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there is a video on you tube by a nice guy named ChrisFix about doing a “super” flush.
i loved the video the first time i watched it, but then, and especially when i tried to do the same thing, i watched again and found that there is something weird.
he uses the terms “radiator” and “cooling system” interchangeably after he himself mentions the fact that radiators in general hold about 40% of the coolant.
so he does a few cycles of emptying the radiator using the peacock, running the engine a few minutes, and then fills it with distilled water (with a bit of flush chemical the first time). doing simple math, 4 flushes like these will make the coolant system filled with about 94% water and 6% old coolant (assuming perfect mixing), so the last time he empties the radiator, it looks like clean water. that’s all understandable and great.
the problem is that afterwards, he fills the radiator with 50/50 only once. again with the simple concentration math and the fact that radiators hold only less than half of what the system has, leads to a 20/80 coolant to water ratio.
please comment or correct me if i’m wrong. i’m trying to do a real flush by myself.
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You actually touched on a very, exceedingly, important detail if you live anywhere that experience low temperatures. You would have to fill up the system with 50/50, or whatever is actually suited to your needs, bleed it out accordingly and then check the freezing point. You would then have to drain an amount of the weaker coolant out and top up with concentrated coolant. On most cars it works out to about 1 liter of coolant for ever 10C you need to add to the freezing point.
You would then have to bleed the system out and recheck the freezing point and adjust again if necessary. It’s really a pain in the ass and makes a mess if your car doesn’t have a draincock.
Personally, I would just sacrifice a round of coolant. Buy the concentrate and the price would probably work out about the same. Or even just run the cheapest stuff you can find for the flush.
For the record I live somewhere where -40 temperatures are not uncommon and I personally run even a bit more coolant than a 50/50 mix. I would only ever put straight water in my car if I absolutely had to.
Thank you sir,
that’s what I was looking for. Imagine the number of poor new diy’s who watched that video (the author has millions of views and subscriptions) who will get in a lot of trouble following his inaccurate procedure. He has really good other videos, but not as sientific as for example EricTheCarGuy and a few others.I live in central PA where it gets cold, not any close to where you live.
Don’t worry about the price of coolant or the special funnel or tools because the fanciest stuff you buy are much cheaper than a commercial flush that you can’t trust or the price of your car’s engine.
What do you recommend for a freezing/evaporation tester? I saw a prestone device at walmart.
I only replaced what was in the radiator with a prestone flush bottle and distilled water and then had to use the car for 3 days and then i will finish the flush and the whole project, is that dangerous? Our teps now are 70’s day and 40’s night.
Please check out my other topic/question that I posted that I think I found an answer to and I would love a second opinion.
I prefer the ball type coolant testers, like this one:
https://www.jbtoolsales.com/thexton-106-disc-type-eg-anti-freeze-tester/
If there hasn’t been much of a solid freeze you’re fine. Even a light frost wouldn’t have likely done anything.
it looks the same as the prestone one for 3 times the price. i will get ph papers to test for humidity too.
thanksI’m finishing the flush now, and every time I empty the radiator, I get closer and closer to clean water.
I read somewhere that the antifreeze should be diluted outside and then poured as a mixture. At the end of my 5 water flushes, can I just replace the radiator water with concentrated coolant and start the engine to have it mix it with the water already in?If that’s not bad, then it should get me very close to a good ratio where I’ll start measuring and adding/removing for fine adjustment.
Update:
I did three ant-freeze flushes, 50%, 75%, and then 75%, and the freezing and boiling points where the best. I estimated the overall concentration to be a little over 60%. I hope this discussion may help other noobs like myself.There is no need to estimate anything Vinny if you use a coolant concentrate and follow a simple procedure.
1. Check the capacity of your cooling system (not rocket science to find this info) – lets say it is 14 litres.
2. The coolant concentrate volume you will need will be 50% of that figure ( 7 litres) and that is how much concentrate you will need to ensure you pour into the system.
3. Flush the old coolant out and run as much fresh water as you can through the system to remove the old coolant mix. But you will still have some water left in the system when you drain. (On the final fill and drain you should use demineralised water so any tap water content left in the system on your final drain is very minimal.)
4. Take the coolant concentrate and dilute it about 30-40% with demineralised or distilled water and pour this into the system. Don’t ever pour a container of concentrate straight into the system as I see some people do. Always dilute it first. Now you will have the 7 litres of coolant concentrate (the 50% it needs) in the cooling system but in an under diluted mix and you will still have more fluid to add. Do the final top up of the system with your demineralised or distilled water and you will have the perfect 50/50 water and coolant concentrate mix in your cooling system as long as you have used the correct cooling system capacity information to start with.
With all due respect, sir, you are wrong. You just made your 50% out of thin air. Besides, I totally refuse to put any tab water in my car’s cooling system…That’s insane!
Here is how I did it:
1. My manual states that my system capacity is 10.6L. I measured the size of my radiator (that is simple, by measuring the volume of the liquid that comes out of it when both hoses are blocked) and found that it was approximately 4.5L, so the rest of the system is 6.1L.2. I did five iterations of the following:
a. emptied the radiator.
b. filled it with strictly distilled water.
c. purged the air using the valve and the spill-free funnel.
d. run the engine to operating temperature.
e. let it cool down for at least 2 hours.
Assuming that the old dirty liquid was 50%, then the concentration after each of the five iterations is as follows:
After first: 6.1X0.5/10.6 = 28.8%
After 2nd: 6.1X0.288/10.6 = 16.6%
After 3rd: 6.1X0.166/10.6 = 9.5%
After 4th: 6.1X0.095/10.6 = 5.5%
After 5th: 6.1X0.055/10.6 = 3.2% which is negligible, or I got tired. The liquid coming out of the radiator was very close to clean distilled water, anyway.3. I did three iterations (as in 2 above) but this time with 50%, 75%, then 75% antifreeze concentrations, respectively.
The resulting system concentrations were:
After 1st (50%): (6.1X0.032+4.5X0.5)/10.6 = 23.1%
After 2nd (75%): (6.1X0.231+4.5X0.75)/10.6 = 45.1%
After 3rd (75%): (6.1X0.451+4.5X0.75)/10.6 = 57.8% which was a perfect concentration according to GM’s datasheet.Please, do review your comment and the next time, try to put a little more effort in convincing your readers.
Vinyl you did a super multistep flush. Cam is talking about flushing and filling once not 5 times like you. A super 5 step flush would be necessary in an old radiator or if you have blockage somewhere in the system.. Also Cam was talking about what to put in not your 5 step dilutions. The point is to check the freezing/boiling points of your mixture and add accordingly. With all this time spent you might as well change the radiator and be done with it.
I’m sorry if I misunderstood CAM. But, that was the kind of help I was expecting here. No one told me that there are two kinds of flushes. I started the thread with a note that I’m dealing with an engine with an ignored cooling system. So, I guess his fast method works too, but I’m just never gonna do it when I can do the more comprehensive way.
I hope that this thread will be useful to other noobs like myself with all the great people and comments. Thank you all.
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