Flushing Red coolant, should I use Water Wetter or Hyper Cool

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I'm currently Flushing out a 2004 Solara 2.4. 48,000 miles and I believe original coolant. Had white corrosion around original radiator cap. (replaced) Ran 100% distilled for a day, now running 100% distilled + Prestone radiator flush for (about) 6 hours. Going to drain, refill with 100% distilled and run heat on high, (as I've been doing) and drain.

Going to refill with Valvoline Red coolant 50/50. Should I add water wetter or hyper cool additive, or is that unnecessary / nonsense? Car has original water pump, so anything that helps prolong the life of that I'm in favor of....
 
I wouldn't add water wetter.

I would consider more than one rinse to get the flush out. Isn't it citric acid?

Maybe just keep the petcock open on your rad, and a garden hose to top it off. If your water's nasty, rinse the tap water with a cycle of distilled.

Or fill the car with tap on Monday, drive to work and back, drain. Repeat all week. Saturday fill with distilled then drain and make your 50/50 brew.
 
Good call on the multiple rinses. Even if I use distilled for 3 fill and drains, that's only about $3 without using the crappy mineral rich tap here
 
I thought I was going to do drain and fills too, but as I figured out this method I was satisfied it was sufficient for me.

Here's what I did on 03 Vibe, which has the 1.8 Toyota, should be similar;

pulled the thermostat, pulled off the upper heater core connection from the block side,
flushed both the motor side (at the heater core hose) and radiator side with garden hose on slow for the most part,
blew out the water with my mighty lungs at radiator and heater hose.
Dumped my in-stock 'add to any' coolant into each side until it ran out sufficiently, funnel into heater hose side too, blew out again,
then filled with the Toyota pink coolant till that ran out the any left over 'add to any' coolant.
Replaced thermostat and attached hoses, filled with pink coolant.

Should be easier on the 2.4 because I don't think you have to remove the alternator to get the thermostat out. Be careful when removing the heater core hose, it's going to likely need twisting and persuasion. Now I have 4 gallons of distilled water I never used for other purposes.

I used Hyper Cool once, and being you have a 2004 Toyota 2.4l, prone to the head bolts block threads not deep enough issues at the rear middle 3, yes you may want to use that. And always keep an eye on coolant temp, you don't want that block to overheat, that's when many find the threads give way and shortly there after have coolant leak at intake manifold area.

I once had the thermostat, probably was the original, stick shut, luckily I noticed the temp going up and was able to cool it off and figure out the shortcoming before it caused any problem, had a spare thermostat to change out once it cooled.
 
Quote
Had white corrosion around original radiator cap.


No, probably just precipitate from the OAT coolant. That's common around anyplace any has leaked or spilled then become hot.

Keep in mind the water in the heater core you will not get out when you start filling. You will be less than 50/50 (by a fair bit), so keep that in mind if you decide to over-winter in Minnesota!
 
As Oro_o noted above, the white residue likely resulted from a slight leak. If you still have the original radiator cap it would be worth replacing.

Also as Supersonic noted, this engine is particularly sensitive to overheating. A worthwhile precaution is to replace the thermostat while you have the coolant drained.
 
Originally Posted by eljefino
I wouldn't add water wetter.

I would consider more than one rinse to get the flush out. Isn't it citric acid?

Maybe just keep the petcock open on your rad, and a garden hose to top it off. If your water's nasty, rinse the tap water with a cycle of distilled.

Or fill the car with tap on Monday, drive to work and back, drain. Repeat all week. Saturday fill with distilled then drain and make your 50/50 brew.

Yeah, I hope that using the Prestone flush wasn't a bad idea. I just wanted all of the 16? year old coolant out of there.

Probably won't use hose water, instead will do some drain and fills with distilled. What is a BITOG consensus on how many drain and fills, and how long/ how many miles I should drive on each one prior to draining and going 50/50 red Valvoline coolant?
 
Originally Posted by Clubber_Lang
Probably won't use hose water, instead will do some drain and fills with distilled. What is a BITOG consensus on how many drain and fills, and how long/ how many miles I should drive on each one prior to draining and going 50/50 red Valvoline coolant?

Whether or not hose water is appropriate depends on the source of your water. When I lived in the City of Milwaukee the municipal water was extremely soft and was fine for a cooling system. But here in a suburb where water comes from a well it is not appropriate. But using distilled water is always better.

And as for how many times to flush it the language is usually "until it drains clear" or something like that.
 
Originally Posted by kschachn
Originally Posted by Clubber_Lang
Probably won't use hose water, instead will do some drain and fills with distilled. What is a BITOG consensus on how many drain and fills, and how long/ how many miles I should drive on each one prior to draining and going 50/50 red Valvoline coolant?

Whether or not hose water is appropriate depends on the source of your water. When I lived in the City of Milwaukee the municipal water was extremely soft and was fine for a cooling system. But here in a suburb where water comes from a well it is not appropriate. But using distilled water is always better.

And as for how many times to flush it the language is usually "until it drains clear" or something like that.


Okay, so here is my first drain after running Prestone flush for 6 hours (1 hour idling, 5 hours driving with the heat on full blast 50% of the time)
[Linked Image]

Prior to draining, I cleaned out the drip pan and funnel with simple green, then rinsed. To recap, 48,000 miles, 16 years on original coolant. First drained and filled with distilled, ran / idled an hour with heat on full blast, then used Prestone flush as indicated above.

I really hope using the flush wasn't a mistake, but I guess I'll find out.....
 
Originally Posted by kschachn
Originally Posted by Clubber_Lang
Probably won't use hose water, instead will do some drain and fills with distilled. What is a BITOG consensus on how many drain and fills, and how long/ how many miles I should drive on each one prior to draining and going 50/50 red Valvoline coolant?

Whether or not hose water is appropriate depends on the source of your water. When I lived in the City of Milwaukee the municipal water was extremely soft and was fine for a cooling system. But here in a suburb where water comes from a well it is not appropriate. But using distilled water is always better.

And as for how many times to flush it the language is usually "until it drains clear" or something like that.


Okay, so here is my first drain after running Prestone flush for 6 hours (1 hour idling, 5 hours driving with the heat on full blast 50% of the time)
[Linked Image]

Prior to draining, I cleaned out the drip pan and funnel with simple green, then rinsed. To recap, 48,000 miles, 16 years on original coolant. First drained and filled with distilled, ran / idled an hour with heat on full blast, then used Prestone flush as indicated above.

I really hope using the flush wasn't a mistake, but I guess I'll find out.....
 
FWIW: When I did a flush and drain of my '98 Maxima SE several years ago, I used WW along with Zerex coolant (50/50). After a while, it formed a weird dark goo around the interior of the coolant overflow tank, so heaven knows what it did to the block/radiator, etc. I won't ever use that stuff again!
 
Originally Posted by WhizkidTN
FWIW: When I did a flush and drain of my '98 Maxima SE several years ago, I used WW along with Zerex coolant (50/50). After a while, it formed a weird dark goo around the interior of the coolant overflow tank, so heaven knows what it did to the block/radiator, etc. I won't ever use that stuff again!

Yeah, I've most recently thought about using royal purple ice coolant additive, but I think once I've flushed all this crap multiple times with distilled that I will use 50/50 red and call it a day.
 
Also, I note that although it is only 55° out now and I am running 100% distilled to flush out the Prestone flush, the cooling fans do not have to turn on at all now to maintain temperature.....where as before, they were cycling on and off repeatedly
 
I use redline synthetic oil and transmission fluid for vehicles and like their products-except for water wetter-in 50-50 applications. Years ago used in 2004 Honda Accord and the antifreeze turned brown slimy... I didn't notice it right away and I don't know if it really affected the car is ability to cool the engine but it looked disgusting and it took a while to flush it all out.

The one: additive I've used in every vehicle including the same Honda was Lubeguard Kool-it... didn't seem to change color or texture of the 50-50 mix and cars have used it on included 2011 Tdi golf, 2004 Honda Accord, 2015 Honda Accord, 2001 Subaru Forester, and 2000 Lexus Ls400-have never overheated or anything. My mom still drives the 2001 forester, I sold back the Tdi to Volkswagen and had 250000 miles on it-wife drives her 2015 accord-115000 miles, my brother has the 2004 accord now and has well over 200 thousand on it and I have about 190000 on Lexus with no issues.
Have also used lubeguard red in most vehicles with automatic transmission with redline d4 and transmissions.have held up over time.
 
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