Replacing antifreeze

[two sailors]

I am about to drain and refill engine coolant with extended life coolant.
If any of you guys have done this your self and have any do's or don'ts from experience please let me know.

Brad

[two sailors]

I am about to drain and refill engine coolant with extended life coolant.
If any of you guys have done this your self and have any do's or don'ts from experience please let me know.

Brad

[Trehcub]

When I replaced my antifreeze, I purchased a 5 gallon bucket, the antifreeze, dca and some distilled water. I used a waer bed pump that is avalibel from Home depot for about $5.00. TI would pour the antifreeze, and water into the bucket at a 50% mix and pump the fluid into the reseverior.

The system hold 12 gallons. 6 gallons antifreeze and 6 gallons water. It is cheaper to by the un-mixed antifreeze and add distilled water. There is premixed avalible but it is more expensive.

[Danny Gayhart]

Did you do a flush also?

[two sailors]

I have not made the change yet but I plan on running some water through it after I drain whats there. I'm just not sure how easy it is to get most of the old out.

[Trehcub]

When I drained the coolant from the radiatior I got most of the coolant out. I think I was able to get about 10 gallons out of the system.

[DLukes]

A few pointers on replacing engine coolant. One, opening the petcock on the radiator will not get all the coolant drained. There is another petcock on the water pump that will give you some more. Also, there are "to and from" lines that go all the way up to the heater core in the front of the coach. If you disconnect these (from engine) and blow/vacuum them out, you'll get about another gallon or more. I went through all of this because I was replacing my coolant with the red, extended-life ES Optimax from Fleetguard and wanted to get all the old stuff out. (One of the reasons I like to do this kind of thing myself is that, unless you have a trusted mechanic, you never know for sure what's coming out of your engine or what's going back in.)

The best thing that I thought of for oil and coolant changes was to buy one of those 5 foot kiddie pools. I relied on that to catch anything that my 7 gallon pan (from NAPA) wouldn't. And, after you're done with this formidible project, you can grab a cocktail and have a soak in the kiddie pool!

Remember that "fully formulated" coolant like Optimax already contains DCA. Therefore, when you replace the coolant "filter" use a plain filter that does not add additional DCA. On my 2002 350, the replacement filter was a WF 2122.

IMHO, if you're going through this process, the Optimax is the only way to go. After 300,000 miles (which most of us can only dream of) you simply replenish the coolant with an additive and go for another 300,000 miles. Yes, regular "mix your own" coolant is cheaper, but why not change the coolant once and be done with it?

Finally, remember to change the "plain" filter at suggested intervals. Good luck with what is a time-consuming but worthwhile project. Don

[Danny Gayhart]

Now where do we buy Optimax at a good price? Does anyone hear GROUP BUY?

[two sailors]

After all the work of Draining, Filling with water, draining and doing it all again to recharge with extended life (recommended by Cummings) I seem to have gotten some outdated test strips. The new coolant tests about the same as the old stuff. Some days you just can't win.

[DLukes]

My understanding is that after you put in Optimax, you no longer need the test strips but I'm not 100% certain of that.

[chris cross]

This may help.
Optimax coolant and the hairdresser