I'm in the middle of a cooling system flush & fill. What's the capacity of my cooling system? Small block '69.

Thanks!
Dave

 

I just did that today also, and I was going to look up the capacity in my owners manual but I forgot.... It's a LOT compared to what you can drain out of the radiator. I only put 2 gallons of antifreeze in, which would only be 10% of a 20 gallon system, which is below the minimum recommended. Oh well, I may throw in a can of waterpump lube/anti corrosion stuff. i want to run minimal antifreeze % in the summer. I did backflush the entire system using the Prestone hose T-thingy. Topped it off with 2 gallons of distilled which seems pretty silly when the block is full of hose water! :) MJ

 

I got it figured out. I did the 10 minute flush thing. Drained the system a few times with hose water and then went to fill it.

Couldn't find my manual so I first posterd here, then I just I looked at the coolant that I drained/spilled out of the system the first time. Looked like about 2 gallons.

Put one gallon of distilled water in. Thought "hmmm..... that's not enough" So then I put in 1/2 gallon of water and 1/2 gallon of antifreeze. Then a dash more water to top off the system and it looks like I'm good to go. Just need to pick up some water wetter and I shoudl be all set (now that the weather is cooler than it has been all summer :rolleyes: )

 

OK, since you mentioned "Water Wetter" here is my story for today :)

I am draining/flushing the vette outside of my garage.
I carry 2 gallons of antifreeze and 1 water-wetter out of the garage and set them down by the vette. I take out the overflow bottle and go up in front of the house to the hose and flush that out.
I come back to the vette to fill up the radiator....... and no water wetter! :eek:
I look all around the vette, go back into the garage, come back out, go back to the front of the house by the hose, go back to the vette, crawl around looking under the vette, go back in the house, call out to my wife, "HONEY, DID YOU SEE A LITTLE BOTTLE OF RED STUFF??????".... go into the basement, ask my son if he saw it, come back out, look under the hood, I AM GOING FRIGGIN CRAZY!!!!!! Where is the Water Wetter?????????????

So, my wife is pulling out of the garage, dodging the vette, and is about to head down our fairly steep slanted driveway..... Oh, did I mention we have a fairly steep driveway running a good 75 feet down to the street?

There in the street is the little friggin bottle of water wetter! Either the wind knocked it over or I knocked it over and it rolled all the way down the driveway into the street!!! :lol:

And BTW, I took a long soapy shower and my hands still stink of antifreeze :( MJ

 

Dave, as I mentioned above, you can only drain a small amount of the total cooling system capacity out of the radiator. The only way to get it all out is to pull the plugs in the block. How much antifreeze did you put in??? From what I read above sounds like you have added way too little.

i still have to look it up, but it seems to be 21 -24 quarts, which would be 5 - 6 gallons. 20% (kind of a minimum level) would be 1 - 2 gallons antifreeze. MJ


[Modified by MNJack, 10:53 PM 8/19/2002]

 

Look it up if you could. I can't find my manual anywhere. I remember seeing it not too long ago and I thought "What's that doing here and not in the car". Of course it isn't in the car now, either.

The good thing is that I now have a petcock on the radiator. Just had a plug before. So I can drain small wuantities of fluid at will and add what I need.

 

IIRC, my manual says 17 quarts. Gimme 5 to get it out of the firesafe and check.

 

Direct from the 1969 manual (original to my car...):


Quarts:

350 (Base)

14 (std, no htr)
15 (std, htr)
16.75 (std, auto, no htr)
18 (std, auto, htr)
17 (hvy duty, no htr)
18.5 (hvy duty, htr)


350 (L46)

14 (std, no htr)
15 (std, htr)
17 (hvy duty, no htr)
18.5 (hvy duty, htr)


427 (non L88)

21 (std, no htr)
22 (std, htr)
21 (std, auto, no htr)
22 (std, auto, htr)


427 (L88)

20 (std, no htr)
21 (std, htr)
21.5 (std, auto, no htr)
22.5 (std, auto, htr)

Hope this makes sense. -- Dave :smash:

 

 

Thanks! I'm guessing my system is about 20 quarts then. I have an L46 with heater but with a big-block radiator. So that must be about 20. Hmmm...yeah, looks like I need more coolant in there.