Radiator, flush and fill kit or just use the drain plug?

[donalds]

Good to know, thanks. Never read the instructions, LOL And we have hard water. Good timing, about to change out my coolant, no idea how long it's been there.

Ill bet a long time
That's how it always works out

 

[spinnn]

I think the reason they say use distilled water only is a lot simpler than listing all the imaginable possibilities you shouldn't use.
Do not use pond water, bird bath water, swimming pool water, agriculture run off water, nuclear power coolant water, left over dog water bowl water ... You get the point.

I didn't bother with a flush kit. Opened the pet ****, put garden hose in radiator fill port, ran engine five minutes after thermostat opened with garden hose in radiator cap, then a mild acidic radiator flush, finally five flushes with garden hose, and finished with Preston pre-mix.

The old water was dirty brown, but no rust flakes.

I have two of those checked off:
-pond water
broke a heater hose while romping, bypassed the core and filled with water from a nearby lake. Naturally I changed it when I got home...
-dog water
same incident
Also, I think that I have the nuclear plant and agricultural runoff covered since the lake was in a rural/ag area near a nuclear plant.
Good times!

 

[dejen3303]

My dad was a big fan of backflush. Be sure to run the heater when you do.
At work I have GM and Mitsubishi engines with a service interval of 800 hrs due to the aluminum head. I drain and refill with 50/50 standard green "Global" coolant and never have any problems. If they have gone too long past that then it is more work.
For my cars I always use the manufacturers recommended coolant and use 50/50 or I mix with distilled water. Distilled water is only about a buck a gallon. I'll probably do a drain and refill on my Explorer at 5 years regardless of the mileage. It's 3 now and I don't have 25k on it yet.
I made the last payment this month. I'm so glad I bought it when I did. There were 12 to choose from. 4 or 5 were Platinum's.

 

[Islandguyhere]

Lol. I love this forum. Thanks for keeping it off FB Groups so we aren't monitored.

On this subject it's a flush not installing a LS or anything major. Haha.. I'm not a born wrench tho YouTube fixed that for me. Haha. Splice into the hose drain. Fill, drive, drain and repeat 3x. Just use straight tap water for the flush then 50/50 for final fill.

Ford really needs to stop trying to force sealed systems. It's so lame a repair income they can count on from 99% of people who wouldn't know why a wrench is open on one side and looped on the other. The sealed trans started it and that's a joke of engineering.

Great question you asked that many prob need same info but dealer is their only option for $300 flush.

Radiator 1/2 price compared to local parts shop Rockauto.com or 1AAauto.com (better customer service). GL.

Currently on hand...99, 03, 2x 05, 07, 2x 2010 Explorers & 99 Mountaineer.

 

[LMHmedchem]

Since I still don't know exactly where the flush and fill kit is supposed to be installed, I ended up just running about 20 gallons of water through the system 2 gallons at a time. I ran the motor with the heat on full for about 10 minutes after each addition of water and then drained the water into a bucket. At first, there was allot of coolant in the water that was trapped in the engine after the initial draining. By the end, I just got clear water. There was no rust or sediment that I could see at any point. I took off the hose that runs from the bottom of the reservoir several times, but there was no sediment in there either.

I do think this is a poor design. Why would you design a closed cooling system that cannot be completely drained? Why would anyone ever want to drain only part of the coolant and leave half of it stuck somewhere in the engine?

I ran 20 gallons through because I wanted to make sure that all of the flush liquid had been cleared. I was only able to run the engine for about 20 minutes after I added the flush because it turns out my alternator is on the way out and I was running more or less on the battery. I had to keep charging the battery so I could run the engine between additions of water.

The system is still filled with water because I will probably have to take off the upper radiator hose when I replace the alternator and belt tensioner. I don't want to bother with the coolant until the rest is fixed.

I am still not sure about the math on the refill. My understanding is that the capacity of the cooling system is about 4 gallons (including the engine block and heater core, etc). If I am currently extracting about 2 gallons from the drain plug, that means there are 2 gallons of water trapped in the engine. That says I should add 2 gallons of 50/50 coolant concentrate to dilute the 2 gallons of water. Running the engine with the heat on should complete the mixing process.

Someone said earlier to add 1 gallon of coolant concentrate and 1 gallon of water, but that would give me a 1:3 ratio coolant to water, where it is supposed to be 1:1. Which is correct? It does get below 0 here in the winter, so I wouldn't want to be light on the anti-freeze.

LMHmedchem

 

[dejen3303]

Since I still don't know exactly where the flush and fill kit is supposed to be installed, I ended up just running about 20 gallons of water through the system 2 gallons at a time. I ran the motor with the heat on full for about 10 minutes after each addition of water and then drained the water into a bucket. At first, there was allot of coolant in the water that was trapped in the engine after the initial draining. By the end, I just got clear water. There was no rust or sediment that I could see at any point. I took off the hose that runs from the bottom of the reservoir several times, but there was no sediment in there either.

I do think this is a poor design. Why would you design a closed cooling system that cannot be completely drained? Why would anyone ever want to drain only part of the coolant and leave half of it stuck somewhere in the engine?

I ran 20 gallons through because I wanted to make sure that all of the flush liquid had been cleared. I was only able to run the engine for about 20 minutes after I added the flush because it turns out my alternator is on the way out and I was running more or less on the battery. I had to keep charging the battery so I could run the engine between additions of water.

The system is still filled with water because I will probably have to take off the upper radiator hose when I replace the alternator and belt tensioner. I don't want to bother with the coolant until the rest is fixed.

I am still not sure about the math on the refill. My understanding is that the capacity of the cooling system is about 4 gallons (including the engine block and heater core, etc). If I am currently extracting about 2 gallons from the drain plug, that means there are 2 gallons of water trapped in the engine. That says I should add 2 gallons of 50/50 coolant concentrate to dilute the 2 gallons of water. Running the engine with the heat on should complete the mixing process.

Someone said earlier to add 1 gallon of coolant concentrate and 1 gallon of water, but that would give me a 1:3 ratio coolant to water, where it is supposed to be 1:1. Which is correct? It does get below 0 here in the winter, so I wouldn't want to be light on the anti-freeze.

LMHmedchem

A 50/50 (one to one) mix should be -30f. You are going to have to figure out how to get most of the water out. On my machines I can pull a "heater" hose and blow out the head. You cannot get anything out of the block without a drain petcock or removing the water pump. Back in the day I used a simple hydrometer. Now I use a volt meter and check for electrolysis.

 

[MisterWizard]

Hello,

A radiator system flush is one of the next things on my list. I have all of the coolant out, so I figured this was a good time to do it.

This is the flush compound that I have,

Blue Devil Radiator Flush & Oil Degreaser 32oz ($9.95)

I also have a Prestone Flush'N Fill Kit and I am wondering if I should bother to install it so I can connect up the hose and flush the system with water under some pressure or if I should just fill with water and let it drain out. The instructions do not make it entirely clear as to where this kit should be installed, so that complicates things a bit.

Is there an advantage to using the kit or should I just let gravity do its thing a few times?

Thanks,

LMHmedchem

You need to be careful what flush chemicals you're using. The newer cars with aluminum radiator and heater cores don't take kindly to the older, more caustic flushing compounds, and end up spinging leaks.
Personally, unless there's a build-up of gunk in your cooling system, I'd opt for just flushing it with plain water and then adding the proper 50-50 coolant mix.

 

[MisterWizard]

Hello,

A radiator system flush is one of the next things on my list. I have all of the coolant out, so I figured this was a good time to do it.

This is the flush compound that I have,

Blue Devil Radiator Flush & Oil Degreaser 32oz ($9.95)

I also have a Prestone Flush'N Fill Kit and I am wondering if I should bother to install it so I can connect up the hose and flush the system with water under some pressure or if I should just fill with water and let it drain out. The instructions do not make it entirely clear as to where this kit should be installed, so that complicates things a bit.

Is there an advantage to using the kit or should I just let gravity do its thing a few times?

Thanks,

LMHmedchem

You need to be careful what flush chemicals you're using. The newer cars with aluminum radiator and heater cores don't take kindly to the older, more caustic flushing compounds, and end up spinging leaks.
Personally, unless there's a build-up of gunk in your cooling system, I'd opt for just flushing it with plain water and then adding the proper 50-50 coolant mix.