STRMLNE

Is there an easy way? I want to replace all of my 20 year old radiator hoses which looks like can be done from the top. I don’t have a lift or jacks etc. is there any easy way to drain the coolant without lifting the car? Thanks.

Smoken1

You can make your own ramps with some 2x8 by wood to make your own ramps

Bill Curlee

POP off the lower radiator hose!

If it were me, I would fill with distilled water and drain and repeat until you get a clear clean drain. That way you will get ALL the old coolant out.
NOTE.. GM up-dated the old 15 lb over flow tank cap with an 18 lb cap. Recommend that you get the new cap.
Make sure that you use the steam cross over vents (loosen up the cross over pile fitting/ fastener until coolant comes out.) on FRONT of both cylinder heads to burp out any air in the block/heads when you are filling and running for the first time.

Bill

STRMLNE

Haha. Thanks! I was wondering more if there are any tricks to catching the coolant without a lift. Also, my dealer swapped out my radiator cap recently. Cheers to them. Haha.

Bill Curlee

Go to the grocery store and get an aluminum foil turkey pan. You can bent it to fit under the car and catch most of the coolant.

Bill

OUTAKTRL

What’s the benefit of the newer pressure cap please ??

Bill Curlee

More pressure allows the system to operate at a higher temp before you reach the boiling point of the coolant/water mixture. REMEMBER, Out cars operate at a higher designed engine operating temp than cars of the past. Any advantage that you can get to keep the coolant from reaching the boiling point is a benefit.

Most people find that their OLD OEM caps start to fail. The old OEM capsget clogged up and don't allow the cooling system to vent when it completely cools down and a vacuum is pulled on the system resulting in collapsed radiator hoses. That's a great time to replace the cap with the up-graded cap.

Bill

STRMLNE

My cap just recently failed! Haha. Dealer that I go to gave me the new cap for free. Bill knows his stuff.

Im going to swap out all the hoses tomorrow. Thanks for the advice. Although, I’ll probably have another question later when it comes to the burping procedure.

sailmaster

Hi Bill
I cannot find the steam crossover vents to burp the system. Is there a pic or video showing the location on the engine.
Thanks
Richard

STRMLNE

I wasn’t sure what Bill meant either. I read many other posts where burping was just getting up to temperature so the water pump is circulating and then releasing the surge tank cap when it cools down. Is burping with the steam vents “better” or faster? I’m not sure.

Smoken1

Front or the rear? If your trying to find the rear you need to remove the intake manifold to see them

STRMLNE

I guess front. I doubt removing the instake manifold would make sense just to burp the system after refilling coolant.

Smoken1

The front looks like this..
https://www.gmpartscenter.net/oem-pa...EaAuWuEALw_wcB

STRMLNE

That’s one of the rubber hoses I couldn’t find for sale by GM. It’s small and comes off the throttle body. I did come across this part number but wasn’t sure if it was the same since it’s listed as a Camaro part.

Theres also another hose i can’t find. Goes from bottom of the surge tank to the fire wall. Gm only sells it on a 25’ roll apparently. (The other 6 are pretty easy to find the part numbers.)

Smoken1

I went and found the new one that I am not going to use. Part # is GM 12602544

Bill Curlee

You can just see it at the very top of this picture:

https://smg.photobucket.com/user/bil...cions.jpg.html

Here is an early style that runs under the intake 97-2000

STRMLNE

So can you just burp the system by getting it up to temp after refilling with dexcool?

Bill Curlee

You can see the block off plug on the rear of this 2002



You can just see the top drivers side fitting on the head in this picture

STRMLNE

i think what he was asking is what do you mean by this.

sailmaster

So you just loosen the 2 bolts,one on each side until coolant flows out and retighten. Now I see.
Thank you Bill as usual,your a big help.
Thanks