Hey guys. I'm just wondering how I go abouts flushing out the motors cooling lines/ports or whatever you wanna call 'em. Flushing the radiator is easy enough, take out plug on bottom and run water thru the radiator cap hole. Also keep in mind I cannot remove my themostat as the bolt broke off inside and the thread is holding it together still. Also pics where I should put the water nozzle would help too. All help would be apperciated.
How to flush out the motors cooling ports?
- Thread starter Alpha WereFox
- Start date
I used prestone super flush from the autoparts store. put it in with clean water (after rad has flushed) and follow the directions, let it run for a few minutes and drain. I filled it up and ran it with straight water and drained (repeated several times) afterwards to make sure it was all gone. I got a good amount of calcium and rust out of my 5m
I guess what I would do, so this probably won't help you. lol
I would pull the radiators lower coolant hose. I would then jack the ass end of the car up as high as I could. You'll hear the excess fluid draining into your catch pan. I'm not sure about this as I have never tried to drain or flush those lines. But this is where I would start.
Let the car down and go back to a 50/50 coolant/water mix. Repeat as desired.
In thinking about this, it's going to take you a long time to burp that bad boy.
I'm kind of curious as to why you want to purge the system completely.
I would pull the radiators lower coolant hose. I would then jack the ass end of the car up as high as I could. You'll hear the excess fluid draining into your catch pan. I'm not sure about this as I have never tried to drain or flush those lines. But this is where I would start.
Let the car down and go back to a 50/50 coolant/water mix. Repeat as desired.
In thinking about this, it's going to take you a long time to burp that bad boy.
I'm kind of curious as to why you want to purge the system completely.
There's a drain plug on the block. By the starter, iirc. Most coolant system flushes require 6 hrs. of run time before you drain them. There's instructions on the bottle. Drain the radiator, then drain the block at the plug. You might have to knock some of the crud outta the hole with a screwdriver to get it to flow.
It's on the other side. I replace them with a petcock. Sure makes things easier, especially on turbo cars.
If the problem is heavy scaling and deposits the best thing to use is Prestone Heavy Duty Cleaner. The two part powdered stuff with neutralizer. You may not be able to find it depending on how eco-nazi your state is. If not buy some oxalic acid from any chem supply house or ebay. It's the same stuff. Neutralize with sodium carbonate, aka soda ash. Nothing will clean a system up better.
Cleaning aside he may want to flush the system because he's changing coolant chemistries, say going from a conventional coolant to an HOAT. In that case the system should be flushed but something tells me that's not his reasoning.
If the problem is heavy scaling and deposits the best thing to use is Prestone Heavy Duty Cleaner. The two part powdered stuff with neutralizer. You may not be able to find it depending on how eco-nazi your state is. If not buy some oxalic acid from any chem supply house or ebay. It's the same stuff. Neutralize with sodium carbonate, aka soda ash. Nothing will clean a system up better.
Cleaning aside he may want to flush the system because he's changing coolant chemistries, say going from a conventional coolant to an HOAT. In that case the system should be flushed but something tells me that's not his reasoning.
I was looking for the engine drain as well.
Is it the bold just above the heatshield (accessible from the top) ? or somewhere accessible underneath? The TSRM has sort of a vague illustration, and I can't quite tell if the one I can see from above is the correct one - any advice would be appreciated!
Is it the bold just above the heatshield (accessible from the top) ? or somewhere accessible underneath? The TSRM has sort of a vague illustration, and I can't quite tell if the one I can see from above is the correct one - any advice would be appreciated!
Pax side, below the exhaust manifold to the rear. I dunno about NA cars but it's not accessible from the top on turbo motors. Getting a ratchet in there when hot is a pain. That's why a petcock is nice. Just reach under and open it up. I use the 90 degree style so it doesn't piss hot coolant on my hand.
jetjock said:
I am turbo, just wanted to thread jack here since it was getting some action. I'm doing my HG as preventative maintenance, and this is holding me up. I guess I'll just keep taking stuff off until I see it. I like your idea of petcock, I'll get right on that as soon as find the damn thing:biglaugh:
Better to find it before you take the head off. I see too many photos of headless blocks with coolant in the jackets. Sloppy technique 
jetjock said:Better to find it before you take the head off. I see too many photos of headless blocks with coolant in the jackets. Sloppy technique
Definitely. I had originally planned to flush out the cooling system before I took out the radiator (replacing it with a Koyo). It had green coolant in there and I was going to convert to red. I guess I'll flush with some distilled water after I get everything back together.
I didn't get any responses when I posted a question about this, so I got frustrated and just continued with the radiator removal and disassembly.
I certainly want to at least find the drain before I pull the head. I'm hoping I can get far enough today to get the head off.
As soon as the exhaust manifold comes off it'll be obvious. It's directly below the manifold's rear end. You can even see it with a flashlight and a little effort but an inspection mirror makes things a lot easier. Looks like a bolt in the block. On most engines it's a form of petcock so all you need to do is loosen it but I've seen JDM engines where it has to be completely removed.