How often to drain/fill, flush coolant?

[Remington Morris]

Hi guys!
Probably a silly question but I know you guys don’t judge! My 1994 ATX has 48k miles and the original owner had religiously drained and filled the coolant every 5k miles from new until he sold the car with 33k miles to the gentleman from whom I bought it from. The car had been stored for a few years before the original owner sold it. The coolant was pretty dirty when I bought it so I took it to have a radiator flush. The shop recommended just a drain/fill instead of a flush so that’s what I did with 40k on it. It now has 48k.
My question: how often should the coolant be drained/filled and/or flushed on these engines?
Sorry for the long winded post! Thanks for any input.
Remington

 

[yaycandy]

I always did the 30,000 miles or 5 years, which ever first but I did 3 years instead of 5 but still 30k miles. You can go farther on mileage but just how I did it to ensure its always like new. Yamaha sho engine does not like to run hot, its like instant death for it if it overheats as any iron block aluminum head engine.

 

[luigisho]

I usually drain and fill 2-3 yrs or sooner if I put alot of miles on it. If it was nasty dirty I would do it again in a month and go from there. Since you are in Mesa, I would drain and refill it myself. There are plenty of DYI info on this forum and all over the web. It's not something you should be afraid to do yourself. You really want fresh coolant in there to prevent clogs in the heater core. That requires the dash to come out to replace, so be proactive.

 

[NoSlo]

When the radiator starts leaking or when a hose has to be replaced. Won't be long...

Sounds like it has had plenty of flushing before, but probably close to the needed once every few years to maintain the corrosion inhibitors.

A flush that is good enough is to warm engine, drain, then fill it back up with filtered tap water or distilled, run until hot, and drain. Fill back up with 1.5 gallons of green coolant concentrate (not 50/50 premix) and top off with water, or if it is being parked for six months, you can go with more coolant percentage.