Hey....My 85 TPI Trans Am is having cooling problems. I replaced the stat w/ a 180 and need to flush the cooling system. Will someone please decribe the exact steps to do this. I am not mechanically inclined that much...so I dont know alot of basic things. Please Help Me.

 

well...there's a little plug down at the bottum of your radiator. Mine is on the passanger side, not sure if yours would be the same.

Its shaped like a wingnut, and could be really really hard to break loose. but all you do is loosen it up, and soon enough you'll notice a growing puddle of coolent growing underneath your car.

Let all the coolent drain out. Now what i do is fill the radiator back up with water, then run the engine for a little bit, then drain the radiator again.

But after you're all done flushing it, remember to tighten the plug back up, and then you just add antifreeze. Keep in mind that you need to get at least a 50/50 coolent/water mixture in there.

You'll need a boiling and freeze point tester, kind of an odd looking thing. But if you dont know what one looks like, just ask the guy at the parts store for it. Personally i measure my mixture by trying to keep the freeze point at -30 degrees.

Then...after all that is done, run the engine with the rad cap off for a bit to get all the air pockets out of the coolent lines. If you're wondering if you have a bad cap, replace it now.

So test run the engine for a while, then add coolent to the overflow tank and...thats about all there is to it.

 

Well, I usually pull the thermostat housing and thermostat, put the hose in the intake and let it run until; the water coming out the top hose is clear. then I put the water hose inside the top radiator hose, and let it run back through that way until clear, then I'll run the engine that way for a minute or so.

After that, I put the housing and thermostat back together, drain the radiator as mentioned earlier, and refill with a gallon of anti-freeze, then water.

Most antifreeze manufacturers say that 60%/40% anti-freeze/water mixture is what it takes.

 

If you're concerned about maximum cooling efficiency, I wouldn't mix over 30% coolant to water, but I only park vehicles outside in -40°F weather. It doesn't get really cold for them. I know some of you in AK, MT, ND, WY, SK, AB, and parts of the NWT have to get a little thicker for freeze protection, so do what is appropriate for your area.

 

When I replaced my thermostat, I flushed out my system with a garden hose with a spray nozzle on it. Just disconnect the upper radiator hose and take off the thermostat housing and thermostat. Then disconnect the lower radiator hose at the radiator, let all the coolant drain out. I after that I stuck the spray nozzle in the thermostat hole on the intake and flushed out the system. Do this until the water coming out of the lower radiator hose is running clear. After flushing out the engine, I stuck the nozzle into the upper radiator hose, and did that until the water coming out of it ran clear. Button it back up and fill it with the antifreeze/water, and you've got a flushed cooling system

 

Now's a good time to replace your hoses. Don't forget to check all the coolant hoses and not just the rad ones.

 

Well...when I typed this post up, I had already changed the T-Stat...so I went and bought one of the prestone Flush kits and a need heater inlet hose.....used the old inlet hose to cut and splice the adapter to flush the system, then replaced the cut hose with the new one.....kept the old one for the next flush. I know...alot of extra work...but I had the day off today. See Ya