First car, lx450!

[tug123]

AFAIK most auto parts stores that sell coolant will take used coolant back. Some people have been known to pour it into the ground away from pets, plants, grass, and somewhere there isn't flowing water or a very high ground water level. The microbes in the dirt should breakdown the coolant before it reaches any (deep) ground water. Got any animals (cows, horses, pigs, dogs, humans??) around the house/barn? You could speed up the breakdown process by dumping some manure into the pit with the coolant. Obviously not something you'd do with commercial quantities of used coolant.

Disclaimer: follow all environmental laws of course.

I spoke to the guy at the auto parts store earlier, he said no one takes it around here and the auto shops store it in 55 gallon drums and ship em out. His recommendation was to put it in cat litter and let the dump deal with it, will probably talk to a few more just to see but that seems like my only option now.

Don't really even have a yard here so not gonna try to get creative with it.

 

[CharlieS]

I take mine to an environmental depot run by the waste management people. Might be worth checking into.

 

[tug123]

I take mine to an environmental depot run by the waste management people. Might be worth checking into.

Will call around and see if there's any option nearby, that's a solid idea.

 

[Kernal]

Putting it into the waste pick-up might not be "legal" in your area (just like dumping it into a hole in the ground) but same idea.
Local/municipal trash in the US all ends up in an approved Landfill site that has a heavy duty liner and compacted clay base along with monitoring wells.
If the coolant was poured into anything absorbent then placed in the trash pick-up tote it would end up in the Landfill and slowly decompose same as if it was put in a hole in the ground but maybe safer.

Agree, if you want to go by the book, call your local City/County or whomever the Waste Management company is that picks up your trash.

 

[tug123]

Drained the coolant, getting ready to swap hoses. Finally found the PHH, seems like upper intake removal really really helps with getting it off. I'm fairly surprised, I thought this was gonna be way harder but I'm thinking I can replace all the hoses in half a day or so. Only hoses I see I won't be replacing are the upper/lower rear heater hard lines, which (I was told earlier in this thread) aren't replaceable without pulling the tranny. Did miss one hose, the 90 degree hose that goes from the firewall to PIPE SUB-ASSY, HEATER WATER, C, but I guess there isn't an OEM part for that (will use Gates 28460 as said here).

I am considering replacing radiator, fan clutch and water pump since I don't really want to drain the coolant again and I'm fairly certain radiator has never been replaced (after 27yr, 177k miles). Don't really wanna spend the extra dollars for it, but this will be my daily so I want the peace of mind.

Gonna wait till I can close up the wiring harness by the EGR to do PHH, but I think I should be done with everything in a week or two and after that I think the cars gonna be in great shape. Thought this was gonna take way longer than it has, for some reason I thought most of the hoses were near the PHH under the intake but that seems to be totally not the case.

 

[duece71]

None of the auto parts stores in my area take used coolant, only oil. I have to drive 20 mins to a hazardous waste collection site and hand it over to them. Maybe coolant can not be recycled as well as oil? The cat litter idea is good, I use it for garage floor spills, works great.

 

[tug123]

Got the injectors back, I guess I flipped the injectors when labeling them, seems like #1 is probably #6 otherwise I'm at an absolute loss for what caused the cylinder #6 misfire. Looks great now though, clearly they needed to be serviced. Also looks like it came with new O rings (or grommets, dunno which one is called which), could've saved $10 oh well.

 

[tug123]

Investigating the PHH, damn not so easy. Gonna pull the all the heater hoses I can with heater control valve to free up some space, but wondering if I also pull valve cover seems like I'll have a lot more room.

How sensitive should I be with the valve cover off? Seems sketchy to me to let a bunch of stuff dust/whatever to go into the head, but every picture/video I see people seem pretty casual about it (really just never mention it).

 

[ZackR]

Investigating the PHH, damn not so easy. Gonna pull the all the heater hoses I can with heater control valve to free up some space, but wondering if I also pull valve cover seems like I'll have a lot more room.

How sensitive should I be with the valve cover off? Seems sketchy to me to let a bunch of stuff dust/whatever to go into the head, but every picture/video I see people seem pretty casual about it (really just never mention it).

No need to pull the valve cover for the PHH, as as you mentioned you don't want stuff getting in there when the valve cover is off.

The old coolant hoses (including the PHH) can be cut with a utility knife which will make them a lot easier to remove. The metal hard pipe is a hassle to remove and the reason folks like myself didn't keep it in place when doing the PHH.

 

[tug123]

No need to pull the valve cover for the PHH, as as you mentioned you don't want stuff getting in there when the valve cover is off.

The old coolant hoses (including the PHH) can be cut with a utility knife which will make them a lot easier to remove. The metal hard pipe is a hassle to remove and the reason folks like myself didn't keep it in place when doing the PHH.

Ok makes sense. Pipe I'm not so worried about (maybe I should be though haha), I think I found an angle with a flex head ratchet and the heater control valve out. The thing that I do not know how I'll get to is the clamp going from PHH to the engine block, I can't even see it. Will start with pulling the pipe and cutting the hose if need be though and go from there.

 

[ZackR]

This is what mine looked like before I replaced it.

Be careful of the knock sensor, I broke mine and had to replace it.

 

[tug123]

This is what mine looked like before I replaced it.
View attachment 3660243

Be careful of the knock sensor, I broke mine and had to replace it.

View attachment 3660248

I still have factory clamp on at least the pipe, guessing it was never replaced. Coming from above that left side just isn’t visible, I’ll try to do it from feel. Knock sensor is great, I probably would’ve broken mine.

 

[ppc]

Coming from above that left side just isn’t visible, I’ll try to do it from feel.

The PHH to engine connection should be accessed through the left front fender.

 

[tug123]

The PHH to engine connection should be accessed through the left front fender.

Upper intake is off, so might as well see if I can get away with it from that, have seen posts about people doing it that way (though scarce). Plan B is do it the old fashioned way, but would prefer to do it as is since it's right there with upper intake off.

 

[banjo1981]

You probably already know, but Take the driver front wheel off and it’s definitely easier.

 

[tug123]

You probably already know, but Take the driver front wheel off and it’s definitely easier.

I probably will, I'm just parked in the street so it'll get a lot more annoying if I pull the wheel. But yeah, seems like I'll have to.

 

[tug123]

Replaced fuel filter, valve cover gasket, half moons, spark plug seals, and PCV valve. Issue is, when I was just finishing up I wasn't paying attention (and forgot I already finished it), over-torqued one of the valve cover bolts and snapped it. I think I may be able to get at it from the bottom side and unscrew it with pliers, but any tips for this? Not a fun way to end 5hr of work. It's the second to last bolt on the driver's side, kind of under the EGR valve.

Also, do I just order the same OEM screw or is this something I could pick up at a local store? Maybe I'll just do the local dealer for this.

 

[tug123]

Looking at other threads for the same thing, seems like general consensus is 1/13 probably won't do much, but I still don't like it. I'll see if it's an easy pull just with channel locks or something. May try one of those reverse thread sockets.

 

[banjo1981]

I found a perfect match at Ace Hardware. Those are pretty low torque anyway, not super important to have an OEM bolt there

 

[CharlieS]

Probably not super critical to have factory hardware there (although I do, and prefer to). If you have a *good* hardware store that carries JIS metric flange bolts you can get something pretty similar. I don't have great hardware store options, so I buy that stuff in bulk from flangebolts.com