coolant change

Just a thought to consider - years ago I would use cleaner and my water pumps would go shortly after so I stopped doing it and have not done it on vehicles I own now. I ass U me the cleaner cleaned any lube from the bearing to the point that the water pump leaked from the weep hole indicating it was shot.

 

now that I think about it, maybe I should've reversed the order then. This was on one car following a regular maintenance of TB/water pump change. Guess I could've done all the flushing BEFORE installing new water pump.
And on another car it was without maintenance and just done to clean up a previous owner mistake; it appeared they "topped up" oil into the wrong hole (coolant reservoir) contaminating the system, and a cleaner product was used then to try and clean it out. As well as reservoir replacement with new clear plastic, because even the cleaner product would not make the reservoir look good again.

 

I personally drain the coolant, flush the engine and radiator with lots of tap water, and refill the system with...

2.5 gallons of pink pre-mixed antifreeze.

 

Flush your engine with DISTILLED WATER only.

 

I've done 2 coolant changes on my 2015 4.0L Automatic. Might seem like a lot for a truck that's not that old, but I had some issues with the replacement coolant I used during the 1st change and soon after, changed it again.

The following was drained from the indicated areas:

Radiator - 3 qts. 10 oz.
Overflow jug - 24 oz.
Drivers side block - 4 qts. 12 oz.
Passenger side block - 24 oz.

Total drained - 9 qts. 6 oz. - pretty close to the capacity for an automatic - suspect the rest was in the heater core.

I wasn't too surprised by the lesser amount drained from the passenger side, but wondered if I'd see a difference if I drained that side first and did just that during the 2nd change. Same results as listed above.

Here's the coolant capacities taken from a 2015 owners manual:

Capacity

2.7 L 4-cylinder (2TR-FE) engine
Vehicles with an automatic transmission
9.1 qt. (8.6 L, 7.6 Imp.qt.)
Vehicles with a manual transmission
9.2 qt. (8.7 L, 7.7 Imp.qt.)

4.0 L V6 (1GR-FE) engine
Vehicles with an automatic transmission
10.1 qt. (9.6 L, 8.4 Imp.qt.)
Vehicles with a manual transmission
10.3 qt. (9.7 L, 8.5 Imp.qt.)

 

I'll keep flushing my cooling systems with tap water. Thank you.

 

The hard water lime scale deposits in unfiltered non reverse osmosis tap water will probably result in scale deposits inside the coolant channels in your engine block and water pump. We here at Tacomaworld are merely advising that you use distilled water since the minerals have been filtered out. The gallon jugs of distilled are like 2 bucks each so they wont break the bank but replacing a cracked block just might break the bank. It's merely a precautionary measure and a preventative measure at best. Stay safe out there.

-J

 

I seriously doubt that all of the surfaces inside the block and heads stay wet after flushing due to gravity. Once the block drains and coolant is added what do you think the percentage of tap water that remained inside the block would be? My guess is that it would be less than 3%. Why would a scale inside the block crack it?

I've never seen a engine block's cooling passageways that didn't have some sort of scale/debris in it with the exception of low "hour" race engines. I've had boat engines that got a ton of sand and moss in them and have never had a problem caused by that other than the chrome headers getting discolored because their cooling line got clogged.

I don't do things because they're suggested, I do them when they make sense. Distilled water is super cheap, I use it in my APAP machine for my sleep apnea and I always have some at home. I'm more than happy to learn something new and if it changes how I do things that's fine too but it's got to make sense to me in order for me to change. Tap water scale can be seen around my shower head, which got replaced about 7 years ago, and with the amount of scale on the shower head being "flushed" twice a day for 7 years I just don't see a tap water flush every two years causing damage to a engine.

Thank you for the well written reply. I'd love to understand this topic on tap water causing damage from flushing a cooling system.

 

What size plastic tubing to attach to the drain ?????

Save some mess instead of running down the block.......thanx !

 

I can see a case being made for using distilled water as your coolant, but for flushing? Seems excessive to me. Even if you have extremely hard/calcium-laden water, a flush is only going to be in for a short time, and is going to be circulating (ie, little chance for minerals to settle out) for most of that...

 

1/4" ID rubber hose.

 

I work for window cleaning company and deal with mineral buildup from hard water on a fairly regular basis so for me it’s worth the extra $.78 a gallon to keep all that shit out of my cooling system. Now whether or not that makes any difference I have no idea but it’s $.78 a gallon so why not.

 

Where do I dispose of used coolant?


Btw you suck based on the quoted text.

 

I'm like you, I like to make sure that the information I'm passing is factually correct and using Distilled water for coolant flushes was one of those old adages from mechanics past. Perhaps merely taken as pure observation from the older engines of the 50s through late 80's, where the phrase just 'made sense'. So, I've done a bit of digging and in an attempt to stay away from forum posts unless they pointed to links or articles on the subject, I came across the two schools of thought. One school is all about using distilled water for flushes because it is 'pure' water without any calcium or magnesium deposits due to the process of vaporizing the water. The other school states that it doesn't matter since you'll be filling up with the 50/50 mix of coolant that would displace the water anyway, additionally that it would be better to use 'softened' water over distilled. The argument against softened water would be the ionized salt eating copper heads/seals. Unfortunately for this search, it's difficult to avoid opinion articles/forum posts on the internet. I wish I could share some solid advise. The only information I could come across are other forum posts or blogs that are opinion based so the general consensus is that it doesn't matter what water you use to flush with. Seems like all the different Toyota recommended coolant brands are either pre-mixed at 50/50 or they recommend mixing their coolant with distilled water. Bottom line, I couldn't find any definitive answer to the argument of pro or against distilled water. As long as the coolant system is burped of all air pockets and you get a solid 50/50 mix of anti-freeze, you should be good to go with whatever water you choose to flush with. Here's an advertisement blog post stating that you should never use distilled water but it reads to me like an advertisement, so keep that in mind.

-J

 

Just the facts Ladies and Gentlemen - just the facts! great read...

 

same places that take used motor oil........

Mine goes back to Walmart

 

Yep - tap water for flushing is just fine. Been doing it for many years. Flush - tighten drain plugs - refill with proper coolant that may be a pre-mix or one that you now add distilled water to.

 

I'm definitely not debating the use of distilled water in the coolant but it is absolutely inconceivable in my mind that flushing with tap water will do anything but get rid of the crud inside the cooling system as there just isn't enough left over to cause any damage whatsoever because of gravity.

 

I got my coolant flushed, seals checked and filled for $80 from TiresPlus.

 

I asked you on the other thread, do you know exactly what they flushed it with? I'm just curious. I'll continue to use tap water for flushing cooling systems.