I'm wanting to change the coolant on my 1997 Camry with the 5S-FE engine. The owner's manual says there is a drain plug on the BACK of the engine block. I was having a look under the hood today and noticed a 10mm bolt on the FRONT of the engine block, just under and to the right of the exhaust manifold. Is this a coolant drain plug? I thought I would ask here first before undoing it in case it was oil and not coolant that came gushing out!
That would not be the coolant drain. Engine tilts back slightly, so the drain is in back. That's the second drain plug for the block though. In my experience, I would not bother opening that drain on the block. Last time I tried this, after draining the radiator, I had to lift the car and place jack stands, then use an extension and universal joint due to limited awkward access, then only a few drops of coolant came out. Plus, the drain plug on the block has no replaceable gasket, only a plug with tapered threads. I guess you could say it was fun doing it once, but once was enough. I did discover, that with a light, you can see the drain valve at the bottom of the radiator, if you look carefully from above. In the past, I had removed the plastic shrouding under the radiator to access the drain plug from below, but it is much simpler and quicker to do this from above.
It may be another drain for coolant actually it is kinda high up on the engine so maybe it needs to be removed when refilling to purge air from the system. I checked my 97 Haynes manual and it does not mention it but that manual is pretty bad.
BINGO! It's the "burp" valve. Whilst Filling the engine with fresh coolant, loosen it to allow air out of the block, and coolant to get into places it otherwise will not go until the block is too hot and burps all the water out of the filler opening while trying to get rid of the air pockets in the block....................The bubbles just seem to keep coming out of the block no matter how many times the thing burps up through the filler.............if you fill it with that purge plug open, (engine cool) then there will be less of a problem with losing coolant/water.
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