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Cooling system Flush DIY?

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Old Jul 30, 2013 | 05:14 PM
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Default Cooling system Flush DIY?

Doing a 1800m round trip road trip in a couple weeks (to Laguna Seca Historics, Corvette is the featured Marque this year) and thought its a good time to flush the cooling system. Bought the car in 2011 and have no idea when it was last done. I know my E36 M3 is a bear to get the cooling system free of air, no nothing about the Vette.

Have two gallons of Dex-Cool, 2 gallons of distilled water and one bottle of Water Wetter.

Any DIYs out there? Anything to look out for? Or is it just drain, fill with with water, run for 5 min, drain, fill with the mix of good stuff.
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Old Jul 30, 2013 | 05:34 PM
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I searched Dex Cool one day and found plenty of info on DIY's.
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Old Jul 30, 2013 | 05:48 PM
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Just drain what you can and refill. I seem to get about 2 gallons out.

I do this once a year, and don't care if it is diluted with a little of the old.

Takes 20 minutes, involves no air in system, and uses one gallon of coolant.

Cheap, Fast, Good............all three.
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Old Jul 30, 2013 | 06:00 PM
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the first time I did this on mine I drained the radiator until it stopped then started the car and once it warms up the rest will drain out of the radiator... just keep an eye on the temp gauge and you should have no probs doing that... then I filled with a 50/50 mix of dexcool/distilled water... when filling it just leave the cap off of the surge tank and run the car up to operating temp with the heater on full blast and let the fans cycle a few times and that should remove any air pockets and you're good to go... I remember my trans am had a hex plug on the side of the block behind the starter that you could drain the coolant from the block so that may be another option
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Old Jul 30, 2013 | 06:17 PM
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Originally Posted by 8VETTE7
When you drain the cooling system on the C5 more than half the coolant stays in the block and there are no drain ***** on the block to get the remaining coolant out. System holds about 13 quarts and draining even with removing hoses only gets 5 to 6 quarts out. Not a lot of fun trying to get ALL the old coolant out. The procedure I used took all day and the next time I will go to a shop that can push out all the old with new coolant and water mix. Costs a few bucks but much faster than draining what you can, refilling with distilled water, running the car to mis the coolant and water, letting the car cool down, then draining and repeating the process until you have nearly all water coming out on the drain......

Good luck with your efforts.
To get the fluid out of the block...

Follow the question mark shaped hose on the bottom of the
overflow tank to the block

Disconnect the hose at the bottom of the block

Make sure you put down a big pan

Peace
Chip
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Old Jul 30, 2013 | 06:24 PM
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See post #2!

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...tml?forum_id=1

Also http://www.iammoon.com/c5tech/coolant_drain.htm
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Old Jul 30, 2013 | 07:50 PM
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Patches to the rescue again! Man, I wish someone would just collect all of his posts and put them in one place! Ha Ha...
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