Changing coolent - tips?

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Okibi
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Postby Okibi » Thu May 04, 2006 5:16 am

DONT use redline water wetter, I went to a LOT of trouble to remove any old coolant etc, but the overflow bottle etc still ended up with brown sludge.

I hope I managed to flush it out of the radiator when I went back to the green stuff.

I'm trying that Tech Alloy \"Gold\" stuff now.

Living in W.A. I dont need anti-freeze.
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Postby ducktape69 » Thu May 04, 2006 6:46 pm

make sure the radiator is the highest point when u park it(ie. park on a hill)....

make sure u flush the hell out of it with high-ish pressure hose...

fill with the correct mix of coolant/water....

turn on car and wait for the thermostat to open(few minutes) in which time you will see the coolant level in the radiator drop.....

now rev the engine(and hold the revs) from the engine bay till you see the coolant level from the radiator drop and top up till the radiator is full.....stop revving the engine, close radiator cap....and re-check coolant level after a drive.
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Okibi
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Postby Okibi » Thu May 04, 2006 6:56 pm

I'm sure by \"water\" you mean demineralised water (can get at any autoparts store).
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Craig
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Re:

Postby Craig » Thu May 04, 2006 7:03 pm

Okibi wrote:DONT use redline water wetter, I went to a LOT of trouble to remove any old coolant etc, but the overflow bottle etc still ended up with brown sludge. I hope I managed to flush it out of the radiator when I went back to the green stuff


So the Water Wetter cleaned out all the residual sludge on the inside of your engine and radiator then?
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SuperMazdaKart
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Postby SuperMazdaKart » Thu May 04, 2006 7:06 pm

perhaps also get a widely available & known coolant. i bought castrol which comes in a 5 litre container. the car takes 6 litres i think.. i couldn't find a 1litre bottle of castrol coolant so i ended up buying another 5 litres of the stuff......
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Okibi
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Re:

Postby Okibi » Thu May 04, 2006 7:41 pm

Craig wrote:So the Water Wetter cleaned out all the residual sludge on the inside of your engine and radiator then?


I'm not sure where i came from, it could be sludge or a reaction to the old coolant but i went to a LOT of trouble to flush the old coolant out first.

But it was pretty nasty, a real pain to clean from the overflow bottle so I don't know how bad the rest of the system is.
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SuperMazdaKart
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Postby SuperMazdaKart » Thu May 04, 2006 8:22 pm

oh, cleaning the overflow bottle. sposedly small gravel stones like whats used in fish tanks with some water works good.

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Okibi
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Postby Okibi » Thu May 04, 2006 8:27 pm

Been there, done that. It's better but not as good as new.

Anyone got a spare NB one?
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Craig
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Re:

Postby Craig » Thu May 04, 2006 9:13 pm

Okibi wrote:
Craig wrote:So the Water Wetter cleaned out all the residual sludge on the inside of your engine and radiator then?


I'm not sure where i came from, it could be sludge or a reaction to the old coolant but i went to a LOT of trouble to flush the old coolant out first.

But it was pretty nasty, a real pain to clean from the overflow bottle so I don't know how bad the rest of the system is.


Sure sounds like it cleaned out the crude the other stuff didn't...so in some ways it was good, clean engine but a grotty overflow tank! :lol:
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