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Date:         Fri, 11 May 2012 07:39:16 -0700
Reply-To:     Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Subject:      Re: Let's Talk Coolant Drainage (long)
Comments: To: Steven Shelton <shelton4@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <CACK29cnoSB1+vM6xuqNo7yvUtCGPUp5ZAUUTJ1AzcOxqbKn2Qw@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

That method does not work for me - we are on very hard well water so I do not have the luxury of being able to fill and drain repeatedly. So i try and get all the coolant out (and captured) by draining/sucking/blowing, then refill with coolant and good water.

One added benefit is I don't have as much contaminated waste to deal with. Looks like you have around 30 qts to dispose of.

alistair

On 2012-05-11, at 7:21 AM, Steven Shelton wrote:

> I've been leery of forced flushes since reading the late Mike Soehnlein's concerns at Wesfalia.org (http://www.westfalia.org/community/showthread.php?284-Antifreeze-tech-notes-amp-maintenance-page-1 ) but also wanted to get as much coolant flushed out as possible. > > I measured the volume drained from both engine block drains (only about 1/2 qt drained from the driver's side after draining the passenger's side). The specs for my 1.9L say the capacity of the cooling system is 18.4 quarts. I drained 10.9 quarts, or about 59% of the volume. I refilled the system and ran the engine to operating temperature, then drained again. According to my calculations, at this point 83% of the old coolant was drained out. After repeating the procedure a third time, I'd removed 98% of the old coolant. Will all the the old coolant ever be drained out? No, that's mathematically impossible. But 98% is pretty good and no special tools are required, just a little patience. > > Oh yeah, while I was at it I measured the temperature of the water that drained out. It averaged about 150 degrees. This helped me diagnose the low reading on my temperature gauge as the thermostat. > > > On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 11:55 PM, Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca> wrote: > I understand and sympathize. I had difficulty getting it all out, even using a shop vac (with intermediate 20 l bucket). But I do think I got more out with the shop vac than when I did it without. > > alistair > > On 2012-05-10, at 8:15 PM, Rocket J Squirrel wrote: > > > > > Clearly, I never drained anywhere near most of the old coolant. > > > > I am puzzled. Oh -- the heater valve was open. >


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