VY Cooling System Flush & Re-fill Problems

[neville8689]

Hi there.
Could someone tell me where I have gone wrong with above? Followed the Ellery's Service Manual to a tee. Didn't seem too difficult to do. When I removed the bottom hose to drain the old coolant only about 4 litres came out. According to the service manual the coolant capacity is 12 litres. What happened to the remaining 8 litres? Bit concerned about this so just completly refilled the radiator with 4 litres of new coolant. Ran the engine for about 20 minutes and all seemed good. Doesn't seem to be any air in the system. Have I done the right thing?
Hope someone can help.
Cheers.
Neville.

[wortus]

You need a 50/50 mix so you need to fluxh the system including the heater core until it is just clean water. Drain it again and make sure you get 6 litres out, you can do this by disconnecting the heater hoses near the water pump and blowing the water out of the heater and removing the top hose at the radiator and blowing into that. When I did mine I collected as much as I could and measured it to make sure I got enough out. You then need to reconnect everything and add 6 litres of concentrate then top up with water. The overflow then needs a 50/50 mix added to the correct level so take that out as well and give it a good clean.

[neville8689]

Thank you very much for the advise. It seems the remaining fluid stays in the system. I don't know why they don't mention this in the service manual? It seems I've only drained the radiator (and got about 4 litres out in the process). I should have followed your process. Anyway what I did was refill the radiator with clean water & ran the engine for about 20 minutes (I had some radiator flush on hand but after only getting 4 litres out I wasn't going to risk putting it into the system). After letting it cool I dropped the radiator again and refilled with pre-mix coolant. Ran the engine again for about 20 minutes and topped up afterwards. I opened the air bleed screw on the thermostat during the process but only a few drops of coolant seemed to come out? I did a few short trips today and everything seems ok. Temp gauge is where it normally sits. I am wondering now though have I diluted the 50/50 mix by running clean water through the system? Do I need to correct this? Any advice would be welcome.
Cheers.

[wortus]

If you used pre mixed and only added 4 litres the mixture will be pretty duluted so I would flush it out again until the water is clean. Remove the heater hoses from the front of the engine an dmake sure the heater tap is oen and flush the heater core out with a hose on a low flow to avoid too much pressure, then blow as much water out of the heater as you can and also fromthe top hose. Try to collect as much as you can and measure it to make sure oyu get at least 6 litres out then add 6 litres of CONCENTRATED coolant something like Nulon Long Life CONCENTRATE, you will need a 5 litre and a 1 litre bottle however I usually get the 2.5 litre as it's not much more and gives you a bit extra for the overflow bottle which I remove, clean and refit then fill with a 50/50 mix.
Filling the engine with pre mixed won't work if ther eis still water in the block as it becomes too diluted. You can drain the block by removing both knock sensors however you should be able to get enough out by doing what I did.

[neville8689]

Wortus. Thank you very much for your help. Much appreciated.
Cheers.