cant it just be done at the bottom

[irondiezl3]

i see alot of threads for draining coolant. cant i just disconnect the hose on the bottom of the radiator to drain my coolant rather than messing with the little plug that i read can be a pain and or break?

[Redog]

You could but it's very messy

[AftermathAlero]

u can disconnect the hose. Its just a perferance of choice.

[irondiezl3]

hey no problem ill take the mess will this get most of the coolant out though? now when i put new coolant back in will it harm anything if i put back in dexcool approved and not actual dexcool? i believe i need like 7 gallons.

[AftermathAlero]

7 gallons? nah.. 1 gallon is enough. (that is if u get the unmixed one). If you get the already mixed 50-50 then you'll need 2 gallons. If you don't flush out the motor good and radiator and mix normal green coolant w/ dexcool, it will turn into gel. Just put back in dex-cool.

[irondiezl3]

o i read a post that said it takes seven gallons i thought that was off they must of had a typo. so i have to buy straight dexcool where the heck do u get that the only thing i see in stores is dex cool APPROVED

[jayson_waltz]

when i had my engine out i just drained out all the dex-cool and when i put it back in i used prestone. didn't even bother with flushing the system.

[Cliff8928]

Yeah, that orange prestone stuff is fine. It meets the GM specification and is a OAT/2EHA coolant.

[irondiezl3]

so i get the prestone and i should be ok with no gel coming out?

[negolien]

I just had mine flushed and t-stat replaced took one gallon of D-cool so it says on the invoice. So I would assume 1 gallon coolant one of water yes?

[jackal2000]

pretty sure the cooling system capacity is 12.5qts. 4qts = 1 gallon, therefore it requires 3 gallons to fill. granted, you will never get 3 gallons to drain out so it will be less.

[negolien]

Hum wonder why they only charged me for one gallon after a flush then. as a side note I dig your quote there Jackal. That's one of my favorites.

[jackal2000]

Hum wonder why they only charged me for one gallon after a flush then. as a side note I dig your quote there Jackal. That's one of my favorites.

that one gallon was probably concentrate which they dilluted with one gallon of water and didnt charge you. there was probably one gallon of water still in the motor since i think it is impossible to totally drain the system. if that is correct then your ratio of coolant to water is 1:2 and not 1:1 as it should be. does it srsly matter? no.

yea, that quote pwns democrats.

[irondiezl3]

seen alot of threads on the thermostat i want to chnge mine but do u really have to take out throttle body i only see two bolts holding in the thermo housing looks like with the right angle i can just get those two bolts out myself without taking everything else apart?

[Redog]

I didn't do my thermo, but when I had it done I was younger and though the car was more complex.

Plus now without the airbox, it's pretty easy

[irondiezl3]

im hoping im correct that theres only 2 bolts on the housing and also that i can do this myself so i can save some cash.

[rustyballs_69]

I just pulled the heat shield of the crossover to have a little more room. Its easyer if you take the throttle body off but you don't have to.

[irondiezl3]

ive got a spring type piece that can bend in any direction and a buddy who very handy mabe ill just use the combination of them both to get this done as long as its not physiclly impossible to do it with the throttle on theres no way m disconnecting all that!!!!!!! anyone knwo what size the 2 bolts are?

[rustyballs_69]

15mm if I remember right.

[irondiezl3]

sorry i forgot to mention i was referring to the bolts on the thermostat housing my bad but 15 you say?

[irondiezl3]

did it in ten minutes cake no issues didnt have to take anything out of the way!

[zzyzzx]

Plus now without the airbox, it's pretty easy

^+1

Seems to me that a lot of newer cars are designed around the concept of removing the airbox to do a lot of stuff, so get used to it.