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I purchased my van used and I am looking to put a new thermostat and gasket in. It is a 1994 with a 5.0. I figured while I was putting a new thermostat in, I might as well try to drain as much coolant out as possible and refill it with fresh. What is the best procedure for draining as much coolant as possible from the system?
There's typically a petcock on the bottom of the radiator. You could also drain it by disconnecting the lower radiator hose, just be careful because the hose tends to stick to the neck.
I believe my 88 5.0 and your 94 5.0 have the thermostat in the same location. With the thermostat mounting to a vertical surface, sometimes it can slip down out of place while trying to bolt the housing back together. A trick I used was to loop a rubber band through the pointy end of thermostat (remember the spring end goes into the intake) and use a tool of some kind to hold tension on the rubber band, in turn holding the thermostat in place.
If you notice in the pic above that I used a pair of angled long nose pliers to get that bottom bolt started and turned in far enough to get a wrench on it because a standard wrench would not allow the bolt to be turned all the way out and still get the wrench off.
When finished I simply pulled the extension out along with the rubber band and all was well!
Napa carries peak global lifetime antifreeze I always use now
If you haven’t gotten your coolant for the change, Peak global lifetime antifreeze has lifetime additives yet is our traditional alcohol coolant we are all use to.
Napa has it, just a few dollars more than their regular.
Other places don’t want to cut into their profit margins so they don’t carry it.
No more changing coolant every 5 years or everything rusts is so lame.
I believe my 88 5.0 and your 94 5.0 have the thermostat in the same location. With the thermostat mounting to a vertical surface, sometimes it can slip down out of place while trying to bolt the housing back together. A trick I used was to loop a rubber band through the pointy end of thermostat (remember the spring end goes into the intake) and use a tool of some kind to hold tension on the rubber band, in turn holding the thermostat in place.
If you notice in the pic above that I used a pair of angled long nose pliers to get that bottom bolt started and turned in far enough to get a wrench on it because a standard wrench would not allow the bolt to be turned all the way out and still get the wrench off.
When finished I simply pulled the extension out along with the rubber band and all was well!
You can also put the T-Stat in the housing with some RTV all around it's flange then use more RTV and glue the gasket over it then put in onto the intake.
If you want to flush it, then stick a water hose into the radiator and pull the heater hose off the waterpump , then run the engine with both front and back heaters on full blast until the water runs clear when coming out of the intake's heater hose. Once it does, shut the engine down and drain as much water out, then close the openings and refill the system with straight antifreeze. There should be enough water left in the system to give a good mix after refilling with straight antifreeze.
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