AntiFreeze

[jonszr1]

i can see why you said jugs .the ones in hammers avatar are awsome

[Dynomite]

Originally Posted by jonszr1

i can see why you said jugs .the ones in hammers avatar are awsome

Hammer does NOT disappoint anyone He will even change his avatar in the middle of a discussion

[xlr8nflorida]

[Hammer]

Originally Posted by xlr8nflorida

Are you guys pulling the freeze plugs and draining the block and then refilling?

Nope, I drain the radiator and flush the system with distilled water several times, draining the radiator in between each. Then I pull the thermostat and dump a lot more out. I then fill the system with proper amount of antifreeze, about half the cooling sytem capacity or 1.75 gallons, and then fill the the rest with distilled water.

[tomtom72]

I use the same method as John. I drain the rad first, and refill with plain water. I then start up & run till stat opens, shut down, drain the rad and refill again. Run again till stat opens, shut down, drain rad and loosen stat housing bolts and dump a bunch. I keep repeating this until no green color is present in my white bucket. Then I do two more flushes with steam distilled water the same way as when I used tap water. Don't forget to have the climate control on heat position and run the temp control up to at least 72* to make sure you get the dreaded heater core.

I pour the almost two gallons of antifreeze in first and then the remainder is steam distilled water. The left over 1825-M coolant I mix 50/50 with some steam D'ed water for my "top off" stock. I replace the stat + O-ring at the same time every two yrs/24,000 miles interval.

Make no mistake this is a tedious process, it takes me the better part of a few hours to do it. We do not have two knock sensors like the LT1/4/98 guys. They can remove them & make up a twin input from a garden hose to power flush their stuff. I envy them as that goes sooooo much quicker!

Another thing, when you use the stat housing to do the real draining of the flush....mind the housing assembly bolts. They are short and with the stat in place you are able to cross thread and or if the stat falls out of it's position you can pull some threads in the threaded half of the housing. The reason is that the OE bolts are pencil pointed and only about 20mm long. Go to the parts store and get the exact same bolts in 30 mm and you avoid this potential head ache. It ain't the end of the world if the first threads in the housing get damaged either. GM threaded the holes all the way thru the other side of that part of the housing, yea they are open thread bosses! The longer bolts from the stat housing mounting bracket to frame rail will work just fine if the parts store is out. I think the bolts are 8mm fine thread by 30 mm long at the store.

There is another way to flush. You can put a hose in the top tank, loosen the stat housing so it leaks, run the motor and the water and do it till it run clean. I don't do that because, well, it's toxic waste and, no I'm not one of those people.....the Co-Op board wouldn't take kindly to me dying the parking lot green!


Tom

Sorry, forgot this. If your muni water supply is well water, you may not want to use it as it may have a high salt/mineral content. Where I live we get to use NYC's water supply which is collected rain & snow melt. It's mineral free & sits in reservoirs for a long time before entering the plumbing system. Sorry to be so long about this.

[tomtom72]

Hi, Mr. Dynomite.....my name is Tom ( aka tomtom72 ) nice to meet you. You are?

In answer to your Q: emphatically YES. Every two yrs, even the O.O. of my car did it that way.
I flush with tap water, re-flush with steam D'ed water, and refill with fresh GM coolant and change the stat & o-ring. If the O-ring is deformed, which happens sometimes as it's a pia to get it centered in the stat opening exactly.

I fully realize that this will make me appear to be somewhat "out where the buses don't run", but to me my time is cheaper than a head gasket job. The issue at hand is the nature of silicated coolant. As it "wears out" the silicates drop off of the stuff they are supposed to attach themselves to for protection against corrosion. When they become liquid borne they can clog small passages in the heater core and build up at the bottom of the water jackets around the cylinder sleeves. Generally this is not so good for the long term health of a motor, and with our open deck configuration I feel that it could yield very bad things later on in the life span of my motor.

I know I don't have any hard evidence to support this hypothetical ( the silicates do drop off & float ) situation. It is one of the things in my PM schedule that gives me some degree of confidence that at least I try to be diligent in the care of my LT5.... ....again, I proly could use a tune up for my brain or at least some time on the couch!


Tom

[tomtom72]

Cliff, pleased to meet you!




I'm sorry to seem to be a bit forward. It's just that I prefer to use a person's name when I "talk" with them. I'm just not "with it" enough to address people I feel I know by using their screen name.


Tom