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Draining Coolant

G

G8guy

New member
Hi everyone, new to this forum. I am attempting to do the LIM and UIM gasket replacement job on my 2001 GP GT 3.8. My very stupid question is, how the heck do i drain the radiator/coolant out?? I know there is a white looking plug on the lower drivers sdie of the radiator........is that a plug? What is the best way to access it? i know its a stupid question....thankyou!
J
 


buy a flush kit from advance, autozone etc. youll cut one of the heater hoses, put a tee in it with a cap, thread a garden hose to it and itll come with a spout that pops into the radiator neck.
start the car with the heat on high and turn the hose on. this will push all the old deathcool out and shut the hose and car off when the water is clear. pulling the lower hose is the easiest way to get most of it out.
 
LOL ^^^^ Dunno what you read...but your birthday must have been rough.

Best way to drain coolant is to pull the lower radiator hose. Yes that white thing is the draincock, but it's likely to be more trouble than it's worth. I'd say a good 90% of us never even try it. We go straight to the lower rad hose.
 
BillBoost37 said:
LOL ^^^^ Dunno what you read...but your birthday must have been rough.

Best way to drain coolant is to pull the lower radiator hose. Yes that white thing is the draincock, but it's likely to be more trouble than it's worth. I'd say a good 90% of us never even try it. We go straight to the lower rad hose.
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haha he asked how to drain it.. i told him how, by using a flush kit and pulling the lower hose
 


Thanks everyone!! I will probably go the lower radiator hose route. I already unplugged all sensors and FI harness up top....doing everything ass backwards!
 
Not really.. You still have the injectors, alternator, TB, EGR shield etc to pull. Plenty of time to drain coolant.
 
Oh BTW, I cant seem to find the "search bar" for this website to look up other topics, it says at the top of the forum , i must be blind!
 


G8guy said:
Oh BTW, I cant seem to find the "search bar" for this website to look up other topics, it says at the top of the forum , i must be blind!
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Took me forever to find it as well. I had to ask a local guy that is a member where the heck it was.
 
G8guy said:
My first UIM/LIM gasket job wish me luck. I will have more questions real soon!
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It's really not that bad, just take your time, take pictures ;), label everything if your not too confident about reassembly and use little zip lock bags for the bolts and stuff (label is easy this way). If you have downtime for the car, take the time while everything is apart and clean the TB too. :)

I set-up a suction method with a bucket to catch all the coolant, using a shop-vac and old bucket with a lid. Cut two holes in the lid (tight) one for the vacuum hose, one for the garden hose piece I used to suck the coolant out. Garden hose goes into the bottom of bucket and vacuum hose stays at the top, just inside the lid. Opened the thermostat housing and sucked it dry, the the radiator cap and sucked the coolant down below the level of the LIM.

When I opened the LIM up, it was bone dry ;)

More work, but was nice to not have to clean any coolant up and knew exactly how much coolant was taken from engine. IDK just another way to do it.

Enjoy!
 
Make sure you plug the coolant ports or replace the UIM when you are doing this job. It really sucks to do the work then have your UIM pop and fill the LIM/cylinders.
 
I just did this back on thanksgiving and it wasn't a bad job at all. The only real gotchya for me was the two bolts for the LIM that are underneath the UIM. I didn't initially see them because 100k miles of PCV dribbling oil in filled up the part of the LIM the bolts were, obscuring them. Fortunately I found them before I broke anything prying on the LIM (broke the bar, but not the LIM :P). I soaked up the oil with a rag and there they were!
 
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