Anyone know of a way to flush coolant on an engine that doesnt have heater hoses??? Could I just run fresh water through the top of the radiator and leave the bottom hose leaking? with the thermostat out of course??

 

Run fresh water into the thermostat opening with the lower hose off to flush the engine. Do the same to the radiator to flush it out.

If you do it as you said, you will not get the block, just the radiator flushed.

 

I think I might have a better approach at that, it's what I would call a slow flush (I don't have a heater in the system anymore). With the engine at running temperature and running I opened the lower drain plug of the radiator and then the cap (use protective wear and be wary, hot coolant is extremelly dangerous), leave the radiator to drain out, once the flow turns into dripping, turn off the engine and let the engine to cool down (this could take an hour or more). Refill with water and repeat several times until the water comes out clear. After this I ran that water and in the following days I did another couple of flushes, just arriving at my home, with the engine running. Later I replaced the water with coolant. The improvement in the cooling system was extremelly noticeable (and believe me, in South America these engines get HOT). Even the E4OD that was puking fluid when under load has stoped giving me troubles.

 

Man that sounds like a pretty good plan... Just don't make the same mistake i did i drained my fluid then sprayed the garden hose in the rad, lost of rusty crap came out.
This is what it looked like.

Unfortunately i think i have the HD rad or something cause i filled this 5 gal bucket and the water wasn't fully clear. I am fine with that as long as most of it is clean. I also wasn't really able to get the block because i didn't pull the thermostat.

ALSO one more thing. If you decide to replace the rad hoses as i did, take into account any sort of body lift... I got a 3 inch and my top hose was just about too short. Mistakes for future refrence

 

The garden hose is fine, as long as the engine is cool when you do it.

 

Numerous ways to flush it. The main thing is get the old out and new in. A lot of people do skip the block but that is where so much crap can settle. That is why I prefer to flush with the lower hose off and thermostat out.....put that crap in the bucket.

The hose in the rad. is not an issue at all....the more the rusty crap comes out, the better.

 

I have also used several methods to flush out the engine and radiator.

I have, however, started to take our vehicles to a shop for the sake of

protecting the environment.

I prefer having the auto repair shop deal with the waste coolant vs me

having to collect it and dispose of it.

 

I did mine when it was cool but my mistake was not removing the thermo stat. The water wouldn't go past it very well s i skipped the block for now.

 

You can also flush the block by pulling the heater hose plug on the intake and running fresh water in there with the lower hose off. That leaves the thermostat in place.

 

I didn't even think of that... Oh well next time ;]