Coolant- drain and fill or flush?

I am at 94,000 and I’m doing it the lazy man’s way I guess. I just drained the radiator and re-topped it off with new coolant (about a gallon) and in the spring I’ll do it again same way. I also did not bother flushing out with the distilled water. The stuff I drained out looked brand new. I think I should be good to go for 3-4 more years with this process. I have not been in the habit of actually draining the block on any vehicle I’ve owned, not sure if that’s necessary but I’m sure someone here will have an opinion and feedback. Take care.

 

Does the radiator have a drain or just pull the lower hose?


I had the dealer do a flush a while ago, this time I’ll DIY It.


What it looks like isn’t the issue, coolants become acidic over time and that’s what destroys any metal parts.


Curious what mileage or time frame people are changing out their radiator hoses and clamps.

 

Driver’s side lower rad corner has a hand turn screw. That’s the rad drain. There is also a block drain on each side of the engine. When I did mine I got a good amount out of the passenger side and not much out of the driver’s side.

I did my first change at the 9 year mark. I don’t put a lot of mileage on it so I plan to do every 5 years.

 

How much coolant is being drained from the block drains ? I have always just drained the radiator and coolant tank at 50,000 miles on all my vehicles. Also I didn’t know from a previous post that with Tacomas the coolant is being circulated in the heater core all the time with no need to turn on the heater. Depending on how much coolant is being drained from the block, I may or may not drain the block.

 

I drained the passenger side block after the rad and if I remember correctly, got about as much out of the block as what drained from the rad. I then drained the driver side block and got little more than some drips.

You should be fine doing just one of the block drains and the passenger side is easier to access. I’ll probably still do both though to help prevent them from getting seized.

 

Please forgive my ignorance but this block drain is new to me. No other vehicle I’ve owned has had that. I’m assuming that you are just rotating some sort of drain cock to an open position, right ? You’re not actually unscrewing something that detaches from the block. I’m just trying to visualize how the drain operates.

 

Is there specific torke for the Engine block drain screw?

 

Look at the photos on the first page. A 10mm socket loosens the drain cock/opens the valve. You’ll see you’ll need a larger size wrench to remove the whole valve. You do not remove the whole valve. Use the smaller, 10mm and you’ll be fine. You should only need to loosen it 1-2 turns.

 

Thanks for your response and the tip, I kinda figured it was some type of drain cock and didn’t need actually removing from the block. I’ll do it every 50,000 like all the vehicles I’ve owned in the past. But this will be the first vehicle that I drain the block on. Never had a truck that had that option before.

 

I believe it’s 9ft lbs. double check though