Is it easy for the "home mechanic" like myself to change the anti-freeze in my 99' coupe. Is it just a matter of loosening a bolt or two and let her flush out? :confused:

 

Yep...pretty much :yesnod:

 

One of the Corvette magazines goes through all the fluid changes at 30k miles including coolant; it's on the news stands now.

 

remember that (I think) '99's need the long life coolant... :seeya

 

remember that (I think) '99's need the long life coolant... :seeya

(made w/GM by Texaco if you wanna save a little. I think the Texaco brand is a lil cheaper than "Dexcool" if you can find it.)

 

Are you doing a flush of the coolant system or just draining out the radiator. Big difference on the two.

On the last magazine published they talked about the 30,000 maintenance. I just had my whole coolant system flushed.

They take the hose from the radiator hook it up to this big machine that has about 5 to 10 gallons of anti-freeze and cleans out the entire coolant and passes through the water pump, thermostat, reserve unit , hoses and the radiator of course. This is done while the car is running for 10 to 15 minutes until all of the fluid is gone from the machine. I notice when I drive on the street my temperature before this use to get up to 212 degrees, now I get to about 204, but then again it has been cooler outside then usual, but I do feel my car run a little cooler and smoother.

I also did the tranny fluid exchange. I was not aware that Dexron III was for manual, I knew it was for automatics. If you look it up on the computer you will see it uses automatic Dexron III fluid. I thought it used something different.

I paid $100.00 for all this. The mechanic I spoke to I told him I thought flushing the radiator was just draining it. He said NO!! All the crud gets into the water pump and hoses and your thermostat gets gunk in there and does not open as it use to. HE says I always tell people on what a proper flush of the coolant system is.


[Modified by 2KVetteMan, 3:57 PM 4/5/2002]

 

2KVetteman is dead on the money!! :cheers:

 

I've used the Prestone method for many of my cars many times. It involves putting their "Tee" fitting in the highest heater hose, and their kit comes with several sizes. They also give you a spout type fitting that plugs into the radiator opening, but this requires you to jury rig an old radiator hose to get the liquid into a bucket instead of all over the front bumper. You flush by hooking up a garden hose to the "Tee" , turning it on, and letting all the liquid inside the block, radiator, heater core, and hoses get purged out the top of the radiator. You can run the engine while this is going on to insure everything old gets pumped out. You can also use their SuperFlush which comes in a pint plastic bottle to clean out the insides. Follow their directions, then use the garden hose to get rid of all the SuperFlush. I finish off by using 3 or 4 gallons of condensed water from the house's air conditioner to flush out the city water which usually has chlorine and what else in it. I haven't tried doing this to my 2k yet, but if there is no easy place to splice in a Tee, I'll install a temporary heater hose. :yesnod:

 

Here's my take which I did this last weekend
Removed all three hoses of the thermostat and let it drain. Undid the top radiator hose and flushed thur about two gallons of clean distilled water thru the raditator, filled the overflow with distilled water then let started engine to run new water thru block. I repeated this once more until I had clear fluid. I then filled system with distilled water with a 10% mixture of Preston ( 12oz /gallon ) and one bottle of Redline Waterwetter. I'm running around 201 in town with the air on in 90degree outside air.