Coolant drain and fill

Sounds super easy! I am confused about the above quantities. Is 3 gallons for a engine and radiatior drain and 1 gallon for just the radiator drain?

 

Thats correct.
3 gallons is total drain and fill when draining everything (engine, radiator, heater core and lines)

to drain and fill radiator 1 gallon should be enough.

 

Since the intervals are all over the place here what is the general consensus on how often to just do the radiator?

 

There is no general concensus, Toyota says 100K first time and 50K after that.

 

I am in north east so I start at 5 years first one then just do one every two years

 

This is the first time I will be doing this so does anyone have a pic of where plug is on the radiator? Just don't want to mess up.

 

Is this necessary? I don't have a decent jack or ramps (not that I would use ramps). What purpose does nose up serve? Is it to prevent the heater core from draining?

 

Pretty much. It keeps air confined to Radiator only.

 

Are those both pink and are they compatible to mix with the Toyota high dollar stuff?

 

^^I know Zerex Asian Vehicle is pink and compatible but I wouldn't mix it with the original coolant since the original is a concentrate.

 

I just performed this service yesterday. It was really pretty easy once I figured out where the engine block coolant drains were.

Here is a link to the factory service manual page, over on the North Carolina Toyota Tacoma Off-Road Association forum: I followed the service manual instructions to a "t" and didn't have any trouble.

The FSM states that the total coolant capacity is 10.3 US quarts. Utillizing all three drains, I was only able to drain about 8 quarts (including reservoir).

Neither engine block coolant drain is visible from the top. To make things easier, I went ahead and removed both skid plates (I couldn't get at the radiator drain petcock without removing the front skidplate, and I took the other one off to make it easier to try to look up and see where the engine drains were). Even with the FSM showing the locations of the drains, they're still not easy to find.

The driver's side drain is directly under the front left cylinder exhaust outlet, and the passenger side drain is directly under the rear right cylinder exhaust outlet.

I used some 5/16" clear tubing (available at hardware stores) to run down from the drains to my pan.

On other posts here, I saw that some guys removed the plastic wheel well cover to get at the driver's side drain. I didn't find this to be necessary. I was able to reach down from the top (the only other way to access the drain) and pop the drain hose on. Then, I used an 8" extension (10mm socket) to open the drain petcock.

Careful, the petcock and valve are brass, and it's easy to bend, break, or round off the bolt head.

On the passenger side, it's pretty easy to reach up from underneath the truck and pop the hose on.

Both drain valve bolts can be reached from the topside (with a suitably long extension).

As it says in the FSM, you will need a "non-silicate, non-amine, non-nitrate, and non-borate" coolant with long-life "hybrid organic acid" (HOAT) technology.

Other than the factory Toyota "super long-life" coolant (pink), which is $18.50 (wholesale price) per gallon (50/50 pre-mixed), and unavailable in concentrate form, the only coolant I found locally that met this spec was the Zerex Asian Vehicle coolant. It is pink, like the Toyota SLLC stuff. I found it at NAPA for $13.49/gal. (pre-mixed). It's also not available in concentrate. Incidentally, I've heard that Valvoline/Ashland (the mfr. of Zerex Asian) is actually Toyota's coolant supplier.



As I understand it, the Japanese in general are averse to coolants that contain silicate especially - their philosophy is that it is hard on water pumps.

 

You can't tell whether coolant is good by looking at it. On modern engines and coolants the freeze protection doesn't degrade as much as it used to either. It happened on older engines because people were constantly topping off with plain water. Miine has used about a cup in 81K miles. The real issue is the consumption of corrosion inhibitors. There are sacrificial additives in the coolant that prevent the aluminum from being attacked. Once those are expended, the coolant becomes corrosive.

I prefer to do a one gallon drain and fill every 33K or so, than wait 100K to do it all. That maintains a more constant level of inhibitors. It's guess work though because I don't know of any way to test for inhibitor depletion.

 

I've tried searching for threads that have the coolant drain valve on the engine. I believe this is it, right above the oil pan just to give you an idea of what to look out for.

Since you have to remove the front skid plate for the radiator drain valve, you might as well remove the rear skid plate to access this valve. I bought some 7/16 clear tubing from Home Depot since the 3/8 is just a tad too small.

Please excuse the crappy pic since it was on my old 3GS w/low light.

 

Yep, those are them.

Good job dude.

 

Thanks Memphis (insert Gone in 60 secs quotes).

Your link actually help identify the valve. Now I just need to find the driver's side since I didn't have time to do the coolant flush this past weekend.

 

OK I have a question.

I cant seem to get my hands on distilled water but i can get purified water.

The coolant i bought here in MEXICO has instructions to drain radiator and fill with clean water. run engine and thene drain again and then fill radiator with coolant.

the coolant is toyota coolant -- its pink but darker than whats in the truck from factory.

Looks a bit more concentrated than whats in the truck.

Are there similar instructions on the back of the jugs you guys buy in the USA.

 

Did a radiator drain and fill today, I am at 97K. Old fluid looked great.

Question....I used Toyota "long life red", which you have to mix 50/50 with distilled water as its a concentrated coolant.

Is the Toyota Red fluid compatible with the 50/50 pre mixed that was in there from the factory??

The Toyota red fluid that I used part # is 00272-1llac Toyota long life red coolant.

Thanks for the replies!!!

 

Yes, the Toyota LLC is compatible with the SLLC. You just need to change the LLC more frequently. I forget the spec right now. I know SLLC is 5/150.

 

Thanks, thats what I figured. Couldn't find the Pink stuff locally so I used the red. $26 a gallon at carquest but since you have to add distilled water to the mix, final product would be around 2 gallons.