Coolant flush and change on 2010 tacoma

On 2.7L, Haynes manual says to remove thermostat after coolant is drained and reinstall housing without t-stat, run with distilled water for flush, drain again. Reinstall t- stat and fill with new antifreeze. Is removal of t-stat really necessary, won't the engine warmup and t-stay open as your flushing, and yes I'm draining the block. Any input woul be be greatly appreciated.

 

Yes you need to remove the t-stat unless you want to wait for the truck to fully warm up each time.

But having done this on many vehicles over many years, it's SO much quicker to just remove the t-stat and flush it all one and done.

If you want to be really savvy:

- Drain what you can, and then remove t-stat from t-housing. Temporarily reattach t-stat housing. Don't worry about leaks.

- Get some additional lengths of radiator hose the same diameter as the ones on the truck.

- Disconnect lower radiator hose at radiator, and attach extension hose that you run up to top of engine bay or externally. This is your fill hose. Put large funnel at top of this extension hose and fill this hose with clean distilled water. (you'll need a few gallons so go buy the jugs at wal mart for $1 ea)

- Disconnect upper radiator hose at radiator and run an extension on the hose into a 5 gallon bucket. This is your waste/drain fluid.


- Have a friend monitor the fill hose and keep it topped off with distilled water. Do not let this part run dry or you'll risk water pump damage.

- Start up the engine. The water pump will begin cycling the clean distilled water in the fill hose through the entire system and then dump out all the old fluid into the waste bucket.

- Once the waste fluid comes out clean, turn off engine.

- (at this point you can also run some clean distilled water through the radiator to flush it out)

- Bolt everything back up per spec to make sure there are no leaks.

- Buy 100% concentrated antifreeze (not 50/50 premix) and fill up the radiator with exactly half of the system capacity. Then, just top off the system with distilled water until you get your desired levels.

Voila. Perfectly clean system with brand new fluid and a GUARANTEED 50/50 mix.