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planning on radiator flush soon, what elbow?

G

genki

New member
Going to do a flush and I'd like to replace the original plastic ones with al ones but what are the part # so I could grab them at local parts store?

My LIM is al so I should be good there. Just new elbow, new radiator cap, and new thermo along with about 3 gallons of diluted dexcool. Why do store only sells the undiluted by gallons only? I would need only about 1 and 1/2 gal undiluted fluid (and 1 and 1/2 gal clean water) and would have 1/2 gal leftover sitting around unused for a few years.
 


one gallon of straight what ever antifreeze is enough, i drain, flush, then add the whole gallon to the rad, then top off with good old hose water.

the whole cooling system is only around 3 gallons or a bit more.
 
cause no one likes dex and its brown sludge. green is a bit cheaper i find, and it works just fine. 99% of us have flushed and went to green.
 


Ive been using dexcool no sludge in mine. Most people are just to lazy to maintain dexcool. I'm just about at 90k and it gets flushed every 20-30k miles

Edit I forgot to mention I would only use distilled water not tap or anything else
 
Dex cool is just picky, and will threaten with sludge IF you don't do what it wants you to. Nothing wrong with green stuff as long as you get 99%+ of the dex-cool out (flushing with water)
 
Dexcool is fine as long as you keep up with the flushes and air doesn't get exposed to it. I rather have green just in case any of those happen.
 
I'm running prestone's 50/50 that mixes with all colors after I did my LIM and radiator. My brother runs Peak's 50/50 that mixes with all colors after we did his LIM. Both of us have no issues.
 


The Guz said:
I'm running prestone's 50/50 that mixes with all colors after I did my LIM and radiator. My brother runs Peak's 50/50 that mixes with all colors after we did his LIM. Both of us have no issues.
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the only issue your having is paying to much for antifreeze. why pay for 50/50 pre mix? when one gallon of straight antifreeze will get the job done for the cost of 14 bucks......:th_scratchhead:
 
Pure antifreeze is where it's at. 50/50 is meant only for topping systems off. But I don't even buy it for that, I keep a spare bottle around and when I buy a new bottle, I just put half of it in the other container and there's two 50/50 coolant jugs for almost half the price.
 
+1 on 'anything but Dexcool.'

I've seen firsthand what damage it does, and one of the first things I do now before considering any GM car is pop the radiator cap and make sure there's no sludge.

If not sludged, flush is priority pronto. If sludged, I won't buy the car.
 
Scottydoggs said:
the only issue your having is paying to much for antifreeze. why pay for 50/50 pre mix? when one gallon of straight antifreeze will get the job done for the cost of 14 bucks......:th_scratchhead:
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Because peak 50/50 is about $8 at harbor freight and that's what they have.
 


The Guz said:
Because peak 50/50 is about $8 at harbor freight and that's what they have.
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Checked local Autozone, straight coolant is $13 a gal, and 50/50 is $11 a gal. You are basically paying about $3 to $5 for 2 quarts of distilled water to be added. I can get distilled water locally for about 30 cents a gallon with my own jug.

I'll just get 2 gal coolant, and 2 gal distilled water. Add 1 and 1/2 each into my engine after flushing, and mix the remaining 1/2 each into one bottle for future use.
 
YOu'd be better off doing what Scott said and just replacing the word hose with distilled. Cause you aren't going to need an exact 3 gallons typically.
 
And remember when you flush the system, there's still 100% water left in it. And even though the radiator is nearly empty, the engine block does hold a good amount of water. Figure that into your 50/50 mix. I think I was only able to add a gallon and a half to the system before it was full, not including the overflow tank. So basically you add pure antifreeze and it's full, and do a 50/50 for the overflow tank. It equaled right around 13 quarts.
 
This is going to sound like a really dumb question, but is the overflow tank supposed to be filled with coolant? I thought it was just meant as an overflow tank for when the system gets pressured?
 
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