Maintenance and Upkeep Discussion HHR maintenance tips ranging from oil change intervals to brake pads and everything in between.

To drain entire cooling system?

Old May 7, 2013 | 08:08 PM
  #1  
chucksrodgarage's Avatar
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From: wisconsin
To drain entire cooling system?

i am wanting to flush and refill my cooling system on my 08. everything i can find on here or the internet says to keep draining,and refilling, then to drain again and refill with 50/50 mixture. what seems to be missing is that you are only draining the radiator, and not the entire system. if you just refill the rad. with 50/50, the rest of the block is pure water, and your protection level will be way low. is there a drain plug on the block as was in the good old sb chevys?
if not, then how do you get all the water out before filling with coolant?
Old May 7, 2013 | 08:29 PM
  #2  
Snoopy's Avatar
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The articles you read must had forgot to drain, refill, RUN, drain, refill, RUN, etc.
Old May 7, 2013 | 08:38 PM
  #3  
bigjacksauto's Avatar
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Not sure if there is a drain On the block.
But if you have pure water left In the engine which you will.
You do not add 50/ 50 mix.
If you can estimate how much water is left and add from there.
Example in my race / streetcar in my avatar.
I run straight water with redline watter wetter.
Right before winter. I drain what I can get out
And add Two gallons of antifreeze when i run the engine to mix it i come very close to a 50/50 mix.
So if you can estimate how much water is in the block.
Maybe a gallon or less then find out what the coolant system capacity is you can get an idea of what you need to add maybe a 80/20 mix.
Worst case you check it with a antifreeze tester. And add water ir straight antifreeze ifbnecessary
Old May 7, 2013 | 08:50 PM
  #4  
chucksrodgarage's Avatar
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yes, i have thought of that.
measure how much drains from the radiator, subtract that from the entire amount it holds, and i will know how much water the block holds. what a pain.
on some v8's that i have worked on, i added pure coolant, and still ended up short because the block held so much water.
Old May 7, 2013 | 08:53 PM
  #5  
chucksrodgarage's Avatar
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btw, big jack,, IS THAT A 40 WILLYS I SEE IN THE PIC?? NOW YOU ARE TALKING MY LANGUAGE. THE HHR IS JUST MY TO AND FROM WORK VEHICLE
Old May 7, 2013 | 09:13 PM
  #6  
wmsburghhr's Avatar
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seem to me that there is a block drain plug on the water pump. can't find a good pic.
Old May 7, 2013 | 09:50 PM
  #7  
firemangeorge's Avatar
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When you drain the radiator, a lot of the coolant/water will back drain from the block through the lower radiator hose. You are not leaving the engine block "full" as you're seeming to think. Most of the fluid will drain from the block. If you don't believe so, take the lower radiator hose off after you drain the radiator. Not much will drain out from the hose.
Here's the capacities chart to check with.

Attachment 14616

Last edited by firemangeorge; May 30, 2014 at 11:06 PM.
Old May 8, 2013 | 04:47 AM
  #8  
bigjacksauto's Avatar
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Originally Posted by chucksrodgarage
btw, big jack,, IS THAT A 40 WILLYS I SEE IN THE PIC?? NOW YOU ARE TALKING MY LANGUAGE. THE HHR IS JUST MY TO AND FROM WORK VEHICLE
Close guess its actually rarer
Its a 39 studebaker champion.
Here is a video of its first pass with the motor I built
Had chassis and tranny issues that day.

Btw
Great info u posted fireman
Old May 8, 2013 | 07:11 AM
  #9  
chucksrodgarage's Avatar
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From: wisconsin
ii should have known better . just saw that split grill, and thought it was a willys. love the car. i have a 41 plymouth that i built into a nice cruiser. put a warmed up s
lant six in it with a 4-speed, always wanted to do a gasser, and just passed on a exaxt plymouth gasser project a couple weeks ago. it already had the front suspension in it, and a 9" ford, but the floors and trunk pan are rotted out, and at this stage of my life, i thought that would be more of a project than i wanted to get into.
love the studdy!!!
Old May 8, 2013 | 12:12 PM
  #10  
donbrew's Avatar
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The radiator drain is at the bottom of the cooling system, if you take the t-stat out you could only leave a few drops of coolant in the head. The only place there would be significant amounts would be in the tube from the pump to the t-stat housing.

BTW whilst flushing etc.you do need to put the rubber gasket from the t-stat in the housing. The drain on the water pump is a bi**ch to get to and is thread sealed in

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