Coolant System Work

[jonesboy1983]

I have a 98 NA S70 with 161,000 miles. I want do do a coolant flush and replace the thermostat and ECT while I am at it. I am still somewhat of a novice at this stuff and I have read up on past threads and Bay13 and threads concerning types of coolant but I still have a few questions I am hoping someone can help me with.

1. Some guides talk about unscrewing the petcock on the engine block and radiator but it seems it may be easier to just remove the lower radiator hose. I plan on replacing the upper and lower radiator hoses since I believe they are original. If I drain the old fluid via the lower radiator hose will I still have to drain the engine block via its petcock?

2. For the actual flush some guides say to use a garden hose but I don't have access to a garden hose since I live in an apartment and will be doing all this work in the apartment parking lot. Others talk about pouring distilled water through the system. Do I just leave the hose unplugged and then pour distilled water through the expansion tank, dump the water that fills my drain pan, and then repeat? Or do I reattach the hose, fill with distilled water, run the car for a bit and then drain again? I am a little fussy on the mechanics here.

3. I would like to use the Gates clamps but I don't have a heat gun and don't have access to an outlet since I am on the second story of my apartment complex. Are there battery operated heat guns or some other solution I could work out?

4. I want to replace the upper and lower radiator hoses. Are there any other hoses I should replace while I am doing this? Or any other bits of preventative maintenance I should do? Thanks a lot.

[erikv11]

(1) If you pull the lower hose (good idea - avoids the petcock which can break), you still leave a little coolant in the block. Since you are doing a flush, the flush will be more complete if you drain the block too.

(2) It is best for your cooling system if it never sees garden hose water anyway. Just distilled water. Here is how I flush on my Volvo. First, drain everything by pulling the lower hose and draining the block. I have a little hose section I put on the block drain, so I can catch it as it drains. Then reattach the hose, close the block drain, refill with distilled water through the coolant reservoir, close to two gallons. Run it in the garage, let it burp and top it off with more water. Close the cap, run the engine until warm so everything circulates. Drive around town etc. You are now running almost pure water. Do NOT let it sit overnight if it can freeze where you live! Shut it down, let it cool, either do that process again (if it was really dirty) or proceed to refilling now. To refill, pull the lower hose to drain, rehook it, then add 1 full gallon of coolant. Zerex G-05 or Volvo brand. Top off with distilled water. You are now running 50:50 and it is clean.

(3) can't help

(4) you have to pull some stuff to get at the lower hose. I would pay attention to old and crumbly vacuum lines, replace if necessary. Nothing else comes to mind right away.

Don't install URO hoses they will not last.

[jblackburn]

You can start the car and run it with the radiator hoses on and a pan under it. The clamp will shrink and stop leaking as the car heats up, and you can pour that coolant back into it later.

As a heat gun is about as much power as you can pull in entirety from an electrical socket, I don't think there's any battery-powered ones even out there. I too live in an apartment - I just ran a big freaking extension cord out my door. That said, my hair dryer (an old 1200 watt model) wasn't even remotely powerful enough to shrink the clamp practically holding it on top of the thing. These days, they're 1875 watt models and that would stand a much better chance - but a heat gun would work better still.

Make sure to keep a jug of antifreeze with you for the next few days. The expansion tank will empty itself 2 or 3 times as the system "burps" itself of air.

[JDS60R]

Leave the cap off and let it get up to temp (rad fan turns on). Then turn it off. The heat will shrink them enough to get you started. I've only had to do this once when my heat gun was not available but it worked fine.

I wonder how boiling water would work.

[jonesboy1983]

I actually found a butane powered heat gun that I think will do the trick. You can refill it with disposable butane lighters and it seems to get pretty hot and is flameless so I am hoping it will work.

[lexluther]

Here's a write up guys used a hair dryer so I don't think those use that much heat to shrink. Harbor freight has mini torches between 4-8bucks. I use the larger torch on electrical work when I shrink wrap after the soldering connection.