Re: Was: Boge.. Now: Antifreeze

[zm@mhcnet.att.com (Zafer Mehmood [209])]

> OK, but what about flushing?  I "flushed" my dearly departed vanagon by
> pouring 3 gallons of distilled water into one of the cooling hoses and
> letting it pour out of another.  Of course, the pressure with this method is
> nil.  Does this matter?  With a new or well maintained car there should
> theoretically be no need for flushing, just replacement (right?).  With an
> older car that has had indifferent maintenance .....
> 

I have installed a plastic tee (Prestone makes this flushing kit) in one
of the heater hoses. After draining the old coolant (by removing the upper
radiator hose and the engine rear heater hose as per Bentley), flushing is
as simple as connecting a garden hose to the tee and opening the faucet.
This pressurized flushing will remove any particulate matter (scale, rust
particles) out of the system. You will be amazed at the amount of old dirty
coolant still left in the system if you just "drained" it. It takes about
2 minutes of full force flushing before the water coming out through the
upper radiator hose turns clear. I then pour in about 1/2 gallon of distilled
water to displace the tap water still left in the system and then fill up
with anti-freeze to the right concentration. The only way to know you have
the right concentration is to use a antifreeze tester. Again, Prestone makes
one; available for a few bucks. You'll have to run the engine for sometime
to allow proper mixing of the anti-freeze and water to get an accurate
reading.

The flushing kit costs ~ $5 and is worth installing - makes flushing the
system very easy. I have a flushing tee installed in all my cars (except the
Mercedes which has two coolant drainplugs at the bottom of the engine to
allow draining of all the coolant easily).


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Zafer Mehmood				   AT&T Bell Laboratories
zm@mhcnet.att.com			   Murray Hill, NJ