Need to replace Coolant & Flush on 2009 GS & have some questions?

[Claire]

Thank you for the feedback. Its 730pm here and I can't do it now. I will get out there and get rid of it tmwr.

Can I leave it sit with no coolant till I get some? in a few days

How do I flush the block?

I can put the hose in the radiator I know that.
Should I close up the radiator drain hose & run the engine for a minute?

Distilled water vs hose water?

- I really don't know about the specific coolants that you've used and their compatibility, Claire, but I DO KNOW that mixing coolants, even without running the engine/circulating the coolant at all, might result in a chemical reaction between dissimilar products that can form what is effectively CEMENT inside your cooling system &/or raditaor, or if it doesn't do that, it could create a highly corrosive mix that you really don't want to leave in anything for very long at all! (Do you really hafta ask how I know this little fact?? ) It is largely for this reason that you/everyone/anyone REALLY shouldn't change coolants without a thorough cooling system flush!

So unless you KNOW that the green dealer supplied coolant and your replacement Orange coolant truly ARE compatible, then I'd suggest that you drain everything out of your cooling system RIGHT NOW or sooner, and immediately thoroughly flush the radiator and block with a LOT of fresh, running water! Your garden hose should be fine to do that, and it might even be an idea to run the engine for a minute with the hose supplying water to the block! It'll safely run gently for a minute or so without any coolant, and you really want to try and get any mixed coolant out of the system completely, so make sure you flush both the block and the radiator with copious amounts of water!!

And sadly, if those two coolants aren't UNDENIABLY COMPATIBLE, you really have no choice but to discard whatever you drain out of the system now, even tho it might be brand new; and dispose of it (properly tho, not just down the drain/stormwater! ) because by adding the new Orange to any unflushed green that was left in the system, you've effectively mixed them inside the block/radiator anyway, and ANY incompatible mix left in there for too long could be damaging or even destroying things in there in a very expensive way!! Of course, none of this is an issue IF you can confirm that they are compatible.... You might be able to guess that they are, but do you really know what the dealer put in there last time??

Just Sayin' Good Luck!

[Peter Aawen]

Thank you for the feedback. Its 730pm here and I can't do it now. I will get out there and get rid of it tmwr.

Can I leave it sit with no coolant till I get some? in a few days

How do I flush the block?

I can put the hose in the radiator I know that.
Should I close up the radiator drain hose & run the engine for a minute?

Distilled water vs hose water?

If you don't know that it's compatible and no-one else here can shed any light on that likelihood, you really should at least drain it out NOW, even if it's midnight &/or close to freezing!!

Admittedly, it's a 'Worst Case' scenario, but how lucky do you feel?? If the mix that's in there now really is a combination of incompatible coolants, leaving it in there overnight could mean that you end up needing a new radiator AND a new engine!!

This is because if you let incompatible coolants mix in the radiator core &/or the small cooling channels and galleries in the block where they can harden into something very much like concrete, there's effectively no 'non-destructive' way of getting it out of all the nooks and crannies and small cooling channels and your engine basically becomes a throw away job!! And even if the mix only turns into a highly corrosive substance, leaving it in there for even as little as just a few minutes to let it chew away at all the dissimilar metals and gaskets etc REALLY isn't all that good for your engine, radiator, cooling system, or any of those critical gaskets etc!!

To flush the block, just put the running garden hose into the other side of the radiator hose you took off - one way clearly goes into the radiator, the other goes into the engine/block, so after you've flushed the radiator, just stick the running hose into the other side... And it doesn't hurt to gently run the engine for a minute or so while the hose is running water in there; that helps pump any remaining coolant out of the water pump & thermostat, cooling galleries etc, so it's a better flush than just pumping water in there, and if you only do it for a minute or so, you won't be over-heating or damaging anything.

As for using distilled water or just tap water, if you are simply flushing everything before re-filling with proper coolant, sure, you can do that, but why waste any extra time/effort/money on distilled water when all you really want/need is a relatively benign liquid to flush out any remaining coolant. So unless you live in an area where your tap water is extremely 'hard' or full of high levels of dissolved metals, chemicals, calcium, etc, there's absolutely no benefit in using anything else....