Draining Radiator

[A Dawg Jr]

Well, last night it dropped to 35 dagrees here in colorado, and as of now I only have water in my radiator. so I need to get coolant in there today, but I don't know how to drain the water out.. I see a screw type plug when I look straight down behind it from above... is that it??

Also, when I put new coolant in, how much do I put in, and how much water do i mix?

Thanks

[ACCORD EX]

check this out !
http://209.151.81.66/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6572

Mike !

[A Dawg Jr]

Oh, sweet man thanks!!!

But could you help me locate exactly where the bleeding screw is?? I dont' know exactly what part that was

[Vinny]

C'mon Aaron it shows ya in the picture Just aft of your distriutor is the thermostat housing, follow your ypper Radiator hose to where it goes into the housing behind the Dist. The screws a 17mm head right ther on the top. If you've been runnibg nothing but water all summer my opinion would be to openthe draincock at the bottom of the radiator and just let all the water out. The draincock is about dead center on the radiator at the bottom. Look straight down from where you're radiator cap is toward the bottom inbetween the 2 cooling fans. Its just a plastic piece with 2 tabs or ears on it, almost looks like a "T" You should be able to loosen it by hand and just unscrew it, then pull it out. Let all the water dain, you should be safe mixing your coolant a lil stonger, maybe 60-75% coolant to water into the radiator, but only if you've been running staright water. When it mixes with whats in the block the mix should be about 50-50. Then go ahead and bleed the system out. Just my opinion on it. It's quicker since your doing a change from water to 50/50 mix. Trying to do it through the beed will take a while since you'll have to mix your coolant then keep adding and adding (since all the straight water in the Rad is going to have to come out the bleed first) until it comes out the bleed screw green in color.

[A Dawg Jr]

Wow, thanks man.. that little drain at the bottom was what I was trying to describe in the first post...

I found the drain thing or bleed screw (before reading your post ) but as soon as i opened it and started to bleed it with water so that it would clean it out or whatever... it was a mud red kinda crap that pumped out of there... I figured that i would just get it all out, but i sat there for 5 minutes pumping that red stuff out of there... by the time I looked up, the whole street drain was that mud red and my driveway was redish too... people were looking at me like wtf... so I stopped. I didn't pull that drian thing yet, but I will do that..

but could you tell me if that red stuff is normal and I just need to keep bleeding it... ??

[A Dawg Jr]

Never mind!! I got it done, thanks guys..


I flushed it till it was clear, but i'd still like to know if it is normal to be red like that

[Vinny]

not normal, by red I'm thinkin you mean a ryst color. thats what it is more than likely.........Rust. Min w was hella brownish red when I bought the car, looked like someone poured nestle wuick in the Radiator with the water. Depending on how bad it is will determine what you need to do to fix it. How long were you running straight water??????When was the last time you flushed the system out?????

[A Dawg Jr]

Straight water for about 2 weeks.. before that I never checked the coolent levels and it ran all the way out so the water was just a temp. thing till I could get some anti freeze.

Ya, it's a rust kinda color, but it was pretty thick, and dark... I don't know what that means, or if that's really bad or not.. I wasn't able to get it all out.. so there is still a little left in there.. but I got it as best I could, it got to the point where almost clear water was coming out... I won't say crystal clear but pretty clear..

But ya, i havn't been running on water very long

[joebeets]

If you have time this year, run some Prestone Super Cleaner through. You add it and run for 6 hrs. Your goal is to make sure rust is not clogging the block. Risk is, it'll find your borderline leaks.

I've gone through two containers of "radiator flush" and one of cleaner, plus at least 10 drain/refills, and mine is still a little rusty.

The bleed screw, on top center of the engine, is opened during refill, to let air escape.

When you drain, make sure you heater control is on Hot.

[danronian]

It scares me too much to use a flush/clean product on my accord w/150k mi. on it. I'd rather just replace the headgasket later then possibly find a leak in it now.

[DeathRat]

Speaking of cleaning & draining here.....Is there a Block Drain plug? I know most engines have one, but can't find one on my A20A1.

[ACCORD EX]

yes there is ! but i wouldn't recommecd messing with it ! with the procedure in the how to you'll be able to clean the whole system !

Mike !