I almost did the coolant flush...

[dans67]

I started to do the coolant flush last night on the cruiser that we've have since the beginning of Sept. First the oil change, all is good here, the oil looks normal no problems. I look at the overflow bottle for the coolant, it's empty, pop the radiator cap, not a lot of fluid showing above the core, wtf. It looks like there may be a small hole in the upper radiator hose, this is a relief to me, easy fix. I did notice a great deal of red sludge on top of the radiator, I'll flush this out well. The hose came in today, but I had wrenched on the bosses jeep all day and did not feel like messing around in the dark with the cruiser tonight. I guess I'll see if any of the local toyota dealers has a thermostat and gasket tomorrow, may as well do this while I'm at it. There were problems with the heat taking forever to get going recently, I'm wondering if the thermostat is almost done.
Dan

 

[OGBeno]

Dan:

If you go above to the FAQ section in this forum there are two specific threads that have been marked off about the radiator and the coolant flush.

Both address the sludge issues and other possible diagnoses and symtpons of problems in the coolant system.

One thread is specifically about flushing the radiator; one is about cleaning the cooling system.

I think they will both help you.

One of the first things I did with mine was to immediately replace the thermo and the gasket with OEM from the dealer (before I was introduced to CDan).

If I were you, continue on this path of bringing all critical systems back to square one and I think both your rig and you will be much happier.

I'm sure others will chime in soon.

Best of luck.
-onur
Akron, OH

 

[dans67]

I've throughly read these, and am/was ready to do the flush, but waiting the hose delayed my plans. Hopefully the weather will hold out long enough today to get the bosses jeep finished, and then I can come home and do the cruiser. The power steering on the cruiser is starting to bother me too, it's making too much noise and the fluid looks nasty. I'm pretty sure that it's the stock fluid, the only fluids that were ever changed was the oil, and differential/ birfs. The brake fluid was so bad that when I put a pH strip in it, the strip immediatly went bright purple, too much moisture. When I tried bleed the brakes and change the fluid, I couldn't get the rear calipers to bleed. I loosened the bleeder, loosened it some more, a little more, and finally took it out. Finally, fluid came out, but it was ultra nasty. Upon inspecting the bleeder, it didn't look like there was a bleed hole inside of it. I had to blow air into it to clear out the hole, finally something was happening. What a mess, at least the bleeders didn't break off, but it was a pain. The coolant was almost brown, the ps fluid is almost brown, so I have a weekend ahead of me.

 

[e9999]

I've throughly read these, and am/was ready to do the flush, but waiting the hose delayed my plans. Hopefully the weather will hold out long enough today to get the bosses jeep finished, and then I can come home and do the cruiser. The power steering on the cruiser is starting to bother me too, it's making too much noise and the fluid looks nasty. I'm pretty sure that it's the stock fluid, the only fluids that were ever changed was the oil, and differential/ birfs. The brake fluid was so bad that when I put a pH strip in it, the strip immediatly went bright purple, too much moisture. When I tried bleed the brakes and change the fluid, I couldn't get the rear calipers to bleed. I loosened the bleeder, loosened it some more, a little more, and finally took it out. Finally, fluid came out, but it was ultra nasty. Upon inspecting the bleeder, it didn't look like there was a bleed hole inside of it. I had to blow air into it to clear out the hole, finally something was happening. What a mess, at least the bleeders didn't break off, but it was a pain. The coolant was almost brown, the ps fluid is almost brown, so I have a weekend ahead of me.

any more info on this pH technique?

E

 

[RavenTai]

don't forget the Pesky heater hose,

 

[dans67]

The pesky heater hose was done by the PO, very recently, so I'm not going to worry about that yet, and the birfs were just repacked at the dealer not even a year ago. The pH technique was simple, there is a test kit available, maybe through Snap On or something, and you just dip the end into the fluid. If the paper stays whiteish, you are fine, and the varying amounts of purple on the paper basically signify the amount of moisture in the system. It's probably just litmus paper, but it's labeled as brake fluid testing paper, it comes in a container just like the litmus paper in high school.
Dan

 

[Klunky Chris]

hey Dan,
do you have a FSM? It shows how to *pump* the old PS fluid out of your system. It's not to hard, just a little messy. Just take the return line that goes into the reservoir of and aim it at a cup/bucket/etc. put new fliud in the reservoir as it pumps through.

I did it on mine, used Mobil 1 ATF as I figured this was a system that could benefit from the synthetic.

Check all your PS hoses and the cooler tubes up front (especially if your in the rust belt) as I had a weak hose bust on my afterward and all my new Mobil 1 pumped all over my engine compartment

 

[dans67]

I'll have to check out the pumping procedure later tonight, it seems easy enough by just looking at it. That's actauly sounds like what I was planning to do anyhow, I guess after Turkey day. I'm thinking that the po must have just put some ps fluid in it or something, to make it such a choclatley brown color. It's relativly rust free, at least everywhere I can see, so I shouldn't have to worry about lines busting yet. It's funny you mention that though, I just spent two days changing all the metal brake lines on the bosses winter beater jeep. It started with the drivers side front line with a hole that was squirting the bush beside the truck, while taking it off of the prop. valve, a line from the master to the prop. valve snapped, upon further investigation, the line going to the rear had a weeping hole, waiting to bust. After fixing these, three pumps with the truck running, and the pass. front line ruptured. These lines were completly rusted out, as is the rest of the truck.
Dan

 

[Rich]

...I did notice a great deal of red sludge on top of the radiator, I'll flush this out well....
Dan

If this is the same sludge that I found in my radiator you won't have much luck flushing it out using a garden hose. I ended up removing the radiator and taking it to a radiator shop and having it flushed out with their huge, high volume power flusher.

 

[dans67]

Hmmm, that's something I'll have to keep in mind. I cleaned out the overflow tank today, the thermostat isn't here yet, so I'll have to wait until friday to do the flush/clean/ fill. I had a few minutes so I pulled off the overflow tank, to the sink, put in 5 or 6 brillo pads and shook the hell out of it. After 20-30 minutes, it was pretty much clean inside. This really accomplished nothing, but I didn't want all of the old brown crud caked to the walls if I was going through all the trouble to clean out the system.
Dan

 

[dans67]

Well, the flush finally happened, quite the easy job. The thermostat will have to wait, I was promised that it would be at the dealer on Friday, but on Friday when I went there, I only got a stupid look and the guy said something about the truck not coming. I have to say that this was the most disgusting cooling system that I have ever seen. I was able to get most of the radiator sludge out by just letting the hose run the top and out the bottom forever. Everything was completly crusted with nastyness though. I pinched the heater hose, and I could hear and feel the crackel of the rubber hose. I had to cut one to get it off for the prestone kit. There is no way that it would have came off otherwise, for now it has a piece of generic rubber heater hose doing the job. I let it flush forever, but there is still crud inside. I think next spring, when I don't have to worry about freezing nights, I will just drain and fill it everyday for a week or two trying to get some of the built-up mess out. It's a 94 and I really don't think that it had ever been done. I think that I will make sure my '00 truck will never see that kind of neglect.
Dan