Coolant Flush....

[sjcruiser]

Unless someone has some suggestions to get around this, I did this a few months back and it is THE MESSIEST job I have ever done! Laying in a puddle of coolant, coolant shooting out of the block on the DS all over the suspension and wheels, in my hair and face, running down my driveway, ruined clothes and towels, 10:00 at night...It was horrible. Ya'll most likely would have had a pretty good laugh had you been there. Does anyone know how to do this without causing a class 4 environmental hazard and taking a bath in the stuff?

I mean, I just opened up the petcock and it shot all over. Any tips for p8nt before he gets in to this?

Just for clarification, when tarbe says 'both heaters on', he's talking about the rear heater and the typical dash heater. A lot of people don't even realize they have a rear heater.

I slipped a small clear vinyl tube (about a foot long or so) over the aluminum(?) tube on the block drain. It help directing coolant down - no mess. It's been two years and the tube is attached still.

 

[sseaman]

im going to be replacing alot of the hoses and water pump seals, and belts while i am at this, should i flush everything before i replace the hoses, or drain the system then change hoses and then fill and flush a couple times?

 

[LandCrusher'70]

The solution to pollution is dilution...........

Two gallons of coolant is still two gallons of coolant. Whether it's straight two gallons, or mixed with 50 gallons of water. Unfortunately, it's still there.

 

[BOUNDER]

WOW....I just spent a hour reading up on a possible coolant flush and i might be more confused now than when i started! I just bought a 97 TLC with 152k. Coolant looks discusting, definetly needs a flush. Problem is I cant tell if its a dirty green or a dirty red. Am I safe if I just take it to the local Toyota dealership and tell them i need it flushed? im assuming they will use the toyota red, but im not sure if its red that would be coming out and I hear you dont want to go from green to red or vice verse. Im also assuming they posses the knowlegde to do the flush properly. Any thoughts?

I used to do my own but have gotten comfortable with bringing the beast to my local Toyota Stealership and having them powerflush the system with factory red fluid. Believe me when I tell you they take GREAT care in getting it right the first time, especially the red fluid part. Let's just say I know how to very persuasive and compelling when I need to. Final cost: $99.95 out the door.

 

[HooDoo]

For what it's worth my dealership story goes like this:
I take my rig in for a coolant FLUSH and thermo, when I get it back it has green in the reservoir.
I ask the guy what's up with the green coolant and he tells me red cost more.
Wait a minute ... cost more ? it's a Landcruiser !!! I see on the slip it says drain and re-fill, I mention that I've heard mixing is bad and the guy says no problem.
By the time I get home it looks like mud in the reservoir so I guess they didn't even drain the motor let alone the heaters.
Got me a flush kit, red coolant (from another dealer) and did it my self. And it has been that way ever since.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Two gallons of coolant is still two gallons of coolant. Whether it's straight two gallons, or mixed with 50 gallons of water. Unfortunately, it's still there.

While I'm not advocating polluting your local streets, it might make some feel a bit better knowing that both ethylene glycol and propylene glycol are biodegradable. They are toxic to animals and dogs and cats like to drink it, supposidly because it tastes sweet. Any wastewater treatment plant will break-down the anti-freeze.

The real issue from an environmental stand-point (assuming you aren't dumping thousands of gallons somewhere) are the potential heavy metals (e.g. lead) that may have accumulated in the used anti-freeze but I'm not sure that a couple of gallons is much worse than what comes out of a normal house piping system on an annual basis.

Again, dispose of it in a responsible way (and recycling is best) but it's not any worse than many household chemicals that we flush down the pipes everyday.

By the way, it's the same stuff that they spray on airplanes all over the world to de-ice them.

 

[e9999]

the "coolant" additive is primarily there for corrosion and freezing issues IIANM. I would not hesitate to run the engine with just water for a few days to clean things up. Heck, throw in some coolant system cleaner in there at the same time to see if it gets more gunk out.