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How much coolant in the block?

2K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  Dr.Evil 
#1 ·
I'm flushing the cooling system and the block plugs absolutely, positively, will not come out with the tools I have at hand. Yes, I could get an impact wrench and coax them out but I don't have one and the pressures of life are such that I need to get this done today. The clean flush water will just have to stay in the system until the next flush, when I'll borrow an impact in advance.

So I want to add coolant and need to know exactly how much water remains in the block (7.3 L) after the system has been otherwise completely drained. THANKS!!
 
#2 ·
It will be approximately 2 gallons...one gallon on each side.

Griz
 
#5 ·
Thanks, Dr. Evil.

For the record, I put 19 quarts (carefully measured with a laboratory graduate) of liquid into the system after letting it drain completely. If the cooling system really only holds 22 quarts, then there were only 3 quarts in the block. Perhaps the block can drain partially via the radiator petcock. After running the engine for a few minutes with the heater on, it looks as though the overflow tank would take the better part of another quart to get up to the full line.

By the way, while my cooling system looked very clean when peeking through the top radiator hose, there was quite a bit of dark scum that settled to the bottom of the bucket I used to catch the flush water, which proves that the whole process is certainly worthwhile.
 
#6 ·
I always pull the lower radiator hose and flush all that brown crud out of the bottom of the radiator & the block with the garden hose....then run a can of radiator flush I get from My Case/IH ag tractor dealer thru the whole cooling system and then flush everything all over again. It makes quite a mess so I try to do it on warm days.....even if it's January 1st....

Including the quart or two in the degas bottle I thought I put between 28 and 30 quarts in My PSD last time I flushed it. My waterpump is on "borrowed time" already, over 156,000 miles and the factory pump started leaking bad at only 138,000 miles....so sometime this summer My truck gets a waterpump, new degas bottle, flushed & refilled. It got all new hoses last flush & refill about 70,000 ago.
 
#7 ·
I replaced my pump with one of those $90 ones from Northern Auto and ran some Pencool cleaner in the system for a couple of weeks. I have a Prestone flush connector on the heater hose so I ran clean water through there for about 10 minutes with the engine running and collected samples of the draining water and checked to see that it was clear.

Sorry you only got 156k miles on the factory pump. Cheap Ford junk! ;->
 
#8 ·
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Sorry you only got 156k miles on the factory pump. Cheap Ford junk! ;->

[/ QUOTE ]

The 156K is on the Ford rebuild.....factory pump leaked like a sieve at 137,800 miles and was replaced. Next pump is a brand new International. Parts Guy when I picked the pump on the truck up now said about one in three Ford rebuilds didn't last a week. Real comforting thought about something I just spent over $300 on! That's what they cost back in about '99.
 
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