where is the drain bolt???

[smufguy]

hey guys, well i need to drain my block and looking at the shop manual im having a hard time figuring out where the heck the Coolent drain bolt is on the block (A20A1). Thanks guys. Time to set this thing straight. A pic would be awsome.

[Vinny]

Hope this helps ya my good man

Its located behind the exhaust manifold. Get on your back, and look up behind the exhaust manifold, kind of behind the o2 sensor. It's difficult to get a wrench on, but it it possible. Don't lose the washer. Hers another shot from Majestic, its #23

[Vinny]

Sorry I couldn't find a REALLY good shot, but its 1 AM and I'm trying to watch the ball game

[2old_honda]

well from experience I can tell you that it is a bitch to get to and it is most likely seized in there. You dont really need to drain it. Just drain everything out, refill with water, drive around for awhile, drain again, and then refill with new coolant/water mix.

[3G Jester]

just besure to watch your temp gagues when your driving around!!!!! if its peaking and your driving with only water.....let her sit for a bit..the nget it home and flush that sumbiach.

[ACCORD EX]

don't worry about driving with water ! coolant is useful in freezing weather !
and don't take take your drain bolt out ! because as teh guys said , it will be propably siezed and it will leak then !

Mike !

[danronian]

I have changed my coolant 2 times since I got my accord and I only drained it through the radiator plug and then just bled the system through the top bleed screw. It was real easy, no air in the system at all. Just make sure you add a little of a coolant rich mix if you just flushed it since the engine block will still be full of water which will dilute it quite a bit. And if you didnt flush it out with water I would suggest doing it now also, its real easy and gets almost all of the dirt out of the system which could otherwise clog the rad.

[smufguy]

Wow you guys are lightning fast in replying . ANyway thanks for the comments guys.

Well since i have gotten the car i have never flushed the whole system, i only drained it thru the friggin radiator and i have way too much coolent in the coolent/water mixture. So before anything bad happens i wanna fix it. But i need to flush it too, I have the prestone Full Flush kit, Do i use that? It involves cuttin my upper radiator hose and hookin up this plastic connector in there, Do i do it? Also, 80% of the coolent was drained when i was swapping my motor and doing my efi swap.

Like always, thanks guys and how is ur car doing mike?

[Vinny]

I put a prestone flush kit on mine comming off the upper heater hose, don't waste your time doing it, more hassel and possible problems than its worth. The best way is to just use the flush method on the how-to section, trust me on this one mine was hella dirty and its nice and green now. My suggestion woul;d be to either A) get about 1/2 gallon of clear water, run the car and open the bleed valve until you get a good flow (if you've never done it before, trust me you'll get pleasnty out, mine was hitting the top of the hood when I raised the RPM's a lil over 1200) then just add the straight water. or B) Just let some out through the drain and then replace it with straight water

[danronian]

I didnt do mine when it was running, but it worked alright the 2nd time. I just took the thermostat housing off and stuck a hose in there. Sure it bypassed the heater but it is still much less brown then before. Just make sure you don't add cold water to a hot cooling system. But doing it while runnning is a much better idea.

[dj99]

Originally posted by dj99 on 7-29-02
Get on your back, and look up behind the exhaust manifold, kind of behind the o2 sensor. It's difficult to get a wrench on, but it it possible. Don't lose the washer.

Over a year ago, I did a complete flush and switched to the type II orange off-the-shelf coolant without the water pump killing silicates. Still going great. It's like 6 year/60,000 miles between changes.

[danronian]

Yeah but if you let an old rusted engine like ours go for 6yrs the fluid would be black.

[dj99]

My engine isn't bad at all at 124K. A good coolant should prevent the rust. Probably 'cause it got flushed a bunch during all the water pump failures. I'm on my 4th.

[smufguy]

well i was gonna get the premixed one or the high milage cooling stuff (the red/orange stuff) but i figured why bother with it. WEll anyway, im prolly gonna do it very soon cause my radiator (the one from the junk yard) is rusted like all get out near the bottom. ANyway, how about the prestone rust stop shit? THe black fluid with balls in it that gets poured down the radiator to fix any rust and stuff? Do u guys think any kinda additive to prevent corrosion or rust in the cooling system is advisable? Cause i know the shop manual says dont do it and what not. But im just trying to see if i can like minimize the rate of rusting and corrosion in my system. Before my accident (i have the same block) my coolent was in perfect condition. Not a single rust in the radiator or the thermostate or any coolent hoses. But the new thermostat and the radiator is kinda sketchy cause they were from the junkyard. So yeah, i am prolly gonna have to do this twice cause i should be getting a new radiator in a month or so but we will see how things go. Thanks again fellas.

[dj99]

You shouldn't have to use rust-stop with good coolant.

[Vinny]

Ok heres my aweful Radiator story, get what you can out of it. When I bought the car it was hella rusted, looked like Nestle quick in the radiator, just nasty. I put prestone super flush in drove it for like 8 days or whatever they tell you (read the label, prestone flush is like a short add then flush, SUPER flush you add then drive for so many hours then drain) I drained and refilled with clear water then after a bit it was rusty again. Added the prestone flush kit, junk don't do it just use your bleed valve. It took my 4 weeks of driving and 3 bottles of prestone flush to get it to where it is today, nice green and clean. BIG BIG must do, don't forget to turn the heater on, I put mine on full hot and High and it instantly turned nasty because alotta rust builds up in the heater Core. Because the blocks are made the way they are they are rust traps waiting to happen if not taken care of. I had to take 2 people, one to hold the idle up while I watched and added fluid into the Radiator after each draining of the superflush. Then just add staright water, close it up and run it for a day, then check to see how the fluid looks. Once you get it all done to where it looks like its gonna stay clean the add a 50/50 mix and pickup some of the additive prestone makes to coat the coolant system and all that, WalMart, like 3.50 or so. Also a good idea while your making the system nice and clean is to pull the battery tray and clean out your coolant recovery bottle. Hope this and the pics helped, best of luck

[smufguy]

thats a good tip Vinny. Yeah mine is pretty clean as of right now with no rust, but im just concerened about the damn radiator. My heater core and all the hoses and valves along with the coolent resevoir have been cleaned and are free of any kinda rust or corrosive loose particle in em. I just want to get the old coolent outta the block if possible, but who cares its not a lot in there and besides, everything is perfect but im just concerned with the radiator thats all.

Thanks for the tip about no additive to new coolent Dj.

[Vinny]

anytime my good man. You should be ok doing just a purge through the bleed valve, the system only holds like 1.7 galons so it shouldn't be too hard to purge that all out, even if you figure a 25% loss out of the block for every gallon you change thats only about .425 gallons of actual from the block water per gallon put in so with about 4 gallons of water total added in to get all the old out

[ACCORD EX]

did you check the how to's ! ?

Mike

[smufguy]

i read it mike. http://members.fortunecity.com/accor...m_bleeding.htm

Thats your write up isnt it? . Well i was not sure about letting the coolent from my engine flow out into the ground. So i was wanting to know how to do it. Cause i know MIKE (A20A1) did his thru the drain bolt from the block so i wanted to know how to do it that way.

[guaynabo89]

Originally posted by My Cousin Vinny
Hers another shot from Majestic, its #23

Just to let you know its actually number 22.

I never had a problem removing mine, but then again I have a header and not the stock exhaust manifold.

[DeathRat]

Well if you want it REALLY CLEAN, let me suggest what we do at GM. GM P/N 12346500 Prestone Heavy Duty Cooling System Cleaner
This stuff is VERY CAUSTIC. It will eat through just about everything if left in the system for longer than 20-30 minutes too. We use it on heavy rusted systems & it works great. BTW, you'll need a new Radiator Cap too if doing it this way, as the old one will get eaten by this chemical (that's how strong this stuff is) I also recommend changing the Thermostat too just in case.