Quick Question: Need help Now on Coolant Change!

[Triton46]

I'm just starting my coolant flush and when I open the hood I notice there is already a flush kit T on my heater core line. Im guessing a mechanic used one before, but I think its on the wrong hose. The kit says to put the T on your heather core inlet tube.

As you stand at the front of the car looking at the windshield there are two tubes side by side on the passenger side. Is the inlet on the left or the right as you look towards the windshield?

Prestone kit says it should be the one on the right, but the T that is there is on the left. How can I tell which one I want? Help!!

 

[SteveVB]

Triton,

The heater core inlet hose is the one that comes from the engine not the water pump, I dont know if its the left or the right but the coolant flows from the core to the water pump so just trace it back.

Have fun.

 

[SteveVB]

Im going to try this again, I think I confused myself.

If you want to back flush the heater core you remove the hose from the water pump and connect the garden hose and remove the hose from the lower block to let it out. Thats to back flush, so the water pump hose is the HEATER CORE outlet, and the HEATER CORE inlet is the hose attached to the lower block.

Hope thats clear now. Sorry I dont know whether its the left or right that would be tooo easy!!

 

[Triton46]

I finally found it in my Haynes manual on an obscure page. Sure enough, the inlet is on the right and the outlet from the core is on the left.

You hook up the garden hose to the T on the inlet, so that water flows into the core (backflushing the core). This kit is the worst. They give you a spray tube to stick in the radiator where the radiator cap is (after taking the radiator cap off). I expected the radiator drain to catch everything in the bucket and the 'spray tube' to spit out a little every now and again. Nope. The whole radiator came out the 'spray tube' and onto my garage floor. I closed off the radiator cap and turned down the hose hoping this would slow things down a bit, but instead the overflow container (next to the washer) filled up and overflowed. So this round goes to the Explorer. Clean water, or at least semi clean water, came out in the end and I refilled the radiator with water and flush, closed it all off and flushed the system for 5 min. Then I drained the radiator and filled with water, then went on a 4 mile drive to make sure it was warmed up and all the water got around.

I am now about to drain the radiator and change the thermostat, should have some interesting stories after this part. If all goes well I will be refilling with radiator fluid and water then driving to recycle what I was able to catch in the buckets. What fun.

 

[Triton46]

I'm done!

I had to get an open ended wrench for the bolt on the upper left of the thermostat housing, but they came off pretty easily.

The thermostat does not look to bad, but I don't think it had ever been changed. It has MotorCraft written on the outside and 92 on the top. Is it possible this is a 92 degree thermostat? I put in the new one, hand tightened all the bolts and I was done. We will see in the next few days if this solves my cold Explorer. I still think it may be the temp sender or the EEC temp sender, but I will diagnose that next week. Thanks for the help!

 

[Robert]

No, it's a 192 degree thermostat. I doubt if there is such a thing as a 92 degree thermostat.

 

[Triton46]

Not sure, the top said 92.

Anywho, took the Explorer for a practice run. After 5 min the needle began to move...hasnt moved in the winter time since 93.

The needle went to the middle...then moved to the M in NORMAL then backed down to the O then back to the R. All in all I was very satisfied with the results as I had previously wanted to replace the EEC and Temp sensor. Thanks to all who talked me out of it!