Hi,

I'm a total newbie when it comes to these things so bear with me...

I have a '88 Trans Am GTA which I drive during the Summer months (I live in Scandinavia and it's not really a proper winter car). During the Winter it waits in a warm garage.

I've had it for some time now and naturally there are new things to fix every year. This time it was leaking fluid from the coolant. There appears to be a small leak in the water pump (or perhaps the hose). The radiator works fine and the leak is so minor that it takes days of driving to give a warning light. Be that as it may, something naturally has to be done.

Due to the minor nature of the problem, the guy who inspected the car and knows a thing or two about American cars suggested that I'd flush the coolant and try to use a coolant sealant to seal the leak before moving on to more "drastic measures".

Now, I've used "search" and found out that there apparently is a drain plug somewhere in the bottom of the car that can be used rather than taking out the hose from the radiator. So my first question is simple. What exactly am I looking for? This is the model with the 5.0l engine. The drain plug apparently is somewhere near the front of the car, on the passenger side? And I have to put the car up on stands to see it?

Having located it, how would you guys go about doing this? How many cycles and how long would you let the car run between them? I've read many conflicting instructions so apparently it also depends a bit on the model.

I'm also interested if you have any experiences with these coolant sealants. Do they actually have a chance of working, are they just snake oil or could they perhaps even do more bad than good?

It sucks asking newbie questions but, really, the local mechanics have problems even fixing something like a Toyota Corolla, so the more I can do myself, the better. And this is one area I don't have any experience with. I hope someone can help a bit or perhaps point at a right direction (if there's already a thread containing instructions and I missed it, please give a link to it).

Thanks.

 

The drain plug should be at the bottom of the radiator, passenger side. It should be facing toward the engine. It usually looks like a little black plug. Once you get underneath and look, I'm pretty sure you will see it. You can do a google search on how to flush. Here's one article I just found. Only took like 10 seconds to find this.

http://www.techguys.ca/howto/coolant_flush.html

 

Thanks. I did do a Google Search (also looked at the process on Youtube) and came up with several different ways, depending on what car model they used. You know, how long the car should run after filling with tap water, do you have to remove the two extra plugs to drain the fluid from the engine etc... But that's a good link. Gives options

About the radiator reservoir... It doesn't empty with the rest of the system? Most guys seem to recommend taking it out and cleaning it while doing this (and it certainly could use it). How is the reservoir held in place? One screw is visible, are there more?