fignewton

did search, and lots of folks "talked" about it, anyone actually do it?
If so...
- where exactly did you drain from? Radiator, block,?
- Anything required like Oring,etc.
- is one gal of G12 enough for 50/50 mix? (too lazy to walk out the car and look at the book right now to see total capacity)
Hints, thoughts, suggestions?
Thx, as always
Fig

carsluTT

I changed my water pump and such when I did my t-belt. Found there is a nice pit **** on the lower drivers side of the radiator. Makes it really easy and clean to get out all the fluid! As for how much fluid I put back in I cant remember.

RafaTT

I'm still looking to do that on my TT. Does anyone had a chance and looked at the Bentley's manual?

carsluTT

it's the lowest point in the system?...... it drained the whole lot for me not problem. I do know some water was left in the block but that was more due to the fact the car was cold and the thermostat was closed. There is no magic door that keeps water in the heater or block its all open to flow everywhere other than the thermostat of cores ha-ha......

fignewton

through the expansion tank, with the heat control open so that you bleed all the way through the heater core too (does this stay open on our cars when the engine is not running, or is it electrically controlled?). Makes sense, but I don't know if that will just blow back through the open radiator petcock, or if it will push back through the block, etc back to the radiator.
Curry's wants $154 to do this, said it was about 2 hours. Not sure that sounds reasonable.
Fig

Russ Scott

Actually the scars (mostly emotional) weren't caused by the coolant job. They were caused by the timing belt/waterpump change that I did at the same time. The coolant, by the book, is drained by opening the petcock on the radiator, followed by removal of the water line on the oilcooler gizmo that the oilfilter screws onto. I found a better way. I just opened the petcock, let her drain, and then stuck an airhose into the coolant recovery tank, plugged up the rest of the hole with a rag, the best I could, and applied air slowly. Most of the rest of the coolant will come out of the petcock, under light air pressure. No special O-rings are needed. A gallon is more than enough when mixed 50-50 with water (40-60 coolant/water is OK to, protection is provided to -25c at this ratio). Russ

fignewton

Thanks! Dontcha love the forum??

carsluTT

I also went and bought a can of aluminum rad safe cooling system flush. Don't remember brand exactly but what I did was drain out the fluid, fill the system back up w/ water and put in this can of cleaner then ran the car like the instructions said. I got a whole bunch of crap out of the rad and such not sure it was really needed but oh well was easy and didn't take much effort.

RafaTT

the coolant inside the block will not flow all the way because there are some other higher spots on the engine that will puddle the coolant, also, the drain through the oil cooler sounds more like it will drain the block (good thing, just what we want to do), but all through the rad will not do it, the compressed air idea sounds good too. BTW, the heater core may be mounted in a position where you will not drain the fluid if not using some compressed air. Don't you know that water does NOT flow up by itself?

Jim TT

You drain the radiator and un hook the coolant hose to the oil filter housing. Then close valve, connect hose and fill. One gal of g12 is enough. Use distilled water. That is all.