Coolant flush/refill, was this excessive?

[w261w261]

Boy did I make a mess in the driveway on Saturday. Looked at my coolant and saw muddy brown instead of green, even though it's only been a couple of years. Drained the radiator, refilled with hose water, ran until the thermostat opened plus a few minutes more, then repeated the process a couple more times. I kept hosing off the driveway because I have dogs and antifreeze is poisonous.

Got in, drove around for awhile, then remembered I should have used distilled water rather than the well water that was in there. Bought another gallon of antifreeze (Peak brand, btw, it's a nice shade of green, better to see it through the water bottle instead of the yellow from Prestone), and for good measure got a bottle of coolant flush. Went back home and repeated the exercise a few more times, this time with distilled water. In all, I probably refilled the radiator 6 or seven times total, but now have a distilled water / antifreeze mixture.

Was this overkill?

[Pico]

Was this overkill?

I dont think so,
I'm doing the same thing to my Legend next weekend

[russiankid]

Boy did I make a mess in the driveway on Saturday. Looked at my coolant and saw muddy brown instead of green, even though it's only been a couple of years. Drained the radiator, refilled with hose water, ran until the thermostat opened plus a few minutes more, then repeated the process a couple more times. I kept hosing off the driveway because I have dogs and antifreeze is poisonous.

Got in, drove around for awhile, then remembered I should have used distilled water rather than the well water that was in there. Bought another gallon of antifreeze (Peak brand, btw, it's a nice shade of green, better to see it through the water bottle instead of the yellow from Prestone), and for good measure got a bottle of coolant flush. Went back home and repeated the exercise a few more times, this time with distilled water. In all, I probably refilled the radiator 6 or seven times total, but now have a distilled water / antifreeze mixture.

Was this overkill?

Well you can say your system is clean from crap now since you pretty much flushed it 5 times. I use Prestone with distilled water and its great.

[ghettogeddy]

no
always good to get all the crap out i normally just drain fill then start while running open the drain and leave the hose in and running for about 10mins or so its a good little flush

[Vanilla Sky]

You can't get your coolant passages too clean. The cleaner you get it, the better. Since we have iron/aluminum engines, you set up a galvanic cell and start building up a bit of an electrical charge. The rust is evidence of this. This galvanic process will eat at your iron block. If you keep your coolant clean, you have less conductivity, thus less of a galvanic process.

Keep it as clean as possible. Don't worry about overkill with your cooling system.

[MessyHonda]

i remember flushing my system when i replaced my rad, then my thermostat, then my switch. so 3 times in a mater of 2 weeks...and its still a nice shade of green.

[DDRaptor]

So my only question is where did you get the distilled water or did you just boil water or leave water outside and let it distill on it's own.?

[2oodoor]

never overkill cause any little bit of corrosive in the system will start it all over again. Check your freeze plugs for any signs of external rusting.
I dont know why you would have to use distilled water thought, I thought that was for batteries. Well water may not be good though because it could have high iron content, tap water should be ok..The good antifreeze you are using is anticorrosive so your water you mix in should be ok regardless.

[w261w261]

...always good to get all the crap out i normally just drain fill then start while running open the drain and leave the hose in and running for about 10mins or so its a good little flush

I wondered about doing it that way, but noticed that the water really poured out of the opening at the bottom when I took the plug out, and was concerned that if I just stuck the garden hose in the top, that the drain being open might starve the lower coolant hose to the block. If that works though, it would have been easier for sure.

In an old post, the writer said to cover the electrics, and just open the bleed valve and let it flush that way. I thought it would take too long, so just did the radiator flush and refill a few times. The capacity of the radiator btw is about a gallon, and the block is about 3/4 of that, so with a radiator drain you're getting about 60% of the total coolant. Do it twice and you're up to 85%, 3 times 95%. You have to make sure the thermostat is open of course and then let it run for a few minutes to mix everything. You can tell when the thermostat does open by the small current in the coolant, looking down through the filler neck on the radiator, or just stick your finger in it and see if it's getting hot. Don't forget to bleed it each time, and also to keep the heater on high temp (opens the heater control valve in the coolant line to the heater).

In answer to the question about distilled water, I bought it at the supermarket. My house water comes from a well, so the minerals are probably high. I know I have to use a citrus product to get the brown off my dishwasher periodically.

I had a very productive weekend, car-wise. Had family obligations about 45 minutes away on 2 of the days, but I really didn't have to sit there and relate for more than a few minutes. So, having washed both cars previously, on each day I took a different one and completely detailed them: nanowax (it really does make a difference, the nano technology), leather clean and condition, completely clean and "armorall" the inside (I don't use that brand, but a Mother's product), wheels and tires, "Back to Black" on outside black trim, cleaned the inside and outside of all windows including the pain-in-the-ass inside of the backlights (don't rub up and down while cleaning, always go across so you won't chance to break the defroster wires).

It took about 4+ hours per car. The SE-i I thought looked very good, but it takes, ah, a certain aficionado to properly appreciate it of course. My wife's '04 Passat, which is completely unmarked and has always been garaged, looked brilliant in it's silver/black leather. My wife gave me one of those "looks" when she saw it that promised special treatment soon.

Satisfaction!

[2oodoor]

just a side note, that if anybody is thinking about doing a running engine flush you have to take out the thermostat because the water temp is going to be cool coming out of a garden hose.

[w261w261]

just a side note, that if anybody is thinking about doing a running engine flush you have to take out the thermostat because the water temp is going to be cool coming out of a garden hose.

On the Honda, as I was filling the radiator and running it until it got hot, I didn't have to worry about the thermostat, it was just a wait until it finally opened. I sat in the car and ran up the idle to 2k to help it along. Took maybe 5 minutes the first time, but less successively, as the block was already hot.

On my late Volvo, it didn't have a radiator cap, so I unplugged the inlet hose (on top), and stuck the garden hose into the radiator. What would happen is the water in the block would heat up, the thermostat would open, and water would start coming out of the disconnected hose. I would start putting water into the radiator, and as the cold water reached the thermostat, it would close and the water coming from the inlet hose would stop for a little bit. This process repeated itself until the engine block heated up enough that even the cold water from the garden hose was not enough for the thermostat to close.

[MessyHonda]

we did a ghetto flush when monkeys car coolant hose blew from the back of the thermostat housing.... the car got back home safe.... 500 miles away.

[HondaBoy]

definately not over kill. probably did youself a big favor getting all the crap out of your cooling system the first time instead of having to do this again and again because not getting everything out will let new rust and crap form. as far as the antifreeze brands, doesnt really matter. they all work the same and are made the same way. i should know, i've tried most of them over the years. now if you are using dex-cool, then you must not use regular ethelyne glycol to mix with it, or vice versa. you should change the coolant once a year, most people dont and dont know to. but if you're like most people you wont have time or dont want to do it once a year. but yeah, probably will make your system much more efficent than it ever was since you've had the car.

[MessyHonda]

definately not over kill. probably did youself a big favor getting all the crap out of your cooling system the first time instead of having to do this again and again because not getting everything out will let new rust and crap form. as far as the antifreeze brands, doesnt really matter. they all work the same and are made the same way. i should know, i've tried most of them over the years. now if you are using dex-cool, then you must not use regular ethelyne glycol to mix with it, or vice versa. you should change the coolant once a year, most people dont and dont know to. but if you're like most people you wont have time or dont want to do it once a year. but yeah, probably will make your system much more efficent than it ever was since you've had the car.

also a great radiator helps. Koyo FTW....i just check after reading this thread and coolent is still green....i use free stuff from mazda...so far it works fine.

[2ndGenGuy]

The brown stuff from well water is usually iron I thought. Iron water plus cast iron block FTW? Better heat conductivity?

I would say that the well water probably won't hurt anything. However, the distilled water is more pure, and completely free of contaminants. So from a longevity standpoint, it's probably better. If you're working on your engine and draining it and flushing a lot, well water probably won't hurt.

[DDRaptor]

lol I'm still trying to figure out where you got the Distilled water?

[2ndGenGuy]

lol I'm still trying to figure out where you got the Distilled water?

They sell it at the grocery store. In big bottles next to the drinking water.

[MessyHonda]

They sell it at the grocery store. In big bottles next to the drinking water.

yup....they on sale....cant you also boil like 5 gals for like 20 mins and then use the upper part of the water.

[russiankid]

They sell it at the grocery store. In big bottles next to the drinking water.

^^
Most stores also sell their own brand. I know for a fact Kentwood has distilled water. Just go to the section where you can buy 1 gallon jugs of water, and looked for distilled water.

[2oodoor]

lol I'm still trying to figure out where you got the Distilled water?

ok it is non alcoholic.. lol

any drug store would have it, you could use drinking water I imagine

[paulwwww]

If you have a de-humidifier, (mostly used to keep moisture out of basement areas), the discharge water is distilled.

[lostforawhile]

you use distilled water always if you have aluminum parts in your cooling system, the mineral in tap water are very damaging to aluminum parts after the coolant heats up. if you have good distilled water and a quality antifreeze you shouldn't have to worry about corrosion in your block, antifreeze also has corrosion inhibitors built in. this is another reason to never fill your radiator with plain tap water. the plain water with no corrosion inhibitors and the minerals in it can damage your cooling system in a very very short time. if you live in a climate where it never gets cold you can run plain water but it has to be distilled and you would need to add a water pump lubricant.. you might as well run antifreeze. with the added benifits of boilover protection.

[Hauntd ca3]

the best way to flush is take off bot the top and bottom hoses and use the old garden hose to flush in both directions to make sure you het any hangers on.
and remove the thermostat and flush the block in both directions
since he has an sei i'd imagine he has the b20a so the disimilar metals thing is out the window.
i use rain water and put 3 liters off castrol anti freeze/anti boil corrosion inhibitor then top off with water then bleed along with a new thermostat at same time.
since its only 10 or 15c dollars for a thermostat and gasket every year or so
its good insurance

[w261w261]

A couple of people here have said to change out the anti-freeze every year or two. I figure 2 years, but if it's still nice and green, wouldn't that indicate that it's still OK? Is there anything chemically happening to the mixture that isn't visible?

[Civic Accord Honda]

i flushed the block on my "parts car" with a garden hose on to the pipe that runs along the block in to the water pump and i had the block drain bolt open then i flushed the heatercore and all that sepretly ...

on my lxi i just ran the hose thu the rad.. and to get the thomo stat to open i just drained the rad and ran it tel it started to overheat then i put the hose in the rad lol

come late spring i have to replace all my hoses and thomostat i allready replaced the waterpump this fall when the old one took a crap..


and yes flushing is a pia lol and i use Super-Tech coolant