How do I change my coolant?

[TheV6Bird]

I have a 95 3.4 with 105K. I've noticed that the temp gauge has been going further and further over the 200 mark a lot, and its on spring. I'd like to change the coolant before the hot summer weather hits (I haven't change the coolant since I bought the car at 82K).

But how do I change the coolant? I did a search and these guys are talking about flushing and cutting into a heater hose and crap.

Are their drain plugs on the block? Where are they? What's a good ratio to mix coolant in? I've never done this before, thanks guys! :cool:

[nikon]

on the radiator, on the same side as the rad cap underneath there is a drain chuck, open it up and your coolant will flow out of your radiator, but that doesnt mean its our of your block...drain your rad, screw the chuck back in, fill it up with water, leave your radiator cap off, and start your car, let it run until your thermo opens up then open up the chuck again....turn the hose on and let it run through your coolant system, until you see nothing but clear water coming from the bottom of the drain plug let it keep flushing, after this is done, turn your car off, turn the hose off, let it all drain out again, screw the drain chuck back in, and fill it up with coolant....remembering that there is still alot of water left in just the engine block, so all you will have to fill the rad up with is coolant maybee a little bit of water....I live in florida so I run almost 80-90% water and the rest a good anticorrosion antifreeze...thats all

[wantmorepower]

I think that nikon forgot to mention using distilled water after you are done flushing the system. Tap water is good for flushing but when filling up mix the anitfreeze with distilled.

[Silver 99 Camaro]

Would that even matter? The block will be filled with tap water that you can't get out, so distilled water is useless. Unless you plan on flushing with distilled to ensure that only distilled water is in the system, tap water is fine.

Two more tips...Turn your heater on while your flushing to clean out your heater core. Also, might want to add a bottle of that Prestone flush stuff just to make sure you get all the gunk out, especially after 100K. Good luck...

[nikon]

Originally posted by wantmorepower:
I think that nikon forgot to mention using distilled water after you are done flushing the system. Tap water is good for flushing but when filling up mix the anitfreeze with distilled.

I've always used tapwater and had no problems....and btw, check to see what color coolant you have, if green came out, put green back in you dont want to mix the new orange dex-crap with it or you will have serious problems...being a 95' im pretty sure you will have good ole green in there so there should be no prob, and while your at it red-line makes a product called water wetter...lowers temps a little bit I use it on my car....its good stuff....

[Javelin3o4]

the reason they wanted to cut the heater hose is, they were gonna probably use a flush kit, basically you cut the heater hose, and put a "T" fitting in line to reconnect the hose, the "T" fitting has a connector on top where you connect a water hose, then there is a spout that you put on your radiator where the cap goes cause you run the car then turn the water hose on which flushes through the system then out the spout of the radioator cap adapter. you can pickup the prestone radiator flush kit for like 10 bucks a autozone.

[BLLDOGG]

what is the diference between distilled and tap water?

[ellik]

About $1.19 a gallon.

The distilled water has all the minerals and natural crap that is in tap water 'distilled' out of it.

[Christian]

Originally posted by TheV6Bird:


Are their drain plugs on the block? Where are they? What's a good ratio to mix coolant in? I've never done this before, thanks guys! :cool:

Since the summer is approaching, I use the pre-mixed stuff and so-far no problems, in fact seeing that my mix wa a little off, the pre mixed stuff is working a hell of a lot better. I think that the water in it is distiled anyway, so there you go. My opinion is that you get the back flush jump off it will show you clear as hell what to do, then pick up the 50/50 coolant. Makes life a little easier....oh yea ya boy put in the CAI last night.........I'M A ROCK STAR NOW BAYBEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! [img]graemlins/rock.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/rock.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/rock.gif[/img]

[malice10985]

SInce it is summer and I am going to the race track, I used about 2 quarts of Dex cool and filled the rest with water.

WHen winter comes around again, I will drain it and put a 50/50 mix back in. Anti freeze doesn't do much in the way of cooling. The water is what keeps the engine cool.

WHen I had my engine apart, I inspected all the cooling passages and they were all clean. I had been using Dex cool for 65000 miles prior to that. I don't know why everyone hates Dex so much.

[TheV6Bird]

Hey thanks for all of the tips guys, I'll get this started when I get some time!