Robinhood150

Has anyone done this? I'm going to do this over thanksgiving vacation and was wondering a couple things.

1. how do I tell if I need to replace the top and bottom hoses?
2. how hard is it to get air out? I know I have air in the system because I can hear gurgling in the heater core.
3. For the final fill I will use distilled water. But for the flush part, should I use tap water or distilled too?

thanks,
Steve

tkrispin

Yeah, it's not a bad job at all.

1. I replaced my hoses, but got pissed off when the old hoses looked almost the same as the new ones. I kept the old ones as trail spares. I think the hoses are supposed to be fairly stiff, if that helps. I changed my coolant at around 90k, don't know if it was ever done before. But like most toyota stuff, you can extend the interval.

2. I poured coolant/water through the upper rad hose and put the heat on full, worked the air out no problem. It was so simple, actually.

3. I used distilled, but in retrospect, I should have used the garden hose water. That's what I'll do next time, then use distilled for the final fillup. Oh and go for toyota red coolant, it is really expensive, but worth it in my opinion.

The only problem I had was a stud that holds the cover on over the t-stat backed out with the nut. I used thread locker and screwed the stud back in, no problems otherwise.

I also replaced the t-stat and rad cap (probably didn't need to though.

Check out this link for more specific info

I need to flush the coolant in my celica, but it is getting cold here, and the parents packed up the hoses, so I might have to wait a while. But you are in Cali right? That shouldn't be a problem...

Tom

Robinhood150

Thanks Tom,

yeah, at near $20 each, those hoses aren't cheap.

I found your post at ODW a little while ago and printed out Jim Brink's instructions.

The weather out here isn't bad at all, now if the ground would just stop shaking...(we've been having a couple little tremors for the past couple days).

Thanks again,
Steve

tkrispin

Cool, I hope the process goes (or went) smoothly. Yikes, earthquakes? We don't get those out here, just humidity and thunderstorms in the summer, and cold, ice, and snow in the winter. Lovely.

RWD

Just curious what you guys are paying for the red Toyota coolant. Thanks, Bob

Robinhood150

Everything went smoothly. I ended up not replacing the hoses since they didn't look bad to me. There were only a couple minor problems.

1. I re-sealed the part where the upper hose attaches to the block. I didn't even think about the cure time on the silicone and it was 24 hours. Ended up letting it cure for only a couple hours and it seems to have worked fine.

2. The part where the lower hose bolts to the pump wouldn't come out easily and I ended up needing to pry it off. After I got it off I noticed it was plastic and ended up scratching the surface slightly. Luckily the gasket covered the scratches.

RWD, I paid $15+tax on the red stuff.

Steve

Korrupted

If you flush your system you should go ahead and change the hoses then, especially in warm climates. Don't use tap water to mix with anti-freeze, it has deposits in it. You can purchase a 50/50 pre-mixed coolant or use distilled water.

keisur

I have read on other forums that Red is the stuff to use on toyota systems because the green will cause the radiator to corrode and eventually either clog or leak. Just spitting out some dirt I picked up elsewhere. I agree, use distilled water only.

4-RUNNIN' FREAK

Old post revival.

I've been looking around on YT for the proper way to do a flush. I have just over 33k miles on my 3.4.

I see posts that say to take the t-stat out and flush that way. I want to avoid that if possible.

I also see posts to find the drain plug (On the bottom of my radiator?) and drain and fill with water. Some say use garden hose method, and others say distilled water. I will use distilled.

Do I fill up through the rad cap or the overflow tank?

I remember doing this on my old car at least 7 years ago and only ever did it once and don't know if I did it properly or what exactly I did as far as the flush. I do remember I left it running with the water from the garden hose flowing in while it was pushing/flushing the old stuff out. I flushed it for about 10 minutes that way and refilled with 50/50.

Also, I don't have ANY clue where my manual is, and don't know the capacity.
I remember it being over 2 gallons for some reason and bought two gallons of Toyota red.


I searched the write ups as well, and didn't find anything unless I overlooked it. Only info I get is contradictory from old posts . Just want to clarify.

Thanks

TDiddy

Don't forget that your two gallons of toyota red will make 4 gallons if you use a 50/50 mix with distilled water.

All I did when I flushed mine was to drain from the radiator, use the good ol' garden hose and let it idle. Keep draining and filling while its running and stop when you're just getting water coming out. Mix up your coolant with DI water and fill'er up, and let it idle for a while to make sure the t-stat is open and coolant gets in to the block. You can burp it by squeezing the upper rad. hose, but not too hard or you'll get a face full if you're not careful. Its probably very much like you've done in the past.

4-RUNNIN' FREAK

From what I read here, I think the way I did it was wrong. I never let it warm up to let the t-stat open and flush the block.
With that said, Just drain via the drain plug, fill at the rad cap, close drain plug, run at idle till t-stat opens, drain and repeat till just clear water flows, and then mix 50/50 with "red" and distilled H2O?

TDiddy

That sounds like it in a nutshell!

4-RUNNIN' FREAK

Gotta love YT.

I knew I'd forget something though. Guys who run that Water Wetter, do ya just use one bottle?

I am gonna go flush it a few times and fill and run to the store and get some of that stuff. Should I leave some room in the system for that, or just top it off and dump the water wetter in?

4-RUNNIN' FREAK

Flushed it twice already, but it doesn't seem to get really hot.

I think I hear the t-stat open and close while sitting in traffic (not A/C) but don't hear it now, but more and more pink comes out.

I had to take of the faux skid plate to get to the drain plug. There is an access hole in it, but I can't open it w/o taking it down.

4-RUNNIN' FREAK

Two more quick questions.

For the final drain before you fill, do you just let it drip with the engine off, ofr do you start it up to maybe pressurize the system, and force more out?

How do you get the water out of the overflow tank? Do I just add some "red" to it, or do I have to drain it first? It's completely full of water right now.

dlbrunner

DON'T use DI water, that stands for deionized, this is different than distilled water. Distilled is best. The reason you dont use DI water is because it is VERY agressive, and will corrode metal very quickly. When you pick up the gallons of water at the store, look very carefully at the label, some is distilled, some is distilled and deionized, and some have had both done. just FYI

dlbrunner

This is for the mix, for the flush, use the garden hose, and if you have crappy water at home, flush with a couple gallons of distilled.

Also, if you live in a hot climate you can approach 70% coolant/30% water, this will give you a higher boil temp, but the downside is you wont get as low of a freezing point. In the summer if the radiator is a little low, I put in straight coolant, no more than a pint or two.

Also run the heater on full blast when flushing so the heater core gets some flush too.

X-AWDriver

One (1) bottle of WatterWetter is enough.

I ran a bottle of it added to a 85/15% water/coolant in my Eclipse during race season and the stuff actually kept my water temp down 9-13 degrees consistently after I added the stuff and this was at the strip on hot summer days.

4-RUNNIN' FREAK

Thanx for the help guys. Soooo much crap floated out of the overflow tank, and the radiator after I filled it up for the last time and burped it so I could add more fluids. It was some kind of scummy looking stuff.

I have a little whine that isn't the S/C that I'm hoping will go away once it all cycles through.

I didn't mix anything in the bottles, which may have been a mistake. I added some water wetter, then the antifreeze, the topped off with distilled water. It'll mix inside I guess. Thanks again.

Ironmike4x4

Is the "red coolant" the same as GM's dexcool? If so then I would not add it to the existing sytem if it's had ethylene glycol. I know for a fact in GM vehicles you cannot switch one or the other unless the whole sytem has been majorly flushed and denatured alchohol has been used to clean it out. GM says that the two are totally incompatible chemically and will offset each other. As far as distilled water, why do you have to add it? I'm interested to know because I've always used regular tap water. I hope I havent messed anthing up.