up high enough to look. I'd see if I could use a friends garage but I'd hate to tie it up for a few weeks (in case the job snowballs).

 

[CT8]

Spend the $$$ and buy a service manual instead of flying blind. Chiltons at least

 

[Kira]

You can do it. Don't sweat it.

Rinse to clear with tap water (or well water) then chase it with distilled.

I use distilled and my jobs stay clear. My foolish friends use tap and well water and theirs cloud up.

The choice is yours. Do it right or do it wrong.

Remember, the 'Granite State' refers to one of your natural resources not the consistency of your heads. Kira