Coolant Replacement/Flush Questions
01-13-2017, 05:44 PM
#21
Le Mans Master
Here is a write-up from another member that i copied over to my service log. Worked for me:
Change coolant every 5 years or 150,000 miles, which ever comes first.
Buy 2 gals Prestone Dex Cool (Walmart) and 6 gals distilled water. I used 5 gals of distilled water this year
and flushed it twice. I think three flushes would have been better.
1) Drain coolant (drain plug is on passenger side). Approx. 8 qts out of 12.6 qts will actually drain.
2) Pull Surge Tank and clean out crud. Refill surge tank to the neck with distilled water.
3) Start engine, idle 4 min
4) Top off surge tank
5) Rev engine at 2000-2500 rpm for 2 more min. (temp should reach ~200 F)
6) Shutoff engine, cool for 20 minutes
7) Repeat steps 1-6 until fluid drains clear (2-4 flushes)
8) Refill with 6.3 qts Dex Cool (it's a slow process) and then top off with distilled water.
9) Repeat steps 3-5, take test drive, refill as necessary with distilled water.
10) Dispose of your old antifreeze at a recycling center.
Change coolant every 5 years or 150,000 miles, which ever comes first.
Buy 2 gals Prestone Dex Cool (Walmart) and 6 gals distilled water. I used 5 gals of distilled water this year
and flushed it twice. I think three flushes would have been better.
1) Drain coolant (drain plug is on passenger side). Approx. 8 qts out of 12.6 qts will actually drain.
2) Pull Surge Tank and clean out crud. Refill surge tank to the neck with distilled water.
3) Start engine, idle 4 min
4) Top off surge tank
5) Rev engine at 2000-2500 rpm for 2 more min. (temp should reach ~200 F)
6) Shutoff engine, cool for 20 minutes
7) Repeat steps 1-6 until fluid drains clear (2-4 flushes)
8) Refill with 6.3 qts Dex Cool (it's a slow process) and then top off with distilled water.
9) Repeat steps 3-5, take test drive, refill as necessary with distilled water.
10) Dispose of your old antifreeze at a recycling center.
01-13-2017, 05:54 PM
#22
Safety Car
Duh I forgot lol I think I was 1.5 , good catch. I just did it 2-3 months ago you would think I would remember.
Context though which is important is do not use the 50/50 ratio due to the 1g trapped in system
01-13-2017, 05:58 PM
#23
Yeah, I appreciated that note, as I will be accomplishing this in the Spring. Got all the fluids - just waiting for regular days above freezing.
01-13-2017, 08:51 PM
#24
Thoughts?
01-13-2017, 08:55 PM
#25
My bad.
01-14-2017, 05:20 PM
#26
Hopefully my last question (sorry for any bother here). When doing the clean water flush and bringing the car to full op temp (heater on full) should I have the reservoir cap in place or leave it off? My reason for asking is that open allows me to ensure the system is full given the first (and subsequent draining).
01-16-2017, 07:25 PM
#27
Project is Completed
Well, the project has been completed. First and foremost, thanks for all the input/guidance.
Interesting "learn" as I proceeded through it all.
1. It took four drains and refills to get to clear.
2. To assist in the refill I found I needed to start the engine with the reservoir cap OFF (after it stopped taking water) to in effect get the car to burp enough to complete the fill. Hope this was not a mistake but it certainly helped.
3. Regarding my final fill I followed the advise to use 100% antifreeze and put in 6 1/3 quarts. While I expected to further add about one more quart of water (with the five already in the system), in fact I was able to add only about one pint, if that. Any thoughts on this?
4. Coolant temp with the car moving seems to be 194-196. At idle (stationary) about 206.
All in all it went well. I actually enjoyed getting back to doing my own service work.
Interesting "learn" as I proceeded through it all.
1. It took four drains and refills to get to clear.
2. To assist in the refill I found I needed to start the engine with the reservoir cap OFF (after it stopped taking water) to in effect get the car to burp enough to complete the fill. Hope this was not a mistake but it certainly helped.
3. Regarding my final fill I followed the advise to use 100% antifreeze and put in 6 1/3 quarts. While I expected to further add about one more quart of water (with the five already in the system), in fact I was able to add only about one pint, if that. Any thoughts on this?
4. Coolant temp with the car moving seems to be 194-196. At idle (stationary) about 206.
All in all it went well. I actually enjoyed getting back to doing my own service work.
01-16-2017, 08:00 PM
#28
Tech Contributor
Member Since: Oct 1999
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Well, the project has been completed. First and foremost, thanks for all the input/guidance.
Interesting "learn" as I proceeded through it all.
1. It took four drains and refills to get to clear.
2. To assist in the refill I found I needed to start the engine with the reservoir cap OFF (after it stopped taking water) to in effect get the car to burp enough to complete the fill. Hope this was not a mistake but it certainly helped.
3. Regarding my final fill I followed the advise to use 100% antifreeze and put in 6 1/3 quarts. While I expected to further add about one more quart of water (with the five already in the system), in fact I was able to add only about one pint, if that. Any thoughts on this?
4. Coolant temp with the car moving seems to be 194-196. At idle (stationary) about 206.
All in all it went well. I actually enjoyed getting back to doing my own service work.
Interesting "learn" as I proceeded through it all.
1. It took four drains and refills to get to clear.
2. To assist in the refill I found I needed to start the engine with the reservoir cap OFF (after it stopped taking water) to in effect get the car to burp enough to complete the fill. Hope this was not a mistake but it certainly helped.
3. Regarding my final fill I followed the advise to use 100% antifreeze and put in 6 1/3 quarts. While I expected to further add about one more quart of water (with the five already in the system), in fact I was able to add only about one pint, if that. Any thoughts on this?
4. Coolant temp with the car moving seems to be 194-196. At idle (stationary) about 206.
All in all it went well. I actually enjoyed getting back to doing my own service work.
Bill
01-16-2017, 08:08 PM
#29
Distilled or regular drinking water?
I think this comes down to knowing your water. In our area, some of us are on natural wells and the water is very mineral rich. Fine for the body, not sure so good for the inside of our engines. It wreaks havoc for our kitchen, washroom, and bathroom fixtures. A few bucks for distilled water may not be necessary, but it seems the wise course of action, at least for our drinking water.
I think this comes down to knowing your water. In our area, some of us are on natural wells and the water is very mineral rich. Fine for the body, not sure so good for the inside of our engines. It wreaks havoc for our kitchen, washroom, and bathroom fixtures. A few bucks for distilled water may not be necessary, but it seems the wise course of action, at least for our drinking water.
01-16-2017, 08:15 PM
#30
Congrats. You did it. I had a concern about some of the advice but I see you did drain and refill several times to get the drained fluid to run clear. Not sure if you used distilled water or not but if you did you didn't really need to. GM recommends clean drinkable water and I suspect the original factory fill includes good old Kentucky clean drinkable water. 5 years from now you can repeat the procedure. I am getting ready to replace the coolant for the third time in my 2003 Tahoe. After 14+ years and 110K miles the cooling system works fine. Coolant in the system is still clean after 4 years in the system and amazingly the hoses are still in great shape. Not sure if it is the Dexcool that is keeping things in such good shape but I never had results like this when using the old green antifreeze in my pre 97 vehicles.
Bill
Bill
Like yours the fluid from the first drain was actually pretty clear (dark pink). I didn't much if any cloudiness. Hoses are all good, and there was not much gunk at all in the over flow tank.
My only curiosity is with regard to how much fluid I needed to add for the final fill. With 6.3 quarts of Dexcool I expected to have to add an additional quart of water. Turned out I needed quite a bit less.
I am going to continue to check things but all in all seems to have gone well.
01-16-2017, 08:56 PM
#31
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St. Jude Donor '13
Congrats. You did it. I had a concern about some of the advice but I see you did drain and refill several times to get the drained fluid to run clear. Not sure if you used distilled water or not but if you did you didn't really need to. GM recommends clean drinkable water and I suspect the original factory fill includes good old Kentucky clean drinkable water. 5 years from now you can repeat the procedure. I am getting ready to replace the coolant for the third time in my 2003 Tahoe. After 14+ years and 110K miles the cooling system works fine. Coolant in the system is still clean after 4 years in the system and amazingly the hoses are still in great shape. Not sure if it is the Dexcool that is keeping things in such good shape but I never had results like this when using the old green antifreeze in my pre 97 vehicles.
Bill
Bill
Whether or not the hardness will make any difference depends on several factors whose condition we can only guess at.
In your particular case, obviously tap water is working well. I go with distilled now because the cost is minimal. Let's get together and talk about this again in another five years.
01-16-2017, 09:36 PM
#32
Probably correct. When I sent a sample of my original coolant to a lab for analysis, they emailed me back and recommended I change it out soon because of excessive hardness, use distilled water for the refill(s).
Whether or not the hardness will make any difference depends on several factors whose condition we can only guess at.
In your particular case, obviously tap water is working well. I go with distilled now because the cost is minimal. Let's get together and talk about this again in another five years.
Whether or not the hardness will make any difference depends on several factors whose condition we can only guess at.
In your particular case, obviously tap water is working well. I go with distilled now because the cost is minimal. Let's get together and talk about this again in another five years.
01-17-2017, 08:52 PM
#33
Epilogue
Last night I went out to check the coolant level and found it had dropped quite a bit (car must have burped...).
Added about a quart and a half of distilled water and all is good.
Added about a quart and a half of distilled water and all is good.
01-17-2017, 09:28 PM
#35
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St. Jude Donor '13
The total quantity was about what it should have been, but I didn't make a note of how much. We used the refill procedure that's in the shop manual, don't have it in front of me but it was easy and worked well.