After reading a lot of your posts I just think you get some major hookups. Prices are never that close even for private shops.

 

Its his senior citizen discount.


Just messin Jim, put the ban hammer away.

 

Back on topic, I recommend that if you do it yourself, that you also pull the plug on the block to get everything out. Draining from the pet**** valve will get most of it out, but not all of it. Drain the block as well.

Also, you might as well replace the upper and lower radiator hoses and the thermostat. A 192 thermostat is what is called for, and that will keep you in the correct temperature range for peak horsepower and maximum efficiency. With a thermostat that is stuck open, it is virtually impossible to keep your coolant temp in the correct range. If it is stuck closed, well, you'd know already.

Good luck!

 

That's like saying you take your engine apart every 20,000 miles and manually clean everything in hopes it'll last longer.

Justifying from what we've read- you aren't having any overheating issues. The truck is running fine and you want a to flush the coolant? Save $80 and DIY. If you've got a clog somewhere, then the $80 would be justifiable.

 

Dont use the pet****.. just take the bottum radiator hose off. much safer and quicker. And please don't drain the block..

Pet****s strip easily and I wouldn't even mess with the plugs on the block.. It's not worth the 1/2 gallon of coolant that'll come out.

It's really better just to spend the money and have a shop do it..

 

I'm gonna have a shop do this. There's a lot of cleanup/disposal involved that I don't want to deal with. A local shop is offering between 50-70 bucks for a flush.

 

How did cars get service before all these fancy machines???

Drain the radiator. refill. and save some money. Wanna a cheap flush? Do it once a year.

I have seen this disturbing trend on several automotive forums where people are over thinking maintenance and "proving" their point based on opinion. I'm not saying my way is any better BUT I have yet to ever have a radiator problem on ANY vehicle just draining and fill. (Watch now mine will blow up tomorrow)

It almost makes me wonder in manufacture are not putting the fear of god in people just so they will take it to a dealer.

Now with all my useless garbage posted.... If the truck hasn't seen fresh coolant in 200k miles then flush the hell out of it.

 

Do it yourself, you can get a prestone flush kit at wally world, use the same kind of anti freeze as original, open heater controls to high and flush away.
When I did mine I knocked out the freeze plug on the block and installed a block heater so all the old crap came out without too much effort. On the 50/50 mix use distilled wayer!

 

ok, if you just drain and fill from the radiator pet****/lower tube. How much fluid are you going to need to replace? i.e. 1 gallon of coolant and 1 gallon of water or other amount?

 

I pulled the plug on the drivers side of the block, small silver allen head plug. It is the lowest point in the system and it drained everything. With the truck on 4" x4" blocks I could fit a 5 gallon bucket under this plug and drain the whole system. I then pulled all the hoses off and there was no fluid left anywhere.

Put on new hoses and a new thermostat (all purchased from Rockauto) and refilled the system (about 3 gallons IIRC) )with distilled water ($0.98/gallon @ walmart) Drove around for 20 minutes, drained, let the engine cool, refilled with more water, drove around for 20 minutes, drained (water was pretty much clear), let engine cool, filled with Zerex G-05 and distilled water.

 

BTW, do all of this with the heater on so that you flush the entire coolant system.

I chose not to use a "flush" chemical. After 120,000 miles my fluid still looked pretty good. Plus you still have to flush the "flush" out with water to make sure all of it gets out of the system. Flushing with water cleaned it out good and no need to waorry if I got all of the "flush" chemicals out.

 

Thanks guys for all the tips I took the truck in yesterday for a Tranny Flush, I decided to not have him do the coolant flush because he wanted $120

Thanks for the tips once again!

 

Only way to go. This is one of easiest maintenance tasks to accomplish. Just do it.

(live in NO area for a very long time)

 

In the old days when it was still okay to dump coolant on the ground, I'd use a Prestone flushing tee. Every fall, I'd flush it out, fill it with water and a flush chemical, run it for the amount of time specified by the chemical, then flush it again till nothing but clear water was coming out. I would then fill it with a 50/50 mixture of plain green antifreeze and water. These days, I take it in every 3 years for a professional machine flush.

 

You're not suppose to do that anymore?


In my area, I've seen dealership Quick Lane coupons for as low as $40 for the flush. Where they get you is the fine print that says "includes up to 5 quarts of coolant". Then they bend you over for the other 15 or so quarts at $25 a gallon, and the disposal fees. It might be better to just park your truck right over a storm drain, open the pet****, and then let the wildlife worry about it. After all, isn't that why they put the bittering agent in that stuff? So when animals taste it, they'll know better?