Coolant Flush Question
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Mountain Pass
Joined: Dec 2014
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From: Pennsylvania
Coolant Flush Question
I'm planning on switching over to ELC in my 2000 from the old green stuff in a few weeks. I go out of town during the week and put around 150 +/- miles on the truck during that time. I'm familiar with Gooch's coolant flush procedure but I don't have the time to remove the thermostat and block plugs and don't want to risk snapping any of the thermostat housing bolts (happened on my dually) since I need the truck.
I'm planning on doing a first flush with tap water initially upon draining the old green coolant, and then probably 3 flushes with distilled water to get everything out by getting the thermostat open on a few longer drives. Can I cause any harm to the water pump or any other cooling system parts by driving 150 miles with distilled water in the system until I fill with ELC? Temps won't be anywhere near freezing as well.
I'm planning on doing a first flush with tap water initially upon draining the old green coolant, and then probably 3 flushes with distilled water to get everything out by getting the thermostat open on a few longer drives. Can I cause any harm to the water pump or any other cooling system parts by driving 150 miles with distilled water in the system until I fill with ELC? Temps won't be anywhere near freezing as well.
Freshman User
Joined: Apr 2019
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Why not do all the flushing with distilled water? Once you introduce tap water into the system you'll never get it all out. Is that really worth the $10 or less you will save by do the 1st flush with tap? Just my 2 cents.
To answer your question; I don't think you'll do any harm to the pump by running straight water. You run the risk of cavitation because your SCAs will be low / nonexistent.
To answer your question; I don't think you'll do any harm to the pump by running straight water. You run the risk of cavitation because your SCAs will be low / nonexistent.
Mountain Pass
Joined: Sep 2019
Posts: 246
Likes: 110
I'm planning on switching over to ELC in my 2000 from the old green stuff in a few weeks. I go out of town during the week and put around 150 +/- miles on the truck during that time. I'm familiar with Gooch's coolant flush procedure but I don't have the time to remove the thermostat and block plugs and don't want to risk snapping any of the thermostat housing bolts (happened on my dually) since I need the truck.
I'm planning on doing a first flush with tap water initially upon draining the old green coolant, and then probably 3 flushes with distilled water to get everything out by getting the thermostat open on a few longer drives. Can I cause any harm to the water pump or any other cooling system parts by driving 150 miles with distilled water in the system until I fill with ELC? Temps won't be anywhere near freezing as well.
I'm planning on doing a first flush with tap water initially upon draining the old green coolant, and then probably 3 flushes with distilled water to get everything out by getting the thermostat open on a few longer drives. Can I cause any harm to the water pump or any other cooling system parts by driving 150 miles with distilled water in the system until I fill with ELC? Temps won't be anywhere near freezing as well.
We're on a well and have very hard water, so I do *all* of my flush with distilled water.
Go to home improvement store and buy small "pond pump" (in garden center). Plug into power strip so you can power it on and off. Fill 5gal bucket with your distilled water, then hook pump to back flush kit to flush system, filling bucket as needed.
Since this pump wouldn't accept a garden hose, I used a couple hose clamps, a short piece of 3/4" heater hose and an old hose bib to make a short "adapter hose". The hose bib also allows me to regulate the flow.
I always have about 30gals of distilled water available for this.
My $0.02: I would recommend doing the complete "Gooch" flush. Anything else is a compromise. This might be "ok" if you weren't planning to change fluid type. Changing type requires a better flush.
As a matter of routine, I replace the thermostat housing and the three bolts that hold it in with every flush.
Good luck bud.
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