The previous owner filled my truck with DexCool, aka "death-cool". It is a 2EHA based coolant that GM uses and, although some people like it, it has a terrible reputation for eating gaskets. I want it out, and Toyota red in.
Normally, I'd drain, fill with distilled water, drive around for a while, repeat a few times (and in my case with DexCool, a few extra times) until the water is clean and refill with the good stuff. When I have used a garden hose to do this, I added a flush T on the heater core line and ran water through the cooling system until clean water overflowed out of the rad.
The problem is, I have a hard time working on the truck right now as it's well below zero and I have no work area where I could jack up the truck, remove the front wheels and open the drain cocks on the engine block. I have to be careful with straight water or it will freeze. Apparently, draining the rad alone does not get much of the coolant out.
In the interests of doing this easily, without draining the block, I'm considering draining the rad, disconnecting one of the heater hoses going to the heater core, hooking up a garden hose and letting the water run for a an hour to flush out the system. I would expect that this would result in cleaning out all of the old coolant from the system. I really want that DexCool out. Tap water is not great, but I could then flush the system with distilled water to remove whatever (minor) minerals are in my tap water, and then add new coolant.
Anyone have much experience doing this on a 4R? In theory, this should flush out the engine well, even without getting to the block drain cocks?
Normally, I'd drain, fill with distilled water, drive around for a while, repeat a few times (and in my case with DexCool, a few extra times) until the water is clean and refill with the good stuff. When I have used a garden hose to do this, I added a flush T on the heater core line and ran water through the cooling system until clean water overflowed out of the rad.
The problem is, I have a hard time working on the truck right now as it's well below zero and I have no work area where I could jack up the truck, remove the front wheels and open the drain cocks on the engine block. I have to be careful with straight water or it will freeze. Apparently, draining the rad alone does not get much of the coolant out.
In the interests of doing this easily, without draining the block, I'm considering draining the rad, disconnecting one of the heater hoses going to the heater core, hooking up a garden hose and letting the water run for a an hour to flush out the system. I would expect that this would result in cleaning out all of the old coolant from the system. I really want that DexCool out. Tap water is not great, but I could then flush the system with distilled water to remove whatever (minor) minerals are in my tap water, and then add new coolant.
Anyone have much experience doing this on a 4R? In theory, this should flush out the engine well, even without getting to the block drain cocks?
