OT Car repair

It remains toxic LONG after it is no longer useful as a coolant.

Both then and now, I don't think it hurts the ground or the grass much, but it's poisonous to dogs and cats, iirc. If we could only get the cats to drink it and somehow protect the dogs.

It's bad when the rain makes it run off into streams.

When you drain, you flush. If you don't, you are foolish. If you flush the block and heater contain clear water. If a 14 quart system has 7 quarts of clear water left in it, adding 7 quarts of pure antifreeze gives you the correct 50/50 mixture. If you didn't flush the system you just wasted all the effort and the new antifreeze you installed, even if by luck you DID get the right mixture.

If you don't FLUSH the system when changing coolant, you are wasting your time and money. If you do flush the system, you have 7 quarts (in this case) of clean fresh water already in the system waiting for the addition of 7 quarts of antifreeze.

Except some cars no longer HAVE block drains. Just like some automatic transmissions no longer have dipsticks and fill tubes.

But that assumes there was no antifreeze in the water left in the engine. If you didn't flush it, just drained as much as would come out, the fluid remaining was probably 50/50 already.

Look on the chart on the bottle and depending on where you live and where your car spends the winters, you may see that even 30/70 protects at the lowest temps your car will face.

You can always check with a radiator hydrometer (as opposed to a battery hydrometer). I bought, and I still have, a real one, a foot long, with a scale with 10 values, but now they sell much smaller ones with 4 litle white balls, witha plastic tube instead of a glass one. . For most uses, I think either is good enough. The small one is cheaper, has a plastic tube that likely won't break, takes less space and comes with a cap, which maybe keeps it from dripping.

Yes, I should DAGS.

How dispose of old antifreeze?

. Christ>>

From what I remember, the OP did flush the system with tap water, so traces of old anti freeze isn't an issue.

And what if he didn't? The mixture would end up being too rich, and he could later drain a couple quarts and replace with water. I don't see this as a big concern.

. Christ> >

snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote in news:vlnq19tnih51puv9634hcn48ht6k4qs5kh@

An engine without a block drain does not need one: the engineers will have designed the block to drain through the radiator. This is why I said "if applicable" in my original reply. But the fact that the OP was only able to re-install about half the reported capacity /strongly/ suggests that he has left a lot of old coolant in the block.

If the OP's engine has a block drain (or two), then it is NOT sufficient to simply "flush" the block by attempting to run the engine with plain water through it, and it is an extremely BAD idea to run the engine with plain water as the coolant. Running an engine with plain water can damage the head gasket(s).

The correct approach is, with the engine *COLD* and *NOT RUNNING*, to drain the rad AND block. With the drains open, run plain water through the block and rad until the water runs clear, let it drain again, close the drains, then re-fill using the correct procedure as per the factory instructions.

micky wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Modern coolant breaks down quickly in the environment. It's only dangerous when consumed by animals before it has a chance to break down.

Coolant tastes sweet, which is why it's attractive to animals.

Stormin,

Your County or City probably has rules and collection sites for residents. Here, it's just like oil. Drive to the drop-off site, and pour it in the barrel. There are businesses that handle commercial accounts.

Dave M.

Are you talking about freeze-plugs? I've never heard of anyone who removes freeze-plugs to drain the cooling system. And I woudln't want mine removed, because I need them to be put in right.

Or do cars you know have both drains and freeze plugs?

What makes and models would these be? What makes and models have drains at all?

Or *not* worked on, as the case may be... seems that a "coolant flush" anymore consists of a simple drain and refill; if you're lucky you might get the lower hose pulled and rad backflushed.

Studebaker V-8 for sure, although you might consider that to be old and obscure. I did it on my Jeep 4.0 as well, but I already had the starter off to inspect the flexplate (wanted to check for the common cracking issue while I had it up on ramps) so I'm not sure if I actually had to or if I could have made a little shield to deflect the runoff over top of it.

nate

At least back in the day of cast iron blocks, most engines would have one or more NPT threaded holes in the block down low near the rear, with pipe plugs threaded into them at the factory. Studebaker had them for sure, so did Chevy (at least SBC, presumably BBC also) and MoPar (B, RB, and LA) not sure about Ford but I would assume that they did as well.

Definitely any engine ever converted for marine use ought to have them, otherwise how do you drain the water out for winterizing?

nate

Thanks, I ended up dumping it in my neighbors yard.

Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

Ethelene glycol breaks down into CO and water. It's half life in both air and soil is about 1 day. However, engine coolant (particularly old, used coolant) is more than just ethylene glycol and water. It contains additives (many of which, today, are organic acids) as well as heavy metals as the product of corrosion. The heavy metals don't break down - so it is a good idea to dispose of the stuff in a "responsible manner".

Nate Nagel wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news6.newsguy.com:

ALL modern engines have coolant-replacement intervals. ALL of them.

I am unaware of ANY automotive engine sold into the North American market without a recovery bottle since about the late '70s. Maybe even before then

The coolant degradation I'm talking about has nothing to do with oxygen (although oxidation can be an issue), but instead has to do with preventing boiling at the fire rings. Each time the coolant is brought to "nucleate boiling" (DAGS), a little of the additives are consumed. Eventually consumption reaches the point where replacement of the coolant is necessary or additives must be replenished.

Ray Bohacz covered this very issue in a recent issue of Hemmings Classic Car. Last couple of months. You could look it up.

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in news:kvla5s$aj7$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

I put some in a dish and slid it uder the neighbor's fence. Their dog is just too damed yappy, but that shouldn't be the case too much longer.

Put in some meat flavor, and the little turd will suck it down faster. Soak some lollipops for their fat and ugly turd kids too.