coolant problems 97 ranger
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Joined: Mar 2005
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coolant problems 97 ranger
hi, i'm having a bit of trouble flushing my radiator, i've followed all the steps but the discharge is still brown and muddy. do i just need to keep repeating the process until it comes out right, or do i need to buy a flush kit? i've been just pouring water in it during that phase, would it make a difference if i used some "force" to move it through there, like a garden hose? the coolant is so murky that it takes forever to drain it. my ranger is a 97, 2.3 4 cyl auto tranny. any help is greatly appreciated. thanks and have a great day.
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I just keep flushing the radiator with distilled water until I get clear water back out. Then I fill the rad with distilled, run the engine until hot to exchange the coolant out of the block and then flush the rad again. A couple cycles of this is usually enough to get everything pretty well cleaned out. I then fill the rad with straight antifreeze and run it warm again to exchange with the block. After that I check the coolant and modify it to -30*F.
I haven't used the flush kits so I cannot offer any opinion on those. However, be wary of the powerflush deals at the quick lube shops. They blew some gaskets on my fiancee's car that would have been more expensive to fix than what the car was worth. (Labor to tear everything down to replace a couple o rings was unbelieveable) So we just put a couple bottles of stop leak in it and traded it in on a new car for her.
I haven't used the flush kits so I cannot offer any opinion on those. However, be wary of the powerflush deals at the quick lube shops. They blew some gaskets on my fiancee's car that would have been more expensive to fix than what the car was worth. (Labor to tear everything down to replace a couple o rings was unbelieveable) So we just put a couple bottles of stop leak in it and traded it in on a new car for her.
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Joined: Feb 2001
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i flushed mine last weekend with a prestone flush kit and it took only 2 minutes to flush the old out. get the kit and and save the hassle for something else. MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE THE THERMOSTAT BEFORE FLUSHING...........
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Originally Posted by hydrology_joe
I just keep flushing the radiator with distilled water until I get clear water back out. Then I fill the rad with distilled, run the engine until hot to exchange the coolant out of the block and then flush the rad again. A couple cycles of this is usually enough to get everything pretty well cleaned out. I then fill the rad with straight antifreeze and run it warm again to exchange with the block. After that I check the coolant and modify it to -30*F.
I haven't used the flush kits so I cannot offer any opinion on those. However, be wary of the powerflush deals at the quick lube shops. They blew some gaskets on my fiancee's car that would have been more expensive to fix than what the car was worth. (Labor to tear everything down to replace a couple o rings was unbelieveable) So we just put a couple bottles of stop leak in it and traded it in on a new car for her.
I haven't used the flush kits so I cannot offer any opinion on those. However, be wary of the powerflush deals at the quick lube shops. They blew some gaskets on my fiancee's car that would have been more expensive to fix than what the car was worth. (Labor to tear everything down to replace a couple o rings was unbelieveable) So we just put a couple bottles of stop leak in it and traded it in on a new car for her.
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Senior User
Joined: Feb 2005
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that method doesn't clean much of anything or flush out the old.
I have reviewed the flush kits you've descibed and they use pressure from a garden hose to force water through the block to flush it. I achieve the same result, just not as quick.
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