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[unlucky mark mv6]

Bought 5 litre of antifreeze today from vx for £14,and looked in the haynes book on draining the cooling system.It says to open the drain off under the car,and disconnect the heater hose entering the bulkhead.Is this true?,and why would you need to do this,is it so it drains off quicker or summat. :-/

[tunnie]

just the rad drain will do, if you want to dump it faster, large coolant pipe bottom of the rad.

[rustym95]

yeah that is for flushing out, remove pipe and flush systerm, give a clean systerm.

[unlucky mark mv6]

just the rad drain will do, if you want to dump it faster, large coolant pipe bottom of the rad.

Was going to drain the lot really so i know its been done,and i beleive its 50% antifreeze for -37 protection and 55% antifreeze for -45 protection.Question being,is -37 going to be enough protection?.

[Darth Loo-knee]

The only thing I would ask is do you have red anti freeze in already?
Why I ask... I would personally want all the old anti freeze out before putting new red in (if it was green or blue but not red). So I would either keep dropping the old coolant out (through the radiator drain plug which is on the passenger side bottom corner) and keep filling just with clear water until the old antifreeze has being diluted to virtually clear water. Then pour the 5litres of red in.

When you drop the water out of the radiator there is still litres left inside the engine that wont come out, unless you remove the water pump

Hope that helps

[tunnie]

just the rad drain will do, if you want to dump it faster, large coolant pipe bottom of the rad.

Was going to drain the lot really so i know its been done,and i beleive its 50% antifreeze for -37 protection and 55% antifreeze for -45 protection.Question being,is -37 going to be enough protection?.

There is a guide in maint section, shows you how. Dump it from the rad, fill with water, dump it again, fill with water, dump again, then re-fill antifreeze, dump again, and re-fill with anti-freeze 

[unlucky mark mv6]

just the rad drain will do, if you want to dump it faster, large coolant pipe bottom of the rad.

Was going to drain the lot really so i know its been done,and i beleive its 50% antifreeze for -37 protection and 55% antifreeze for -45 protection.Question being,is -37 going to be enough protection?.

There is a guide in maint section, shows you how. Dump it from the rad, fill with water, dump it again, fill with water, dump again, then re-fill antifreeze, dump again, and re-fill with anti-freeze 

Is it best to put 1 litre of anti in first,and then keep alternating it so that you are putting anti in first then water,then anti,then water and so on,as you would get a better mix or put all the anti in first.

[Andy H]

If you drain the coolant using the radiator drain there will be 4.5 litres of old coolant left in the block and heater matrix.

I think the idea of the advice given by Haynes to disconnect a heater hose is that you can use a garden ose to flush through the block & heater matrix which will give you 4.5 litres of fresh water in the block and heater matrix. If you add 5 litres of coolant you should then have a cooling system full of fresh water/coolant mix at slightly more than 50/50 strength

The alternatives are
1. to remove the water pump (not such a daft idea if you are fitting a cam belt kit) to completely drain the block.
2. to fill with water, run till the thermostat opens then drain. You would need to do this 3 or 4 times flush most of the blue antifreeze out.
3. Use the technique described here http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1167917774 which strikes me as being wasteful of antifreeze and damaging to the environment (sorry Tunnie)

[Turk]

What's with this Red or Blue...or whatever anyway ?    :-?

[rustym95]

i have pink antifeeze, pre-dun, just put in engine no water £11.00, -60 never going to get that cold any way.

[dad1uk]

i have pink antifeeze, pre-dun, just put in engine no water £11.00, -60 never going to get that cold any way.

Don't tell Loo-knee!

[tunnie]

What's with this Red or Blue...or whatever anyway ?    :-?

Blue was the early spec, you can tell a car that has had poor coolant history if its still blue. Vx Antifreeze changed to red about 5/6 years ago, maybe more i think

[Andy H]

What's with this Red or Blue...or whatever anyway ?    :-?

Antifreeze doesn't have any obvious colour so the manufacturers add dye to identify it.

Generally Blue = standard antifreeze
Red/pink = long life antifreeze

Vauxhall genuine longlife antifreeze is pink. Mixing different types of antifreeze is not recommended

[unlucky mark mv6]

i have pink antifeeze, pre-dun, just put in engine no water £11.00, -60 never going to get that cold any way.

Dont you be too sure.

[unlucky mark mv6]

Done this morning,just opened the drain valve,and replaced with 4 litres of antifreeze,as i couldent get to the bottom hose,and couldent be bothered to get the jack out ,hope this is ok