Yearly coolant flush

[Eliw]

Ok, the prestone flush and fill kit is a Godsend. Also, After one year of doing a radiator flush, I flushed the whole engine out. What I flushed out was not green 50/50 premixed coolant which I have been using on the car. What flushed out looked more like used orange dexcool. After flushing, the car did keep a more stable temp and warmed up nicely.

On a side note, when I first bought this car, it had a slightly busted heater core. I had no car knowledge back then and tried the quick fix. A can of radiator leak sealer. While doing the flush on saturday, I took the expansion tank out to flush it out too. That was the only thing that had green in it because the sealant had sealed off the tank and had gummed up both the hoses that run to it. People, stay aways from easy fixes. They are evil.

 

[SonicRiot]

Haha! 50/50 mix? You're paying for 50% water...?!?


Anyway, I have yet to use Prestone's kit, but I'd reccomend a new T-stat and gasket with every flush. 10 bucks in parts prevents many future headaches.

Did you drain from the radiator petcock or pull a hose?

 

[Eliw]

Actually, I did change the thermostat and the Motorcraft thermostat comes with the gasket. I flushed from the petcock and the radiator fill hole, per the prestone instructions. I did the final radiator drain using the petcock and pulling the lower radiator hose, since I was replacing that hose too.

 

[Eliw]

Oh, and yeah, I paid for half watter. I know. But im lazy.

 

[LeddZepp8687]

Yea that prestone kit is REALLY nice, I couldnt believe the stuff I saw spewing out of that little nozzle thingy that you put in the radiator cap and the turn the hose on full blast. It was looking pretty clean and then all then once the coolant mixture seemed to be leaning out and spewing more water than anything I just saw black water spitting out of there.

Well worth the 15 bucks or whatever it costs IMHO

 

[SonicRiot]

Do you remove the T-Stat and bolt it back together to also flush the block or did you pull the plug on the block itself?

 

[Eliw]

actually, no. The way the kit I had goes is that you install the T fitting on the heater inlet hose. With water pumping in through there and coming out through the radiator fill hole, it flushes out the engine without having to take the thermostat out. I replaced the thermostat Right before the final radiator drain to get any remaining crap out of the upper radiator hose

 

[SonicRiot]

How does the coolant get past the closed T-Stat?

 

[Eliw]

it may be closed, but the Flushed stuff gets sent backwards through the pump back through the lower radiator hose andout the radiator fill hole