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another (dangerous) way to flush radiator fluid?

To flush old coolant, my '96 Camry Haynes manual recommends opening the radiator drain valve, and flushing the radiator with a garden hose. The manual stresses that this procedure will not flush old coolant from the engine - it recommends the "chemical action of a cleaner" (p1-24) for this.

Would it be advisable to flush out the old coolant (inside the engine) by:

1) first draining the radiator drain valve, 2) flushing the radiator with the garden hose from the radiator cap, 3) making sure the flow rate into the radiator (from the garden hose) is about the same as the flow rate out of the radiator, START the engine, which would run the water pump, 4) shut down the engine after a minute or so, 5) let water drain out of radiator, 6) close the radiator plug, fill with coolant and distilled water ?

I'm guessing the engine can withstand a minute with just water circulating inside, but want to make sure with you guys first.

Or, with the thermostat stuck in the "closed" position (from a cold engine) would this whole procedure be pointless?

Reply to
onehappymadman
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Sometimes Haynes lists generic recommendations for things like batteries, tires and radiators. imho, all you should ever put into your cooling system is genuine Toyota coolant mixed with distilled water. In the old days, scale and rust would form in the cooling system that required chemical flushes. If you stay with recommended fluids, you will never see these in your Toyota. imho, draining the radiator using the drain valve, is sufficient. Do that twice as often if you wish.

Reply to
Daniel

I agree. On our 88 Camry, I did a drain/refill every 30,000 and never had a flush performed.

Car has 305,000 miles on it now. I have usually used Toyota coolant and distilled water.

Reply to
Curtis Newton

I agree with Daniel and Curtis posts. In the event you HAVE to do a chemical flush it is faster to remove the thermostat first so you get a good flow through engine, otherwise you have to wait for coolant to come up to temp for stat to open on each step. It is okay for engine to run with just water, it does cool better with antifreeze. I usually flush twice as much as the recommended on flush instructions just to be sure. Also, when done you need to try to drain all coolant or water from engine block if possible as there are minerals in the water. Also, you'll need to make the mixture stronger or add a small amount of pure antifreeze to compensate for the water in block, judge this by how much water is left, depending on whether you can drain or not. Finally make sure you check for appx. -30 deg on mixture after running for a short time and letting coolant mix good through entire system. davidj92

Reply to
davidj92

davidj92 wrote: snip

What I meant is the final flush with plain water, which dilutes the acid in the flush. If the thermostat is out you can run engine while putting water in radiator with a garden hose and get a good flow through the entire cooling system. davidj92

Reply to
davidj92

My Haynes gives a warning (p3-3) against running the engine with the thermostat out: "Caution: Do not drive the vehicle without a thermostat. The computer may stay in open loop and emissions and fuel economy will suffer."

Anyway, a first flush with garden hose water is ok to "flush" the radiator? Or this is not even necessary, just drain from the radiator drain plug and that's it?

Reply to
onehappymadman

If there is no build-up of minerals in the cooling system (you'll see a white coating on the edges of the tubes in the radiator) then you don't need to use an acid flush. A simple drain and refill is sufficient. Your Haynes is correct as the engine temp won't come up sufficiently but you can run the engine during flush this way or even in an emergency without the t-stat as long as it's not for an extended period. davidj92

Reply to
davidj92

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