Hi All!

I need to change the coolant this weekend and was wondering if anyone had a guess at the volume needed to refill the Breakaway? I'm going to use extended life Fleetgard coolant.

Speaking of coolant....Can a regular home mechanic flush a radiator? If so how? I couldn't tell you when ours was flushed last.

454 big block
Tere

It is a messy but not complicated job. The firstmquestion is where can you disposeof the old coolant? It is illegal to dump it into drains or waterways. So if you have a place you purchase a commercial flish at any auto parts store and follow direction. Beware however that most contain oxalic acid and if your system has any weakness in the radiators or heater core you are likely to kill it. Commercial places will normally exclude any responsibility for leaks that occur while or after flushing. In the 454 the lower radiator hose has an internal spring to prevent kinking and it will rust away. It is a good idea to change the thermostat and any hoses older than three years and carefully checking the heater hoses and fan belts.

The thread attached is a monster, but well worth reading if you are going to flush your coolant. Bear in mind while reading that these are two VERY competent wrenches that started this project with a simple preventative coolant flush. Hint: it has a happy ending.

http://www.wanderlodgeownersgr...owthread.php?t=10880

quote:

Originally posted by Eric Herrle:
Hi All!

I need to change the coolant this weekend and was wondering if anyone had a guess at the volume needed to refill the Breakaway? I'm going to use extended life Fleetgard coolant.

Eric,
If you have a 5.9 from what I could find out 7 1/2 to 8 gallons. I hope this is right because I put 4 gallons pure FLEET Charge after flushing the entire system twice with distilled water. I then filled with distilled. I made sure it flushed thru the heater and water heater exchanger. I replaced the lower radiator hoses also. I did not use any type of flushing additive because I read the link by Corey. I don't have that much free time to expose all the weak spots.

I use a medium strength flush, Zerex Super Flush when I'm changing coolant I installed. I just finished up the Ford van today; I had a heater core leak and had to top off the radiator with tap water, but since it had only about 500 miles since, I used the fairly mild flush.

When I first got the van 10 years ago, it indicated it was running too warm. This turned out to be a combination of factors:

1. Nearly 2 cups of scale I eventually extracted from the system. One of my customers, a Bill N Y counterpart (Willis Evans was born to heavy mechanics at 6'8", 260), suggested I use compressed air to blow out the block - I got most of the scale out that way.

2. Instrument panel voltage regulator. This is an obscure part, but common on Ford trucks. The original was defective giving high readings on oil presssure and temp.

There is no reason not to ALWAYS use distilled water for the mix.

My Cummins Maintenance manual says to use ethylene glycol Anti-Freeze after the system has been flushed. It recommends a 50% mix with water [either soft tap or distilled] which protects it down to -34deg. A 5-gal. pail should be sufficient to capture all the drained coolant, and the flush should be done with 1 pound of sodium carbonate mixed in. (Note this is the original Maintenance manual. I don't have any subsequent specification changes the factory may have issued.)

Eric: If you don't have your manual I would be glad to copy and send to you the pages that describe the flush/change procedure. It appears to be pretty thorough.

BTW, they say not to use a sealing additive for this B Series engine (6B5.9L).

Lou

Also check for a block drain plug; my Ford 6.9L has one; the AMG 6.5L does not. Draining the block ensures all the old coolant is gone.