Omega Owners Forum

Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: Impact Pete on 09 March 2010, 13:05:37

Title: flushing coolant
Post by: Impact Pete on 09 March 2010, 13:05:37
Going to flush out the old crap and put in some nice new pink stuff
I read this
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1167917774

but bit confused why after flushing with clean water you put in new coolant only to then drain off again, have I missread this.
If I have the V6 how much coolant do I need to buy if as it says I need 9ltr of 50/50 coolant (some of which is being flushed out?)
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: Andy B on 09 March 2010, 13:10:58
Quote
Going to flush out the old crap and put in some nice new pink stuff
I read this
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1167917774

but bit confused why after flushing with clean water you put in new coolant only to then drain off again, have I missread this.
If I have the V6 how much coolant do I need to buy if as it says I need 9ltr of 50/50 coolant (some of which is being flushed out?)


After flushing through a few time with clean water (which is now your coolant) you drop what you can from the red drain tap. This will drop about half of the water which will give you enough room to add your 5 lires of anti-freeze which will then give you about 50:50 mix of anti-freeze & water .... which is now your coolant  :y  :y
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: Entwood on 09 March 2010, 13:14:17
You need a 50/50 mix .. but you can't drain out all the water, a whole lot remains .. so you can't mix the solution externally.

So drain off a load of clean water, add 5 ltrs undiluted antifreeze, top up with clean water .. result is the 50/50 mix ...  :)
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: Impact Pete on 09 March 2010, 15:24:22
thanks I understand the whole you can't drain it all, but why on earth flush it all out with clean water then add half a bottle of coolant then run and drain again? Surely after a few flushes of water you just add the 4.5 or 5 ltrs of coolant, top up with water then it mixes together on next engine start.

Why is this guide suggesting wasting expensive coolant (that shouldn't really go down the drain anyway!)  :-?
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: amba on 09 March 2010, 16:11:16
Current strength of coolant/antifreeze in your car is an unknown mix content.
Only way you can be sure of having the correct 50/50 mix is to drain the existing colant via red radiator drain plug.Refill with plain water till correct level and then drain again and keep repeating this until the water in the radiator you are now draing is running perfectly clear..(i.e   system has only pure water in it being approx 9 ltrs)
Final drain again will only remove approx 50% at which time you now add 5 ltrs of nice pink coolant and you should have as close as possible a perfect 50/50 mix of pure water and antifreeze.
You are only ever draining that which is already in the car and subsequent top ups of pure water...you will not be wasting any new antifreeze.
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: Impact Pete on 09 March 2010, 16:24:39
Quote
Current strength of coolant/antifreeze in your car is an unknown mix content.
Only way you can be sure of having the correct 50/50 mix is to drain the existing colant via red radiator drain plug.Refill with plain water till correct level and then drain again and keep repeating this until the water in the radiator you are now draing is running perfectly clear..(i.e   system has only pure water in it being approx 9 ltrs)
Final drain again will only remove approx 50% at which time you now add 5 ltrs of nice pink coolant and you should have as close as possible a perfect 50/50 mix of pure water and antifreeze.
You are only ever draining that which is already in the car and subsequent top ups of pure water...you will not be wasting any new antifreeze.

Sorry I know this already, my point is if you read the article it says (after all the clean water flushing) add 2.5ltrs of coolant top up run engine then again drain..... (look at the photos and read the top link)
Then add the other 2.5ltrs top up and all is well.
Sorry but it comes accross as rather odd
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: Andy B on 09 March 2010, 19:03:46
Quote
Quote
Current strength of coolant/antifreeze in your car is an unknown mix content.
Only way you can be sure of having the correct 50/50 mix is to drain the existing colant via red radiator drain plug.Refill with plain water till correct level and then drain again and keep repeating this until the water in the radiator you are now draing is running perfectly clear..(i.e   system has only pure water in it being approx 9 ltrs)
Final drain again will only remove approx 50% at which time you now add 5 ltrs of nice pink coolant and you should have as close as possible a perfect 50/50 mix of pure water and antifreeze.
You are only ever draining that which is already in the car and subsequent top ups of pure water...you will not be wasting any new antifreeze.

Sorry I know this already, my point is if you read the article it says (after all the clean water flushing) add 2.5ltrs of coolant top up run engine then again drain..... (look at the photos and read the top link)
Then add the other 2.5ltrs top up and all is well.
Sorry but it comes accross as rather odd

You're quite correct Pete, I've never read through it all before. It was the Student's first How-to-do and he's got it wrong. ::)

Now I did the above twice more, re-filling with water, running the engine and draining again. This was to make sure I only had pure water running in the system.

Now its time to add the new red coolant, its best to use an old coolant bottle. If you don't have one pour off half into another container, but which ever container you use you must destroy it afterwards. If anti freeze is ingested it can KILL, so please dispose of any container you use.



Now add this to the coolant system, make sure the radiator bleed valve is done up!

The coolant system on the 2.2 / 2.0’s takes around 6 litres of coolant, V6 engines take around 9.

Once filled up, and with the coolant bottle cap on I ran the engine again and drained. The water had a slight pink tinge to it:



I repeated the above twice more again, to make sure I had only 50/50 mix red coolant going around.


I'm sure it did have a pink tinge to it ...... it's just had antifreeze added to it!  ;)

As you say, drain & flush with clear/fresh water and when clear, drain what you can from the rad tap, pur in 5 litres of antifreeze & then top up to the level with clear water. Keep an eye on the level over the next day or so & top up as required  :y
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: Impact Pete on 10 March 2010, 08:54:39
Quote
Quote
Quote
Current strength of coolant/antifreeze in your car is an unknown mix content.
Only way you can be sure of having the correct 50/50 mix is to drain the existing colant via red radiator drain plug.Refill with plain water till correct level and then drain again and keep repeating this until the water in the radiator you are now draing is running perfectly clear..(i.e   system has only pure water in it being approx 9 ltrs)
Final drain again will only remove approx 50% at which time you now add 5 ltrs of nice pink coolant and you should have as close as possible a perfect 50/50 mix of pure water and antifreeze.
You are only ever draining that which is already in the car and subsequent top ups of pure water...you will not be wasting any new antifreeze.

Sorry I know this already, my point is if you read the article it says (after all the clean water flushing) add 2.5ltrs of coolant top up run engine then again drain..... (look at the photos and read the top link)
Then add the other 2.5ltrs top up and all is well.
Sorry but it comes accross as rather odd

You're quite correct Pete, I've never read through it all before. It was the Student's first How-to-do and he's got it wrong. ::)

Now I did the above twice more, re-filling with water, running the engine and draining again. This was to make sure I only had pure water running in the system.

Now its time to add the new red coolant, its best to use an old coolant bottle. If you don't have one pour off half into another container, but which ever container you use you must destroy it afterwards. If anti freeze is ingested it can KILL, so please dispose of any container you use.



Now add this to the coolant system, make sure the radiator bleed valve is done up!

The coolant system on the 2.2 / 2.0’s takes around 6 litres of coolant, V6 engines take around 9.

Once filled up, and with the coolant bottle cap on I ran the engine again and drained. The water had a slight pink tinge to it:



I repeated the above twice more again, to make sure I had only 50/50 mix red coolant going around.


I'm sure it did have a pink tinge to it ...... it's just had antifreeze added to it!  ;)

As you say, drain & flush with clear/fresh water and when clear, drain what you can from the rad tap, pur in 5 litres of antifreeze & then top up to the level with clear water. Keep an eye on the level over the next day or so & top up as required  :y


Thank you!! Finally someone reads it and understands my point.

All went well I flushed system 5 or 6 times then when I added the coolant it basically took 4.5 or a bit more ltrs of coolant and was up to the line, will keep an eye on it to see if it needs topping up.

Should also put on how to guide "remember water may be hot when draining" ! as I found out after the 3rd flush I had left it running a few minutes nice pink forearm this morning!
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: Dave Elite on 10 March 2010, 10:36:59
Quote
Quote
Quote
Quote
Current strength of coolant/antifreeze in your car is an unknown mix content.
Only way you can be sure of having the correct 50/50 mix is to drain the existing colant via red radiator drain plug.Refill with plain water till correct level and then drain again and keep repeating this until the water in the radiator you are now draing is running perfectly clear..(i.e   system has only pure water in it being approx 9 ltrs)
Final drain again will only remove approx 50% at which time you now add 5 ltrs of nice pink coolant and you should have as close as possible a perfect 50/50 mix of pure water and antifreeze.
You are only ever draining that which is already in the car and subsequent top ups of pure water...you will not be wasting any new antifreeze.

Sorry I know this already, my point is if you read the article it says (after all the clean water flushing) add 2.5ltrs of coolant top up run engine then again drain..... (look at the photos and read the top link)
Then add the other 2.5ltrs top up and all is well.
Sorry but it comes accross as rather odd

You're quite correct Pete, I've never read through it all before. It was the Student's first How-to-do and he's got it wrong. ::)

Now I did the above twice more, re-filling with water, running the engine and draining again. This was to make sure I only had pure water running in the system.

Now its time to add the new red coolant, its best to use an old coolant bottle. If you don't have one pour off half into another container, but which ever container you use you must destroy it afterwards. If anti freeze is ingested it can KILL, so please dispose of any container you use.



Now add this to the coolant system, make sure the radiator bleed valve is done up!

The coolant system on the 2.2 / 2.0’s takes around 6 litres of coolant, V6 engines take around 9.

Once filled up, and with the coolant bottle cap on I ran the engine again and drained. The water had a slight pink tinge to it:



I repeated the above twice more again, to make sure I had only 50/50 mix red coolant going around.


I'm sure it did have a pink tinge to it ...... it's just had antifreeze added to it!  ;)

As you say, drain & flush with clear/fresh water and when clear, drain what you can from the rad tap, pur in 5 litres of antifreeze & then top up to the level with clear water. Keep an eye on the level over the next day or so & top up as required  :y


Thank you!! Finally someone reads it and understands my point.

All went well I flushed system 5 or 6 times then when I added the coolant it basically took 4.5 or a bit more ltrs of coolant and was up to the line, will keep an eye on it to see if it needs topping up.

Should also put on how to guide "remember water may be hot when draining" ! as I found out after the 3rd flush I had left it running a few minutes nice pink forearm this morning!
A bit obvious though.
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: tunnie on 10 March 2010, 12:51:36
this guide was in very early days of OOF and me tinkering with the car, apologies for any mistakes. Reason i say flush good coolant is to get the whole coolant system to a known state. If you flush with water good few times heater matrix is full of fresh water, when you had 50/50 mix its not to the whole system, hence re-draining.

Wording could have been better, but this is not aimed to be a professional artificial, its also based on the fact you have basic car knowledge, if you run engine, things get hot. How far should i go? Give instructions on the direction you unscrew a cap?

For the rather minimal cost, its crucial to keep on top of coolant changes especially on 4 pots.  :y
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: Jimbob on 10 March 2010, 12:54:00
Quote
this guide was in very early days of OOF and me tinkering with the car, apologies for any mistakes. Reason i say flush good coolant is to get the whole coolant system to a known state. If you flush with water good few times heater matrix is full of fresh water, when you had 50/50 mix its not to the whole system, hence re-draining.

Wording could have been better, but this is not aimed to be a professional artificial, its also based on the fact you have basic car knowledge, if you run engine, things get hot. How far should i go? Give instructions on the direction you unscrew a cap?

For the rather minimal cost, its crucial to keep on top of coolant changes especially on 4 pots.  :y


If you wanna copy, then repost the guide with any amendments in the test section, I will do a replace  for you :y
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: tunnie on 10 March 2010, 12:56:49
Quote
Quote
this guide was in very early days of OOF and me tinkering with the car, apologies for any mistakes. Reason i say flush good coolant is to get the whole coolant system to a known state. If you flush with water good few times heater matrix is full of fresh water, when you had 50/50 mix its not to the whole system, hence re-draining.

Wording could have been better, but this is not aimed to be a professional artificial, its also based on the fact you have basic car knowledge, if you run engine, things get hot. How far should i go? Give instructions on the direction you unscrew a cap?

For the rather minimal cost, its crucial to keep on top of coolant changes especially on 4 pots.  :y


If you wanna copy, then repost the guide with any amendments in the test section, I will do a replace  for you :y

Cheers, i'll re-word it... can you send me the whole lot with img tags, or shall i just do text, and you can paste it in?
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: Jimbob on 10 March 2010, 13:03:44
good point, ill post in test for you  :y
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: tunnie on 10 March 2010, 13:10:52
Quote
good point, ill post in test for you  :y

ta  :y
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: tunnie on 10 March 2010, 13:17:53
All done, if any one has comments, take a read and see what you think.
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: Entwood on 10 March 2010, 13:35:07
I still think the "refill" is too complicated .. :(

It just needs something along the lines of

"repeat flushing with the heater on until water runs completely clear. Once happy that the system is clean, drain down for the final time. Close the drain valve fully. Then add neat antifreeze such that the system will have a 50/50 mixture ...

ie .. for a V6 which hold 9 litres coolant , add 4.5 ltrs antifreeze

for a 4 pot which holds 6 ltrs coolant, add 3 ltrs antifreeze.

Once this is in, top up to the correct level with clean water. Make sure you "burp" the system to get out all the air, topping up with clean water if the level falls. You now have a 50/50 mixture in your system.

Once the system is completely full and stable, Any FUTURE top ups should be with a 50/50 mixture"

Thats how I do mine and it works well .. :)  Choice of words is yours .. :)
Title: Re: flushing coolant
Post by: Impact Pete on 10 March 2010, 14:57:10
Quote
All done, if any one has comments, take a read and see what you think.

Hi Tunnie was not complaining about what you put, it was very useful turned into a nice simple job, just no one seemed to understand my question about draining what potentially is good coolant.

Regarding burning my arm... :o A rather obvious thing I should of thought about !  :-[ but it was getting dark and was late in the day! :)