Hello all. I have a quick question to ask you. I am getting ready to change the coolant in my truck. My old coolant is now a rusty orange color. It was green when I bought the truck. Although I did add some of that yellow "universal" coolant to keep my hoses from busting this winter. So anyway, tonight I went to Wally-Hell and bought some prestone radiator flush to clean out my cooling system before I change the coolant. And what I need to know is how many gallons of anti-freeze do I need to put in the resevior before I add water? If it helps any, I just have the thin radiator. I don't have the towing package or an oversize radiator. Just the small one. Thanks for any help.

 

Ok I did a search. And I saw that I need to flush the system several times until the water comes out clear. Then the water is already in the block, so all I need to do is average in the 50/50 mixture of coolant/water, top it off and she's good to go. Duh?

 

You can go a step further,as I did,and pull the block drain plugs and install valves in there place to drain the block.

 

be careful when you do the flush. I did mine a couple of weeks ago and the block plugs were really tight, you might want to spray them down with penetrating oil good before you start. Also when i started to add the 50/50 mix it becam air locked and only about 10 of the 17qts would go in , it took it a LONG time to bleed itself off. Good Luck

 

If you don't mind me asking, where did you get your block drain valves BlueOvalFitter? Thanks for the heads up joesim76.

 

Being i'm a pipefitter by trade,I have access to practically any valve made,along with fittings too.
I used stainless steel fittings with nickel plated ball valves.You can buy brass fittings from any hardware store along with brass valves too. BTW,dont forget to put a plug in the end of the valve.

 

Ahhh I see. I might try that on the next truck I get. I'll be trading this one in or selling it soon. So...