Coolant System Flush

Made a post recently about my truck running a lot warmer then usual. Ended up being the thermostat wasnt opening soon enough and was suppose to open at 180 degrees but when we put it in a pot and testes didnt open until boiling which is 212. Replaced thermostat and now running good. Im running prestone Green 50/50 coolant. Im wanting to go Factory red Oem coolant. Can i flush the system by just draining the coolant from radiator adding distilled water running and draining and repeating or should i use the block drain as well?

 

I tend to leave block drains alone on older vehicles.

If you remove the t-stat it will drain the block sufficiently. Rad drain and heater core drain, then flush with low pressure garden hose.

I usually flush with water, blow it out and let it drain, then add about 60% coolant long life back in, presuming trapped water. I live in -30 area so we need -50 coolant.

 

I didnt realise that the green prestone i have isnt the right kind of coolant i need. If i run the radiator with distilled water will it get to the heater core or do i need to flush that sepertaly

 

UH OH

 

Yes.

But you don't need to flush with distilled. Just use tap water as @Bishop84 states. When all drained/air blown, the water left is insignificant.

Then use your coolant/distilled mix.

 

You have to turn the heater on to get the water to flow through the core.

 

Green prestone should be fine as long as you got all the old coolant out before you added it. From what i've read, it is only an issue when you are mixing with other coolant or you have a lot of deposits in the block and radiator. I did a full flush and added green prestone 50/50 about 35k miles or 5 years ago and there have not been any issues with it. I will be switching back to the toyota pink coolant when I change my water pump and thermostat. And yes heater on full blast let the truck get up to temp and then run it a bit, shut it off, open the petcock valve on the radiator to drain, repeat until the water that comes out is clear.

I would be careful with using tap water to flush it. If you have well water and no treatment system you likely have a lot of minerals and such in your water and this is what causes radiators and coolant passages to get gunked up. City water on the other hand, its a toss up. I opted for distilled water to be on the safe side and I think I used 6 or 7 gallons which cost about $5 from the grocery store.

 

I'm doing a coolant flush today. Was going to replace the radiator hoses upper/lower, and the thermostat with it's gasket. I was planning on using the prestone zombie green stuff. My question: are the Duralast thermostats from Autozone OK? They have one for $13, or a Failsafe for $22. Haven't seen anything about what thermostats to buy, thx!

 

Why are you bothering to replace it if it works fine?

 

Preventative maintenance? I've heard of people replacing them when they replace the water pump and hoses, depends on mileage I guess. Cheap insurance for overheating and all the issues that can follow from that. Just make sure it's an OE temperature thermostat and make sure it's not a no name brand. I'm doing the same thing very soon since I'm at 153k miles now: water pump, thermostat, gaskets, and a full flush.

And spring for the red coolant, autozone should have it. https://www.autozone.com/antifreeze...k-antifreeze-and-coolant-1gal/720595_668568_0

I used the green a couple years ago when I did it cause it was a good deal on Amazon, but now it's time to flush it again and I'm just gonna go back to the pink/red

I did a little more research yesterday cause I was curious, and it seems like the green "universal coolant" is fine as long as you do a full flush, but a shorter service interval is recommended (3yrs or 35k miles is what I read). If you go with OE coolant you can get away with a longer service interval, I think with OEM Toyota coolant it's 150k miles or 5 years, but you'd have to check the owners manual.

 

Just preventive Mx. Truck has 176k on it. I've read a lot where folks swap out the thermostat 5 yrs or so. I'm in Phoenix so that engine is always hot, even when it's not running.

Saw a flush video from ChrisFix where he pulled the thermostat for the 3 or 4 water fill/run/empty cycles, to ensure full flow from engine ASAP and not having to warm up the coolant to get the thermostat open to get it cycling. Seemed smart and like it would do a better job cycling that water thru to flush it, and also let you drain faster without having to be up above 180F. Good time to swap out the thermostat and hoses it seemed. So, any input on Duralast Vs. Failsafe thermostats?

 

My Tacoma has factory thermostat - never heard of thermostat being a part of "maintenance" . She runs perfectly for the last 25 years (including 21 years in California) and never failed to cool the engine so why would I even bother to open it?

As for the flushing 2.7 engine, the block drain also does not drain coolant completely. You will get probably one or 2 quarts more than just using a radiator drain. I used block drain once, and it was a big mess (the drain plug is just a plug, so coolant was flowing uncontrollably over the engine and everything under it), so after that I decided to not do it anymore. Just the radiator drain. The recent coolant flush I did on my 2.7 engine is described here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...k-or-rysium-build.457350/page-5#post-17477499. Maybe it is a more complicated process than just sticking a garden hose into radiator, but at least I know I have only 50-50 mix of new coolant and distilled water and maybe max 2% (that is 5 ounces) of old coolant left.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s--5ft5YiHg

gotta love a good chrisfix video...I've read mixed things about the tstat. You can always test it in a pot of water on the stove to make sure its working.

 

Things he did wrong on that video (imho) or at least do not apply to our trucks:
1. You can drain a coolant from reservoir just by keeping the radiator cap on - while draining it will suck the all the fluid from the reservoir.
2. When draining a coolant from the radiator valve for God sake use a piece of hose over the "tap". Less mess and faster draining.
3. When draining a reservoir instead of sucking through the radiator hose just blow into a vent hose while the cap is on reservoir.
4. When circulating the water no need for drive - the engine will heat up faster when you are not driving.
5. Why he was surprised thet the temperature gauge was showing "low"? he removed the thermostat so the engine will never get to operating temperature.
6. When circulating the water through the heater core just open the valve (set the temperature on max) but do not turn on the blower at all. The engine will heat up faster.
7. The number of drain-fill cycles does not depend on how dirty the coolant is, but how much of liquid is left in the system when you can drain from the radiator "tap". Simple math.
8. Using concentrate is not for "cheaper" and 50-50 for convenience, after you flush the engine completely with distilled water you add exactly the same amount of concentrate as the water left in the engine, and then you top off with 50-50 mix. His truck did not drain 100% from the radiator, so his adding 50-50 mix to the water left in the engine is wrong.
9. I am amazed he was able to tighten 10ft-lb using his hand as a measuring tool .
10. This is not how you "burp" the system - it is more than just squeezing a hose.
And finally the most wrong thing on that video is the truck - it's frigin Mazda , not Toyota. Why would you want to learn from a guy who drives Mazda . Check Timmy's video - this is the right truck and right guy .

 

Rysium, link me the video and i will watch it. Brand new to this forum, never heard of Timmy, and didn't find his video with Google or YouTube when I was looking for info. Love to see it.

 

https://youtu.be/oQsxmi-CNng
he’s got a good channel, has a video for pretty much any repair you’ll need to do on a Toyota truck or 4runner. He goes into a lot of detail too. ChrisFix is my personal favorite, he’s grown exponentially in popularity in the past few years. His videos are a more general so they can be applied to anyone trying to do some DIY work on their car/truck, and they’re short and sweet. His videos are what got me into working on my truck 5 years or so ago. His earlier videos are eh and they’ve gotten a lot better, but I still love them cause he’s not just following a set of directions, he usually talks about some of the theory behind it which I think is cool and very helpful.

Regardless, I watch timmys videos and ChrisFix. I lean towards Timmys videos for more complicated or Toyota specific repairs. A coolant flush is pretty basic lol, it’d be pretty hard to seriously mess it up.

 

Thx goldentaco. Will watch that video now.
I ended up buying 13 gallons of distilled water today since it was only $0.89 a gallon! But last night while I was in the mood to flush and didn't have any distilled water, I ran 2 cycles of regular water through but it's all been flushed out with distilled today.

I'll tell you what is way harder then you think, is replacing the radiator hoses on a Honda Odyssey! I ended up having to take apart the trim on the bottom front to access the bottom hose, and it was way back in a Nook and a bear to get off. Not sure I think the new hoses I bought from AutoZone are as good as the ones I took off, the stock ones were a bit thicker. But with 165,000 on that Odyssey some new hoses won't hurt.

I'll do three flushes tomorrow on my Tacoma with the distilled water then fill.