In October I am going to back flush the cooling system in my 1983 Dodge ful l size van. I will buy a kit that has the plastic T and install the T in th e upper heater hose. I will remove the thermostat and then put it back in o r buy a new thermostat after back flushing. I was thinking if I connect my garden hose to the T and let the water run for about twenty minutes, will t hat flush all of the old coolant out of the cooling system?
You said nothing of draining system. I'm sure it's easy to flush coolant. I think it's effective to flush loose particle, but it does not clean deposits. I bought a kit but never used it. I just wanted to reverse flush the heater core.
Greg
I once tried that, but the water that drained out after 15 minutes was slig htly green anyway. So next time I followed the advice to drain, refill wit h water, run the engine for a minute, and then repeat all that 2 more times . The water came out crystal clear when I did that. But I still remove so me heater hoses to blow out the remaining water so I can fill with distille d.
ull size van. I will buy a kit that has the plastic T and install the T in the upper heater hose. I will remove the thermostat and then put it back in or buy a new thermostat after back flushing. I was thinking if I connect m y garden hose to the T and let the water run for about twenty minutes, will that flush all of the old coolant out of the cooling system?
Put some flush in the system too to neutralize any acidic coolant etc.
I would not recommend using the acid flush for removing deposits on an '83 Dodge, especially one that might have suffered indifferent maintenance.
When you use the acid flush kit, all of the leaks that were sealed by deposits will suddenly start leaking. If your goal is to identify everything marginal in the cooling system so that you can replace them, this is a good idea. However, if your goal is to avoid changing the head gasket and the heater core as long as possible, it may not be.
Just take the hose, flush it through. 20 minutes seems like a long time, five or ten minutes should be fine. Put new coolant in, then change the coolant every year. Keep driving.
--scott
yes, I would pull the block drains as well, if you can. I've seen some older engines where pulling the block drains shows that the bottom of the block is full of crud above the level of the drain plug(s), requiring some poking with a wire/screwdriver/etc. to even get any flow at all out of those holes. In extreme cases, removing the rearmost freeze plugs and replacing those will result in a better flush, if it's never been done before. Depending on engine, may have to remove starter to access block drains and/or freeze plugs.
nate
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