Ok so I saw that my lower rad hose was leaking, so I will replace it in the next few weeks. But then I also checked my overflow tank to see if it needed to be topped up. I took off the cap and looked inside and my ***, it was so bad that there were flakes of stuff floating around. it was like crystalized.

I cant believe I dont have overheating problems! lol.

(oh yeah, and to hook up the adapter to do a flush, it's to the heater core return line, right?)

 

What do these flakes look like?

This is one of those times where a picture is worth 1000 words. It may be corrosion in your system that is washing off.

 

Ah darnit I already cleamed most of it out. But even a hi-pressure baslting didnt get rid of it all, so I'll go get a pic later today.

Basically, the whole bottom half was covered in a dark green stuff that flaked off little by little. There were also some sort of crystals floating around, reminded me of the little rocks you put in a fish tank, but dark green, y'know?

 

Ok I got some pics of this stuff..


THere's the tank AFTER the blasting..

 

And there is some of what I washed out... you can barely see it in the bottom of the jar..

 

Pretty old stuff. I just flushed mine and it had some of this, not nearly like that though. I drained the rad. and took out the thermostat and replaced the neck with old gasket. Makes for a real quick flush and the coolant really moves through the system. Removed block plug and knock sensor on last couple flushes. Used a bottle brush on the o-flow tank. New thermostat and gasket. Put in two gallons of straight antifreeze, top off with water. Somewhere there are several quarts hiding in the system that won't drain. V8 cars have a 17 quart system by the book so two gallons is about right, or a quart extra if you have it.

 

Yeah I REALLY need to do that to mine. I'm a little afraid of what I'll find though lol.

 

Yea I'd say give 'er a good flushing, that's pretty gross.

I thought we had 15 qt systems....

 

Whats the best way to flush the coolant? I did it on my old 82 camaro by splicing a T type thing into one of the hoses that goes (if i can remember right) from the intake manifold to the heater core. Then shot a garden hose through that T and "tried"to catch the coolant as it came out of the radiator cap. Is this the right way, it was a year or two ago and my dad just said to use a kit type thing with the T.

And is it best to take out the knock sensor? If i should where is it at?

thanks

 

Uhh you want to connect the T between the water pump and the heater core. According to the instructions on my kit, you splice in the t, connect the garden hose, disconnect the lower rad hose from the water pump, put a catch can underneath, start the car, turn the heater on, run the water from the garden hose until the water coming out is clear.

As for the knock sensor, knock sensor = good. Prevents detonation. If you want more info on it though, just start a thread.

 

Thanks, haha, Ill make sure i get it right this time.

and i dont mean get rid of the knock sensor, I mean take it out because Iv heard people say you can get a lot of sludge and crap out of the coolant passages that way and then i would put it back. Im almost sure i read somewhere that the knock sensor will drain coolant.

 

OOh I see what you mean. Uh, I have no idea. I thought there were a couple of coolant drain plugs right on the bottom of the block though. If you undo those, and do the flush properly, you should still get everything.

Heck, I dont even plan to remove the drain plugs.

 

Its just that my car is overheating, running at around 250*. I want to try everything i can thats no cost to get it back to normal. Its a stock motor too, so its not that my radiator isn't good enough. I figured coolant flow is blocked.

 

it looks like someone used to many cans of stop leak. i had to use several cans in an emergency one time. i flushed it but that stuff came up about 3 months later.

 

maybe that stuff can be called "flow stop" if you use too much.