Flushed cooling System Today

[qship96]

I picked one of the hottest days to mess with the Q!!! after having to go to 4 stores to purchase 9 gallons of distilled water, here is what I did- Drain/fill radiator 7 times with engine warmup/cooldown cycles in between.......should have got most of the old out by then, but waste water was still slightly tinted after the 8th drain SOOOOOOOO

I refilled radiator with distilled and started the warm engine, made sure thermostat was open,and slightly cracked open the drain valve and poured in the remaining 3.5 gallons of distilled slowly at the same rate{keeping system full} it was draining from bottom of radiator as engine ran!!!!!! Oh it was clear by then!!!!! Refilled with Peak Global Lifetime coolant let circulate and cooldown, drain rad again and refill with Peak to end up with a 50% mixture. Should be good til Q gets retired permanently.
Modified by qship96 at 3:39 PM 8/9/2009

[Trumpkin]

Are you this detailed in everything?

[qship96]

I wanted to get ALL of the old {2 years old} coolant out as I was going from Prestone All Makes and Models coolant to a different chemistry{ no 2EHA type Peak Global Lifetime} coolant.

[paranoidjack]

...slightly cracked open the drain valve and poured in the remaining 3.5 gallons of distilled slowly at the same rate{keeping system full} it was draining from bottom of radiator as engine ran!!!!!! Oh it was clear by then!!!!! Refilled with Peak Global Lifetime coolant let circulate and cooldown, drain rad again and refill with Peak to end up with a 50% mixture. Should be good til Q gets retired permanently.

Uh oh, do I see some people copying this method in the future and causing trouble? Yes, I do.

Nicely detailed!

[cientortas]

In the past, I have usually removed the thermostat and secured the housing back with no thermostat installed. Then I flushed with distilled water a few times. This usually flushes all the old fluid out, with no need to wait for the engine to reach operating temp for each flush. Add a new thermostat, bolt everything up, add coolant for appropriate mixture and its all done.

I guess this method makes it easy to replace the thermostat at each flush...which is overkill, but its only a few bucks and some sealant.

[goody90q45]

..... here is what I did- Drain/fill radiator 7 times with engine warmup/cooldown cycles in between......

It must have taken hours for the engine to cool down. Did you do the 7 flushes over a 3 day period?

[Q45tech]

Since my custom Griffin radiator is worth more than the 322,000 mile Q and I know the additive package in most AF is only good for 2-3 years, I replace AF every 2 years.

It is always interesting to use filter paper on the first drained AF and see how much aluminum comes out.

It is interesting to see the condition of thin oem rad at 160k and the thick Griffin at 160k....~~ equal 9.5 years.