I need to drain as much coolant as I can from my 3vze (A/T) and was wondering if anyone had tried draining the block from the oil cooler line rather than messing with the block drain plugs? Does it get most of the coolant out, or is there a better way?

 

what's wrong with just opening the drain valve on the radiator?

the coolant is going to flow out of the block through the lower hose and just come out the radiator that way

 

but if the thermostat is closed?

 

From what the FSM shows, it looks like the connector for the oil cooler hose is behind the thermostat, so I am thinking that should drain the block pretty well. I just wondered if anyone had tried this before and how well it worked.

 

Just an update for anyone who may be interested, and to avoid having yet another dead end thread here on YT...

The oil cooler hose will drain most of the coolant from the block, and in my opinion is easier and more controllable than the block drain plug since you can pull it down into a bucket or something.

This is what my coolant looked like after neglecting to do the change for far too long. The bucket is also full of mostly water from the last flush. Not too bad... it's Prestone green, silicate, phosphate and borate free with distilled water only. This 4Runner has always had green coolant as far as I know, at least it has the 9 years I've had it. 187,270 miles and going strong.