Coolant Flush Saga

[GT Pony]

I have a Snap on vacuum flush system ...

Do you think a cheap cooling system kit like this would work good enough? There's a ton of them on Amazon.

I need to do a coolant change and trying to plan it out for best results. Good info in this thread on possible coolant change procedures.

https://www.amazon.com/Bicos-Cooling-Radiator-Universal-Adapters/dp/B0DRV9NN12

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[bankyf]

That’s fine. There’s nothing special about a vacuum filler. They are a very simple concept and design.

Do you think a cheap cooling system kit like this work? I need to do a coolant change and trying to plan it out for best results. Good info in this thread on possible coolant change procedures.

https://www.amazon.com/Bicos-Cooling-Radiator-Universal-Adapters/dp/B0DRV9NN12

 

[GT Pony]

Vacuum is the best way to change coolant and is required on many if not most new vehicles today to eliminate air pockets. I have a Snap on vacuum flush system, what you do is drain the coolant as normal via petcock valve or removing the lower radiator hose or both to get the majority of the Coolant out, reinstall the hose and close the petcock, hook up the Snap on vacuum tool it has a 5 foot long hose that you run to a bucket or drain pan so when you pull a vacuum it will put out remaining coolant in the system, the radiator hoses will collapse due to the vacuum, you do not have to remove the thermostat, once you have 25 PSI vacuum built up you have a second hose that you place into a bucket with fresh coolant slowly open the valve to start to pull the coolant from the bucket ...

On the Mustang there is no radiator cap, so you just put the vacuum device on the coolant reservoir tank? So the applied vacuum will cause the tank to completely fill and get sucked out through the vacuum device?

You mentioned "25 PSI vacuum". Is that the reading on the gauge, because the most vacuum possible is 1 ATM or about 14.7 PSI of vacuum.

How much total coolant volume was replaced using this vacuum method? Thanks!

 

[bankyf]

I believe he meant to say 25 in/hg as vacuum isn’t typically measured in psi.

On the Mustang there is no radiator cap, so you just put the vacuum device on the coolant reservoir tank? So the applied vacuum will cause the tank to completely fill and get sucked out through the vacuum device?

You mentioned "25 PSI vacuum". Is that the reading on the gauge, because the most vacuum possible is 1 ATM or about 14.7 PSI of vacuum.

How much total coolant volume was replaced using this vacuum method? Thanks!

 

[GT Pony]

I believe he meant to say 25 in/hg as vacuum isn’t typically measured in psi.

Yeah, figured it was that, or the gauge showed "PSI" for some reason (maybe mis-marked PSI instead of inHg). Can't get below 1 ATM of vacuum.

 

[G.T.]

Here was my procedure to completely switch colors. It was messy and time consuming, but it worked well.
Make sure you have 10+ gallons of distilled water, a refractometer, and optionally a vacuum filler on hand.
-Start the car, allow it to warm up to full operating temperature and then cut it off.
-Remove small return hose from coolant tank. I extended the hose to a bucket.
-Restart car. The small return hose will start filling the bucket and the reservoir will start dropping. Continue adding distilled water to the reservoir to keep it topped off until there is completely clear water running out of the small hose. This will likely take at least 10 gallons of distilled to completely flush the old mixture out. You should have more than that on hand as you don't want to run out in the middle of the process. Cut the car off once it's running out clear.
- At this point your system will be full of distilled water. After it cools down, open the drain in the radiotor and drain as much out as you can. Make sure the reservoir empties out. I also pulled some hoses just to try to get everything I could out of the system.
- Full the system back up with straight concentrated coolant. I prefer to vacuum fill.
-Start the car back up and allow it to fully warm up and run for an additional 15-20 minutes.
-Test the coolant with the refractometer. If you hit your goal, you are done. If not, drain some of the mixture out of the radiator and replace with straight coolant again.

Thanks again @bankyf for posting this, I finally got around to doing this the other day.

Previously I'd already done a drain fill with distilled water, then drained again and put in a gallon and a half of yellow premix 3000km/2 years ago.

Reservoir turned pink after a while as the old coolant mixed with the yellow.

I wanted to get all of that orange out after seeing pics of additive fallout sludge from that orange dexclone stuff.

So following bankyf's procedure we ended up running 14 gallons of distilled water through it before I was satisfied it was clear.

Then we drained the rad and put in straight yellow coolant concentrate. I dont have a refractometer so going by listed system capacity of 3.6 gallons, putting in the 1.5 gallons of concentrate I had on-hand puts me at about 41%. Very hot and no winter season here so will try this ratio for a while.

First bucket:

Final rad drain before adding concentrate:

 

[BlkMach10510]

Thanks again @bankyf for posting this, I finally got around to doing this the other day.

Previously I'd already done a drain fill with distilled water, then drained again and put in a gallon and a half of yellow premix 3000km/2 years ago.

Reservoir turned pink after a while as the old coolant mixed with the yellow.

I wanted to get all of that orange out after seeing pics of additive fallout sludge from that orange dexclone stuff.

So following bankyf's procedure we ended up running 14 gallons of distilled water through it before I was satisfied it was clear.

Then we drained the rad and put in straight yellow coolant concentrate. I dont have a refractometer so going by listed system capacity of 3.6 gallons, putting in the 1.5 gallons of concentrate I had on-hand puts me at about 41%. Very hot and no winter season here so will try this ratio for a while.

First bucket:

Final rad drain before adding concentrate:

Full Bladder, lol.

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