I am on my 5th flush of just distilled water. I have run each flush of distilled water approximately 30-40 miles on full heat (which is not fun in record high temps!!) I have been building a fence last week and it's about 30 mile round trip to Lowes. Back and forth also serves as a flush. Sometimes two trips between flushes.

The last flush still seemed very rust colored (color of the VC-9). How many pure distilled flushes have others had to do until they saw clear water come out of the system? I'm surprised I'm still getting the color I'm getting. It's clearing up a bit, but still surprisingly dark after 5 water flushes.

I am really growing fond of this truck!

Thanks.

Matt

 

Mine was totally clear by the 5th flush but I pulled the t-stat and also the drivers side block plug during drains

 

Cool thanks. I will just keep it up a few more flushes and see what I see. At $0.89 cents a bottle of distilled, it's probably one of the less expensive things to do at this point to get it right.

Thanks!

 

Are you also pulling the lower rad. hose when draining?

 

No, the instructions that I found, I don't think they said to pull the lower hose unless you are doing the thermostat removal. Do you recommend anyway? Would imagine it would help the flush along.

 

Removing the lower radiator hose probably helps the flushing process because the water flows at a higher velocity which keeps more particulate in suspension. It does however make the process a little messy.

 

You need to pull the thermostat. I can almost guarantee that it is not opening more than a crack. Unless you are getting the coolant temp up to 215°, it is not fully open.

Also, you don't have to drive around with the heater blowing on you. Just look at the heater control valve. You can run in AC (not MAX AC) with the temp set low, and the heater control valve will still be open. Actually, your heater core is probably getting a great flush, because it serves as the bypass when the t-stat is closed.

If you don't do these things, you are leaving a lot of old coolant in the system and it will take forever to clear up the color.

 

It took me 15 flushes.

Jonathan

 

With the thermostat removed and after a VC-9 treatment I ran somewhere between 25 and 30 gallons (around 10 flushes) of distilled water through the engine before I was satisfied with the clarity of the water coming out.

I think the VC-9 really loosens things up and it takes more water than expected to clear up all of the newly loosened debris. That's my explanation, anyway.

 

Here's the color scheme of those flushes:


Jonathan

 

Wow, nice graphic representation. That's a lot of effort to refill the bottles.

So I take it you only used 3 gallons per flush? By removing the t-stat and removing the lower radiator hose I was able to get 4 gallons back in per drain.

I used 20 gallons total, not counting the top-off after fill-up.

 

I think next time I will remove the t-stat. Yes I will. The "extra" effort (in my case) would have been well worth the reduction in total time to get to Op Temp and cool-down. That said...I *clearly* needed a flush!

Jonathan

 

So what is this VC-9 treatment flush i need to flush my system! Any directions on this

 

Buy 2 qts VC-9 (it is pricey).
Drain (you can omit the t-stat removal but it will be more time consuming if you don't).
Refill with 2 qts VC-9 and distilled water.
Drive for 1 hour with heater on (suffer is a location dependent activity...I expect PA is still HOT).
Proceed with subsequent flushes using distilled water until it looks the same coming out as it did going in.
(with a t-stat removal you don't have to drive to op temp...just hi-idle).
Refill after final flush using Premium Gold and distilled water in appropriate 50/50 mix (PG in first to ensure you get it right).

Jonathan

 

Thanks, Where can i buy the VC-9 Walmart?