DIY: Coolant flush. Any advice?

I have a 2011 V6 automatic. I made the mistake of topping of my coolant over flow reservoir with some green coolant. I realized after what I did was bad. I want to flush all the coolant and put in toyota long life coolant.

The steps as I understand it are:

1) drain coolant from radiator, and coolant from engine block (2 drains).

2.) fill with distilled water and run with heater turned on.

3.) drain distilled water

4.) refill with toyota long life coolant or similar product

5.) burp the system and top off system


Is this correct? Anything else I need to do? Or tips?

I figured I could do this myself and not have to pay $140 for a mechanic to do it.

 

Anybody?

 

I don't know about running straight water, I hear it can create steam and crack the block. Personally, I'd just drain it out the best you can and refill it.

 

You could flush it with water. I did mine with a garden hose once, but it's not really required. The green coolant won't hurt anything, and probably didn't suck any into the system anyway. Drain the overflow and replace with long life coolant and you are good.

I knocked a hole in my radiator once and after I stopped the leak made it home on three bottles of water and a bladder full of piss. This is why I flushed my coolant system, lol. Ran good, didn't even overheat.

 

I looked into the radiator and the color was slightly orange and not pink so I'm guessing some of the green must have gotten sucked into.

Ok maybe I will just drain engine block and radiator and refil with coolant and not flush with distilled water.

 

go ahead and flush it with a hose; then do a final flush with distilled water to minimize the debris that will cook out of the tap water.
Using the capacity of the system, put in full strength a/f to mix with distilled water. You can go up to 60 percent a/f.

 

Flush with hose huh? I thought that was bad? But guess a distilled water follow up makes it ok

 

The orange color is normal, that's how it looks in mine as well. If you are concerned about it mixing in, your first post procedure is correct, and it doesn't take long to do. Depending on your mileage, might be a good idea to do it anyways.

 

If you plan on flushing the cooling system yourself, once old coolant is drained remove the thermostat then fill with water and run the engine. This way the water will flo through the whole system without having to reach operating temperature. Then let cool before draining. You can then repeat if you want. Just be careful not to get burned by hot coolant or water. Anytime you drain the cooling system replace the thermostat. It's just good PM.

 

You can use distilled water for the whole process...I've just used it for the final internal 'rinse', a couple gallons to get the tap water mostly out. If you've seen the scum from an evaporated gallon of city water, you wouldn't want it in those small engine cooling passages or on your thermostat.

Reason I'm so picky: Toyota spec is to never use any commercial additives, only "High-quality ethylene glycol-based non-silicate, non-amine, non-nitrite, and non-borate coolant with long-life hybrid organic acid technology."
That to me, sez only distilled water should be used, and then add full strength oem coolant to max 60 percent strength, based upon cooling system capacity. Some distilled water will always be trapped, so I don't think you want to use 50/50 mixed in this case.

 

Hmm. Ok thanks. Maybe I will just drain and refil with coolant?