Changing coolant via block drain

[015point9]

Is there any block or port lower than bottom radiator hose?  

First time I used drain plug in radiator had heck of time getting it back in.  So I've been disconnecting lower hose on radiator for years.  

If there is block drain I'm thinking about screwing in a shut off valve.  Good idea or no.

[greed]

There are one or two block drain plugs on the block. I don't remember exactly where. I did a google search and did find some reference to them. The general consensus was, they are so rusted in they would probably get messed up trying to get them out. I haven't checked into them much after I read of the potential problems. I would like to have drain petcocks in the block.

[Mopar1973Man]

All this talk about a block drain. Why? I just back my truck up a slope and leave the nose pointed down. All drains no biggy. I only use the radiator drain. The only hose I pull is the upper because I pull the thermostat out and throw it away. Then flush the entire block out using plenty of fresh water. Then Drain good. Now I fill the entire block through the thermostat hole till rim top full. Now install the the new thermostat and upper hose top off the coolant as normal. No burping required you done.

 

No crawling around on the ground for lower hoses or block drains. Just the normal radiator drain. 

Edited June 24, 2018 by Mopar1973Man

[015point9]

4 hours ago, greed said:

There are one or two block drain plugs on the block. I don't remember exactly where. I did a google search and did find some reference to them. The general consensus was, they are so rusted in they would probably get messed up trying to get them out. I haven't checked into them much after I read of the potential problems. I would like to have drain petcocks in the block.

 

Thanks ... yes install peacocks.  I must admit it didn't enter my mind about the threads.  

4 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

All this talk about a block drain. Why? I just back my truck up a slope and leave the nose pointed down. All drains no biggy. I only use the radiator drain. The only hose I pull is the upper because I pull the thermostat out and throw it away. Then flush the entire block out using plenty of fresh water. Then Drain good. Now I fill the entire block through the thermostat hole till rim top full. Now install the the new thermostat and upper hose top off the coolant as normal. No burping required you done.

 

No crawling around on the ground for lower hoses or block drains. Just the normal radiator drain. 

 

About how much of a slope?  And being on a slope, no problems in heater core? It gets flushed out also?

 

[Mopar1973Man]

1 hour ago, 015point9 said:

About how much of a slope?

 

Typically a driveway slope or similar is a good starting place. Steeper the better for draining. 

 

1 hour ago, 015point9 said:

And being on a slope, no problems in heater core?

 

Heater core won't drain period. You would have to roll the truck over on its roof. 

 

1 hour ago, 015point9 said:

It gets flushed out also?

 

Yes as long as the engine is running the water pump is pushing water through the entire system. This is why the thermostat has to come out. So water can flow freely through everything. 

[TheGreatWhite]

Theres a block drain?! Thats pretty interesting!

[Mopar1973Man]

17 minutes ago, TheGreatWhite said:

Theres a block drain?! Thats pretty interesting!

 

Just basically a pipe plug. I think its on the driver side of the block.

[leety]

5 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

All this talk about a block drain. Why? I just back my truck up a slope and leave the nose pointed down. All drains no biggy. I only use the radiator drain. The only hose I pull is the upper because I pull the thermostat out and throw it away. Then flush the entire block out using plenty of fresh water. Then Drain good. Now I fill the entire block through the thermostat hole till rim top full. Now install the the new thermostat and upper hose top off the coolant as normal. No burping required you done.

 

No crawling around on the ground for lower hoses or block drains. Just the normal radiator drain. 

Do you do the flush with the engine running or not running?  In the old days I used to flush them running with the thermostat in.  Just pull the upper hose off the radiator and direct the exiting water out of the engine bay.  Right now there's nothing but distilled water and system goop in my cooling system.  I've been trying to get this thing clean for awhile (about 8 times I think lost count) by draining, refilling and running distilled water in it.  It's still rather dirty.

 

I just replaced the thermostat so I don't see the point of tossing it at this point.

[Mopar1973Man]

1 minute ago, leety said:

Do you do the flush with the engine running or not running?

 

Running with the thermostat out. If you leave the thermostat in there will be ZERO flow from the upper port. 

 

I've NEVER used distilled water ever in my truck. I've used either creek water or well water every time. Been using cheap Walmart SuperTech coolant. No scale build up. I don't use any coolant additives or coolant conditioners. Just standard flush and fill with plenty of water to rinse all debris and low pH coolant out of the block. I run water for at least 10 to 15 minutes with the engine running till it absolutely clear and no foam visible. 

 

255k miles my documented last change. I'm way overdue for a change now.

 

 

 

[leety]

12 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Running with the thermostat out. If you leave the thermostat in there will be ZERO flow from the upper port. 

 

I've NEVER used distilled water ever in my truck. I've used either creek water or well water every time. Been using cheap Walmart SuperTech coolant. No scale build up. I don't use any coolant additives or coolant conditioners. Just standard flush and fill with plenty of water to rinse all debris and low pH coolant out of the block. I run water for at least 10 to 15 minutes with the engine running till it absolutely clear and no foam visible. 

 

255k miles my documented last change. I'm way overdue for a change now.

 

 

 

Sadly I'm working with LA's finest tap water. 

 

I s there a write up somewhere on how to do it the way you are doing it?

Found it!

 

In your write up the radiator is out.  My question now is, where is the water exiting if the radiator is installed?

 

[leety]

When I worked at the Women's Garage in the mid 1980's this was how we flushed cooling systems.  It worked really well.

 

Theory: The lower radiator hose is generally where the water is pulled from by the water pump into the block. If you let the engine heat up and let the thermostat open so and release hot water out of the system you will get a warm/hot water flush.  When the thermostat opens the water will exit out of the upper radiator hose.

 

Steps:

 

1) Run some fast flush in the system and drive the vehicle a bit to get to operating temp. 

2) Let engine cool down entirely

3) Drain the system to get the chemicals out.  Bottle them up and take them to a proper recycling location.

4) Nor for the live flush part. Take the upper radiator hose off (at the top radiator connection) and redirect the upper radiator house out of the engine bay (this will be the departure hose for your flush), if you need to add another old hose to it to further redirect the exiting fluid out of the engine bay that's good too. 

5) Remove the radiator cap put your garden hose in and turn the water on but not full blast.  It's best to have a shut off valve on the end of the hose.   

6) Fill up the radiator and then close valve at hose end, leave hose turned on.

7) Turn on the heater full blast, then start the engine and let it run and warm up.  Keep adding water to the radiator through the filler opening as the level drops so the fluid doesn't run out.

 

Once the engine heats up the thermostat will open and the dirty water will exit through the upper radiator hose that was set up to redirect the water out of the engine bay.

 

Keep refiling the radiator and let the system heat up again until the thermostat opens again.  Let this cycle repeat until the water is exits the upper hose clear.

 

This is more of a live flush technique.  I did it on a lot of cars back in the day and it did a fine job of cleaning the entire system out.

 

Would there be any issues anyone could see using this method for our trucks?

 

[Mopar1973Man]

2 hours ago, leety said:

In your write up the radiator is out.  My question now is, where is the water exiting if the radiator is installed?

 

The reason the radiator was removed was the bottom 3-6 inches of the radiator cakes up with dirt. So if I'm splashing through puddles on dirt roads that dirt now dries and hardens closing off a part of the radiator. So about every 100k miles I was pulling it to clean the radiator out.

 

 

2 hours ago, leety said:

My question now is, where is the water exiting if the radiator is installed?

 

If the radiator was installed then the hose would be in the fill neck, a rag stuffed in the upper neck of the radiator. Then the exit point would be the thermostat hole. You can rev the engine a little to pull the water through everything but it will throw water everywhere. The surge does push through the heater core and other places bringing any heavy material out. 

 

2 hours ago, leety said:

Sadly I'm working with LA's finest tap water. 

Still, you can flush with it but you'll need to drain as much as you can out. The problem with city water is the pH level is already low (acidic from the chlorine) and this exhaust the coolant package for pH stabilizer pretty quickly. So yeah, you are stuck. The point I made is in not the mineral content of the water at all that causes scale build up. Actually, its the pH of the coolant as it oxidizes the metals they turn into blooms on the radiator core tubes.  

Edited June 24, 2018 by Mopar1973Man

[leety]

23 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

The reason the radiator was removed was the bottom 3-6 inches of the radiator cakes up with dirt. So if I'm splashing through puddles on dirt roads that dirt now dries and hardens closing off a part of the radiator. So about every 100k miles I was pulling it to clean the radiator out.

 

 

 

If the radiator was installed then the hose would be in the fill neck, a rag stuffed in the upper neck of the radiator. Then the exit point would be the thermostat hole. You can rev the engine a little to pull the water through everything but it will throw water everywhere. The surge does push through the heater core and other places bringing any heavy material out. 

 

Still, you can flush with it but you'll need to drain as much as you can out. The problem with city water is the pH level is already low (acidic from the chlorine) and this exhaust the coolant package for pH stabilizer pretty quickly. So yeah, you are stuck. The point I made is in not the mineral content of the water at all that causes scale build up. Actually, its the pH of the coolant as it oxidizes the metals they turn into blooms on the radiator core tubes.  

Excellent.  I took my radiator out not too long ago.  It was covered with that goo from the crank case ventilation mess combined with dirt.  I fixed that with some PVC and a little help from my friends at Mopar1973man.com :-)

 

Your method is similar to the one I learned in a shop in the mid 1980's (posted above), with a couple of differences.  I have been working with distilled water on this and I may just run a couple of cycles of distilled once I get the thing clean with the tap using my method.

 

Is our cooling system a 6 gal capacity?

[GSP7]

Slopes in Idaho are prit near 90 degrees vertical, water at the bottom containing big sturgeon and steel head

 

 

.

 

I use distilled water with the full strength coolent

 

The tap water where I live is extremely full of mineral and rock, it gets hard water calcium and other deposits clogging up the radiator tube ends

Even in my toilet tanks get sand/rock on the bottom

Edited June 24, 2018 by GSP7

[Mopar1973Man]

1 hour ago, leety said:

Is our cooling system a 6 gal capacity?

Completely dry yes. Typical flush and reload come to be 5.0 to 5.5 gallons. Typically the first gallon of coolant goes in straight not mixed. Then all coolant from this point is mixed 50/50. 

 

51 minutes ago, GSP7 said:

Slopes in Idaho are prit near 90 degrees vertical, water at the bottom containing big sturgeon and steel head

True enough. 

 

52 minutes ago, GSP7 said:

The tap water where I live is extremely full of mineral and rock, it gets hard water calcium and other deposits clogging up the radiator tube ends

Even in my toilet tanks get sand/rock on the bottom

Being I've had the water test here 3 times since I've been here its very low mineral water. The creek water I've been drinking for years. I've been known to load my RV drinking water with creek water a time or two.