Coolant Flush Question

So i've had my truck for a few years now...and i believe i should be doing some kind of coolant flush? As i've read on this forum they reccomend every couple of years...and i have no idea if it has EVER been done.

My questions are :

1) Where is the best place to drain the coolant?
2) After the coolant is drained....where do i refill it? (radiator?)
3) What kind of coolant should i be using and how much.

I'm assuming...it's just your standard...drain and refill....correct me if i am wrong and need to be worried about doing anything else in the process.....

Thanks!

 

usually you warm up the truck and drain the fluid (leave heater on full hot through the entire process)...refill with plain water and the flush chemical (run for however long the bottle says) then drain it out...refill with fresh water...run and drain again..then final refill with water/coolant...leave engine running and cap off till full....fill overflow to minimum and leave running...open bleeder nipple till water comes out and re-tighten ...should be good

 

I had to drain mine when I removed the radiator to replace my fan motor. It's just a little valve at the bottom of the Rad. I refilled through the radiator cap. I filled with standard green antifreeze from my bulk container from Cenex.

 

After you drain it disconnect the two hoses at the radiator and flush the engine as well. Then disconnect the coolant lines going to carb, for preheat (yes there is a coolant inlet and discharge off of carb.) and clean those out and reconnect. When adding new coolant lift the front of truck up about 6", fill the radiator, start engine and bring up to temp. All the while adding coolant. When you know the radiator is full and up to temp. let it sit there for 15 min. at idle making sure it stays full. Might take off the over flow tank and clean it out while doing this. Most of the time the over flow tank has brown goooooo in it. Blow through the over flow tube coming from radiator cap to over flow tank. Make sure its clear. Let the truck down down and watch temp. while driving it around the block.
I have found this procedure works best.
Sometimes the Suz. are a pain in the big toe bleeding the coolant system.
Doing it on flat ground you most likely will have to use the bleed screw on the thermostat housing to bleed the air out. I started out doing it on flat ground and sometimes it would take hrs. messing with the bleed screw to get the air out.

 

hmmm I never bled mine and that was quite a while ago any side affects of the bad gas in there?

 

You got lucky.

 

Oh Boy! I never get lucky! lol yeah its been over a year since I did that. hmmm and I think I had the front up on jack so maybe that saved me

 

I just bought a '94 Suzuki Carry DD51T. I did a complete tune up and also changed out all the hoses and vacuum tubes. I cant seem to get 100% of the old coolant and radiator cleaner out of the system. Is there a drain plug on the engine block? On flat ground the radiator drain is not the lowest point of the coolant system and about 1 liter gets left in the engine. I can keep draining and filling up the system to improve the coolant quality and keep lowering the freeze point value but that seems to be a waste of time and coolant. Is there something I am over looking?

 

Flush with just plane water a few time, and then do the fill with coolant.

 

I changed it on my truck last summer and used the ZEREX asian formula coolant. There is a drain valve on mine and two bleeding port. I removed and cleaned the overflow tank and used compressed air with moderation to push out as much coolant as possible. I refilled with new coolant ran the truck a few days and did another complete flush to make sure old coolant was gone as much as possible. I used already mixed coolant so I did not use water to flush the system, I was worried the residual water would have diluted even more my already diluted coolant. Make sure you d'ont mix coolants types that d'ont like to play well together since you can end up with gummy crap in your system. Since I did not knew what was in there, thats why I did a double flush to be on the safe side. Remember you can never empty a system at 100%.

 

Update on previous post: Add a can of radiator flush, to the coolant. this instruction say to run it until warm. Run it for a bit, then drain every thing you can out of the system and then fill and flush a few times with plain water, but don’t leave it in long. Alternatively buy a flush and fill kit, Prestone and other make them. they cut into the cooling lines and let you add and remove water with the vehicle running.

Then drain out all you can, and refill the system with the correct dilution of antifreeze. And, unless you are adding pre-diluted a fifty/fifty mix, you need to dilute the antifreeze in compliance with the manufacturers instructions. Running straight antifreeze decreases the boiling point, and increases the freezing point.

Water freezes at 32F, EthyleneGlycol at 9F. A 50/50 mix freezes at -34F, and a 40/60 blend somewhere around -60F. But, the 40/60 mix is more viscous and harder to pump, so it doesn’t do as good of job of actually cooling the engine.