got a weekend project coming up. any tips or hints? (1 Viewer)

[dylans]

Long post here... Bear with me please.
Here in az its been 108+ degrees out, and its gonna be the death of my truck. I've got an 89 fj62. I'm planning on a full coolant flush and refill. I bought 2 gallons full strength and 2 gallons of distilled water. Got about a half gallon of 50/50 too in case. I bought a little flush fill kit too from autozone. I'm also planning on a full trany flush refill service and cooler install. I bought 3 gallons of castrol transmax dex/merc. Filter and gasket kit, and a Hayden 679 trans oil cooler with 6ft of extra 3/8" trans line. Also gonna add a bottle of Lucas trans conditioner/stop slip for fun.

As far as i know here are my two options for the coolant job. Correct me if a may be going wrong.

I could pull the block drain plug and stick a hose in the rad. Run for half an hour or so. Turn it off drain it and pull the rad drain plug to further drain, refill.

Or follow the instructions on the kit, cut the heater hose and install the flush tee. Flush drain refill. Any other options or tips on an easy effective process?

As for the trany service, I plan on doing the Rodney flush suggested here many times. Gonna drop the pan and service filter first. Refill with what came out. Then gonna pull the line that goes into the rad, start the truck (leave it in park or what?) Fill up a bottle marked at 2 quarts. Shut it off, put 2 new quarts in. Repeat until clean comes out. For the cooler I'm gonna leave the line going into the rad from the trans. Then coming out of the rad I'm gonna add the cooler, and from the cooler back to the trans.

Any corrections, or tips are welcome! Please and thank you! I'm excited for this. Feels like I'll have a new truck already haha. And a pic for fun...

 

[dbleon]

I personally would not introduce tap water into the system. The way I do it it's by dilution with distilled water until all old coolant is effectively diluted out of solution (remembering college chemistry professor: "dilution is the solution!")

Drain radiator completely, then fill with distilled water, then run to operating temperature and allow coolant to circulate for several minutes. Repeat several times... remember when allowing to circulate, to open heater to full blast and rear heater also if so equipped.

Once you have sufficiently diluted old coolant down (radiator drain is clear), drain half total cooling system capacity and add straight coolant to fill. Burp/bleed and your good to go.

I do my tranny oil just as you stated.. you''ll see the change in color. Dont run the pump dry for too long though... can damage it.

cheers/

 

[tag3]

Hose clamps for tranny lines.

 

[dylans]

Hose clamps for tranny lines.

Check. Bought in bulk practically haha

 

[dylans]

I personally would not introduce tap water into the system. The way I do it it's by dilution with distilled water until all old fluid is effectively diluted out of solution (remembering college chemist professor: dilution is the solution!)

Drain radiator completely, then fill with distilled water, then run to operating temperature and allow coolant to circulate for several minutes. Repeat several times... remember when allowing to circulate, to open heater to full blast and rear heater also if so equipped.

Once you have basically diluted all old coolant out(radiator drain is clear), drain half total cooling system capacity and add straight coolant to fill. Burp/bleed and your good to go.

I do my tranny oil just as you stated.. you''ll see the change in color. dont run the pump dry for too long though... can damage it.

cheers/

Thank you. I'll try it out your way with distilled water

 

[thzpcs]

Hose clamps for tranny lines.

So, why do you have to clamp off the tranny lines?

 

[dylans]

A couple questions. Once the rad drains clear from the water, how much do I drain out in order to add the coolant and do I drain it from the rad again plug it and add coolant? Does this method flush the entire system?

 

[Cruzerman]

I've always used just regular tap water. Distilled water seems a little excessive to me, but that's just my opinion. If you're just doing maintenance, this sounds like a good plan. But if it has been running hot at all, I'd pull the radiator and take it in to be boiled out and inspected. Again, JMHO.

 

[dylans]

I've always used just regular tap water. Distilled water seems a little excessive to me, but that's just my opinion. If you're just doing maintenance, this sounds like a good plan. But if it has been running hot at all, I'd pull the radiator and take it in to be boiled out and inspected. Again, JMHO.

Well it hasn't run hot yet. The other day was my first time really driving it around in the afternoon. I only drive in the evenings and mornings usually, to and from work. Had the ac on, stop and go, 110 degrees out. It almost got too warm for my comfort. The side of my shifter was blazing too. Smelled a new smell. A slight burnt smell, not in the engine bay though. So I said that's it. I'm doing the maintenance.

 

[dbleon]

A couple questions. Once the rad drains clear from the water, how much do I drain out in order to add the coolant and do I drain it from the rad again plug it and add coolant? Does this method flush the entire system?

As long as you get to the point of clear water... you have flushed the system (may take several drain/refill). It will flush the entire system as long as you let the coolant circulate at operating temp for several minutes between drains.

Drain half cooling system capacity or however much you desire your water/antifreeze ratio to be (should be able to find coolant capacity in manual).

In Tucson, AZ where it really doesn't freeze, you can get away with less antifreeze in the system (plus it will cool better with less -sounds counter intuitive i know).

The parts stores sell a little tester kit for less than 5 bucks that will tell you your water/anti-freeze ratio.

Good luck.

 

[dbleon]

I've always used just regular tap water. Distilled water seems a little excessive to me, but that's just my opinion. If you're just doing maintenance, this sounds like a good plan. But if it has been running hot at all, I'd pull the radiator and take it in to be boiled out and inspected. Again, JMHO.

I avoid tap water to prevent corrosion in the system... at 89 cents a gallon for distilled water, it's cheap insurance. Our tap water here in AZ is very hard.

 

[dylans]

I avoid tap water to prevent corrosion in the system... at 89 cents a gallon for distilled water, it's cheap insurance. Our tap water here in AZ is very hard.

That is too true. Thanks for clarifying above too.

 

[Mace]

The difference between Distilled and tap water is significant in some places. Others, not so much.

The problem with tap water is that it can eat up any aluminum or magnesium parts pretty fast. Which is primarily the water pump. Our old motors can hold up to tap water fairly well, but it's a good insurance plan to use distilled or premixed antifreeze.

I'll flush with regular water, blow everything out, drain everything I can, and then fill back up with 50/50. And I use the cheapest coolant I can find. The expensive toyota brand is not necessary for our rigs.

If you are still overheating, you have something wrong with your coolant system. These motors run cool.

 

[Mace]

also, do not use the little plastic thingies that go through the radiator to hols the new cooler on. They have a tendency to break your radiator fins over time and cause leaks.

 

[Spike Strip]

The cheap green coolant is cheap for a reason. They all change the boiling point of coolant the same, the difference is in additive package and recycled or virgin glycol.

Use this HD stuff and a bottle of water wetter. Avail at NAPA. I use the straight and mix with de-min I 'borrow' from work cuz I don't like paying $4 for a gallon of water If you're a bit lazy with change intervals (like me), it's the only way to go if using an IAT coolant.

 

[dylans]

The cheap green coolant is cheap for a reason. They all change the boiling point of coolant the same, the difference is in additive package and recycled or virgin glycol.

Use this HD stuff and a bottle of water wetter. Avail at NAPA. I use the straight and mix with de-min I 'borrow' from work cuz I don't like paying $4 for a gallon of water If you're a bit lazy with change intervals (like me), it's the only way to go if using an IAT coolant.

I'll have to look into that stuff next time. Already bought the coolant haha but thanks for the advice

 

[dylans]

Update!

Did the rad flush, used 8 gallons of distilled water to dilute until clear. Drained the rad filled with ~ 3/4 gallon of distilled with a bottle of water wetter and a gallon of straight antifreeze. Bled and topped off. Dorve it a little while and ran fine, stayed cool.

Today I started the trany cooler install.

These are the mounts I whipped up. It was a 3 ft length, cut with dremel, shaped for clearence with hammer and edge of table. I proceeded to mount and re shape for a couple hours to make sure they were level and would hold the cooler straight. Mounted on existing bolts, added some split lock washers.

Routed the first line, the one on the bottom will go straight to the trany.

Routed the top line that will come from the trans fluid output on the rad. Mount is pretty solid. I added the foam squares between the cooler and the mounts.
All I have to do now is remove the old return line from the rad to trany and cut out the fittings. Install them into the new lines and hook it all up. Im having a really hard time undoing the union between the hard line and old soft line near the trans figured I'd give it a rest before I break something. Also its 945 am now here in az and already too hot to continue working. So back at it later I guess.
After the install is complete I'm gonna service the trany and flush the fluid! Fresh fluid all around. A better running cruiser for me!

 

[NYNick]

Nice job on the coolant. Did this same thing a few years back and flushed the block drain as well. Crap came out.

When refilling the transmission, don't go by what comes out. Refill by FSM procedure. Fill, drive, check, fill, drive, check until you get the level perfect. These transmission are sensitive to the correct level. Once filled to the proper level, mine shifted like never before. The last person to do a service was a Toyota dealership, and they obviously didn't put enough in.

 

[DrivingMissRosey]

Not to contradict the wisdom presented in this tread about using distilled water, but I've been told a few times not to use distilled water in the cooling system. The logic being that this water is "thirsty" for minerals meaning that it forms salts and oxides form the various metal parts of the cooling system and coolant. I dont know if that is true. I've always used tap water and never had any issues in 70K miles/5 years that I've owned my rig. After reading this thread and thinking about using distilled or tap water, I dont think it matters as long as you always flush the coolant system every couple of years using the a flush product.

 

[dylans]

Nice job on the coolant. Did this same thing a few years back and flushed the block drain as well. Crap came out.

When refilling the transmission, don't go by what comes out. Refill by FSM procedure. Fill, drive, check, fill, drive, check until you get the level perfect. These transmission are sensitive to the correct level. Once filled to the proper level, mine shifted like never before. The last person to do a service was a Toyota dealership, and they obviously didn't put enough in.

I had some mud looking stuff at the bottom of the bucket when all was said and done, maybe a table spoon.

I'm planning on draining 2 quarts, shutting it off and adding 2 quarts. Until it starts running clean. I guess I'll have to keep in mind that the cooler addition may change the amount a little, but not by much right? I have 3 gallons of dex/merc and 6 individual quarts ready to go. So when I see the color change, cap it all off, drive it check it fill, repeat?