PTO and van coolant

[Jimmy L]

How do you drain the coolant out of a 6 liter chevy van with a pto and get all of it out of the heat exchangers?

I have the cleanco quad 56.

How do you fill it back up to specs?



And would you use the DEX or go back to a regular antifreeze?

 

[Ron Lippold]

Hey Jimmy go to a jiffy luby and have them use there coolant flush machine. Im pretty sure the way you will want to do it is under pressure. and stay with the Dex

 

[Rex Tyus]

Jimmy easiest way is take it to the dealership or you favorite garage. Have them do a flush and fill. You may ..no will probably have to bleed the heat exchangers daily for a bout a week but is not a big deal. I like the DEX but others don't. Call me if I can be of assistance.

 

[John Watson]

Limpwig, The above advice is great, or any oil change place that has a flush and fill coolant machine.

If you want to do it yourself, HX should have a drain plug or after draining rad and block use compressed air to blow threw heater hose that goes HX that should force coolant back towards eng drain.
When refilling keep topping off and bleeding air from system.

 

[The Preacher]

DEX is very corrosive over time (read rots out radiator, water pumps and heater cores) regular coolant is fine or be sure to have the pill that neutralizes the DEX put in!!!

Danny, $900 smarter about DEX than most people!

 

[Jim Martin]

Danny is correct.it corroded out the freeze plugs in my van when I ran the CDS..... I did not have that many miles on it ....Had to have them replaced and mechanic showed me where they ate threw.............flushed the entire system and went to the Prestone.....

Have a friend of mine that is having the same problem plus his HX is leaking.........

 

[Rex Tyus]

The directions on the bottle of dex say not to mix with traditional anti freeze. You have to watch quick lubes and budget garages they often top off coolant during service to add value to the product. 68000 miles and 2700 hrs on my 04 express everything looks great in the heat exchangers and the radiator. Or maybe I am just lucky. :shock:

 

[joey895]

Rex nailed it. For that reason and because of the color I flushed out all the Dex and put in the green. I mostly do my own fluid changes so its not an issue for me. But on occasion if I take it in I'm just sure to let them know it's the green in case they top it off.

Ps You can buy flush kits at an auto parts store if you are determined to do it yourself but it will not do as good a job as the professional flush machines.

 

[Bob Foster]

If you mix regular coolant and dex it will coagulate and make a supreme mess.

The 03 up GM vans have a micro-fin design that are very prone to blocking up and are extremely hard to flush. Stick with the dex but most importantly make sure you know what is in there. Did they convert it when they put the TM in or not.

03 up GMs that spend a lot of time idling or at low speed have a tendency for their rads to clog up. Telephone companies and such vehicles like CC trucks are known to need new radiators. Went through this battle last year - flushed the coolant 3 times and still had overheating issues. Ended up using a laser thermometer and found the center of the rad was blocked. 40 miles on truck and 1800 hours on plant. Replaced the rad and everything is fine.

Best cheapest price for a radiator is at RockAuto.com.

 

[The Great Oz]

Thanks for the tip on the radiator replacement Bob, we've had to replace a few. I'm not sure why you like Dex, knowing what you know.

Every radiator we replaced was clogged solid with Dex debris. Flushed the rest of the fleet, went with Prestone and have had no further problems. We now run a new truck for no more than 2,500 miles before we get rid of the Dex. I can't believe GM is still specifying it.

 

[Rex Tyus]

Oz said

I'm not sure why you like Dex, knowing what you know.

Bob said

If you mix regular coolant and dex it will coagulate and make a supreme mess.

Rex is saying again

DEX works great if it isn't screwed up with traditional aniti- freeze.

 

[Guest]

GM has a service bulletin about this..and to replace it with green after thoroughly flushing the system. But the new Trucks and vans keep on being produced with the shit. So who knows.


Chad

 

[Greenie]

So.....why fix what ain't broken?

When did DEX become the "standard"?

and Why?

ps: water is a better thermal transfer liquid than coolant, here in CA I wouldn't want any more coolant in my system that was necessary to retard corrosion and lubricate pump, I would want max HX transfer.

 

[Bob Foster]

Dex is more aluminum friendly supposedly.

 

[Jimbo]

So Chad...you leaving the DEX in your DURAMAX??

 

[Rex Tyus]

So.....why fix what ain't broken?

When did DEX become the "standard"?

and Why?

1)Longer life expectancy vs traditional. Like synthetic vs petroleum motor oil

2)Around 2003 or '04

3)same as #1

 

[Matt King]

... toxicity is another reason. Probably the main one. Just have it professionally done Jimmy if you haven't already. This topic has been debated and hashed out in auto forums for years. Stick with the specified formula from the manufacturer. No need to raise red flags if warranty work would need to be done.

 

[Jimmy L]

Tell us what you really think Matt.

 

[Matt King]

oops.. sorry bout that. I hit the submit button on accident.

 

[Greenie]

So how long can you run traditional glycol coolant? How about DEX in comparison?

I honestly never heard of aluminum rotting out from the glycol, is this well documented?

my next question will be about HX and DEX, how does it affect copper or alum. finned tubes? Any studies?

 

[Rex Tyus]

So how long can you run traditional glycol coolant? How about DEX in comparison?

I honestly never heard of aluminum rotting out from the glycol, is this well documented?

my next question will be about HX and DEX, how does it affect copper or alum. finned tubes? Any studies?

I am going on memory so I could be off. I believe Glycol recommends every 10,000 or 20,000 miles and Dex 50,000.
I am not sure though and I will check with the service guy next time I am there.

I never heard anything on the aluminum either.

 

[Matt King]

All coolants are glycol based to the best of my knowledge. Ethylene glycol being the predominate base and propylene glycol as the other. I was thinking Dex was PG based but I looked at a jug in the garage and it is EG based. The base isn't the determining factor to interval changes but the corrosion inhibitors are. Most 'old school' antifreeze formulations use silicates and phosphates for protection against corrosion. To my understanding they are fast acting but short lived. Thus you have a typical coolant change recommendation of 30k miles or so. The new coolants are OAT- Organic acid technology. They don't use the silicates or phosphates but use organic acids instead. The benefit is they supposedly have a longer life. So you have the coolant change recommendation of 100-150k miles. There's also hybrid coolants as well.. To the best of my knowledge there's no issues concerning OAT coolants and HX'ers. When the stuff became mainstream it was recommended to be used in aluminum radiators and not to be used in old copper radiators because it 'may' cause issues with soldered joints. That's the only thing I can recall.

 

[Greenie]

Thanks Matt!

So ya think I should flush my 189K 91 Jeep? lol

 

[Matt King]

LOL!... na, if it aint broke dont fix it .. just kiddin :wink: Actually the old cast iron blocks/heads can tolerate a little corrosion/rust. The newer aluminum castings are more temperamental though. I've seen aluminum heads and intakes all pitted out in the coolant passages. I suppose that makes a case for proper coolant maintenance since most radiators are aluminum... I'll probably flush/fill my 05 out at 50k given it's a pto and runs more than the mileage indicates. At 35k though it still looked perfect like new when I shined a light into the radiator. From what I could see anyway...

 

[Ron Werner]

for more/better heat transfer you may be able to add a "water wetter" product. I was told about it a local Lordco. They guys running cars at the local speedway put that and no antifreeze in their motors. It helps them to keep cooler than normal af, plus if there's a crack up there isn't af all over the place.

 

[Greenie]

Good ol cast iron.