I'm doing a coolant flush and was planning on just drain and filling the radiator with distilled water 4-6 times or so and then adding in the coolant. However, when I drain the radiator only about 3/4 gallon comes out. Based on some search information, I was expecting at least a gallon.

What do you guys typically get out of your radiator when you drain it?

It also took forever for the thermostat to open at idle, do you guys typically take for a spin around the block or just sit patiently for 20minutes?

Thanks

 

there should be a drain bolt on the block itself. and when i flush the system i generally remove the thermostat, flush the system and install a new one.

 

Your stuff is way newer than mine, but the technology hasn't exactly changed.

Theres fluid in your heater core that won't drain out and fluid in block itself that won't come out.

and using distilled water isn't neccessary.

 

just drain it out fill her up with hose water, run it till it gets opened up and let it drain out, turn her off and fill with the good stuff.

 

+1
You have that Mountain Fresh Rainier stuff !

 

Good idea. I always used distilled water too, its less than $1/ gal, so for $5 you keep your system ion free.

If your t-stat has a jiggle valve your block should very slowly drain (more completely if the valve is at 6:00, less completely if its at 12:00). If you're in a hurry pull the t-stat. If you want more complete draining open the block drain (at this point I'm assuming its a V6). I don't know about 4 cyl.

 

Take a pair of cutters & cut that damn "jiggle valve" off~

 

This is what I did on my 2002:
1. Drained old coolant
2. Add SuperFlush
3. Fill with distilled water
4. Start the engine till the temp gauge goes above half way
5. Flush
6. Fill with distilled water
7. Start the engine till the tem gauge goes above half way
8. Flush
9. Fill new toyota red coolant 50:50 with distilled water
10. Burp the system a few times and you will end up adding a little more than 2 gallons total from what I remember.

This is close enough for a good flush but you could repeat steps 6-8 another time if you have the patience to get closer to a full flush.

 

Thanks for the information everyone. I tracked down the block drain, attached a hose to it and drained it from there. So after draining the radiator and the block I was able to refill with about 1 3/4 gallons.

The process in total:
1) drain radiator and block
2) refill with distilled water
3) start rig with cap off and add a little more distilled
4) cap the radiator and run it with heaters on low until scangauge hit 190F
5) cranked heater on high for 5 minutes
6) turned off rig and let cool for 20min
7) drained
8) repeat 1-7
9) repeat 1-7
10) remove overflow tank and cleaned it
11) filled overflow with 50/50 toyota red/distilled to level between min and max
12) filled radiator with 1 gallon and 3 cups of coolant and the rest distilled
13) start rig with cap off and add a little more distilled
14) rev the engine a few times and add more distilled
15) cap it off and call it good
16) monitor overflow tank level for the next few days

 

Why?