I started a new topic on this because I wanted this to be specific about the coolant capacity and what I should do in this situation.
I have flushed my system 4 times now and am now ready to re-fill with coolant/distilled water. The picture showes how much liquid is drained. This includes pressuring the system and blowing out as much as possible along with draining what comes out when I open the bypass valve at the filter (about 1/8 gal)
The container is 17.5 gallons and it's about 2/3 full. Rough calculation is about 11.5 gallons. From everything I've read my coach should have about 16 gallons. So I guess there's about 4.5 gallons still in the engine and heater hoses.
So because I can't get all of the coolant out, my plan is to mark where the fluid is on the container, then mark that by half, then fill the first half with coolant, the second half with distilled water, then use my vacuum valve to fill it up from the container.
Am I missing something?
On a side note, the water still has a slight green tint to it, though the coolant was red when initially drained. Like I mentioned before, I did use Restore plus on my first flush.
Just add 8 gal of coolant then top off with distilled water.
Ok, so if I end up with more than 50% coolant it's not a problem?
If all you have is water in the system and it holds 16 gal then 8 gal of coolant is 50% That is how Brett recommends getting it right.
I knew I was over complicating this...now I feel dumb
This is way down at the bottom of the list of dumb things. I believe I currently dominate the leader boards.
Ha, thanks for making me feel better
I think what I was getting hung up on is that I assumed there was still some coolant mixed in with the leftover water in the engine. But because I flushed it so many times it makes sense that it's mostly water :facepalm:
Question on how this circulates. If the thermostat does not open, am I correct in assuming that the water pump is only circulating water in the block? Which means, isn't it critical that you drive it each time you flush to make sure the thermostat opens so it's circulates throughout the whole system, correct? Because it's still pretty cool at my house there's no way even at high idle for me to reach operating temperature, so I've been taking it for a spin every time. I'm sure the neighbors are annoyed
FYI, when I did the repair of my Aquahot to fix the leak in the coolant loop, the AH was carrying about 3 gallons of engine coolant, so there's some more you probably haven't got out at this point.
You're talking about the loop that runs to the AH to pre warm engine correct....and that's separate from the coolant that the AH uses to heat the coach and water?
If so, good point....I didn't consider that. 👍
As Keith shared, the engine preheat loop is main engine antifreeze, not Aqua Hot coolant. To flush that loop, turn on engine preheat switch inside of coach by the Aqua Hot electric element switch. As long as that switch is on, engine antifreeze is moving from engine to preheat loop and back. But, the same thing happens when the main engine antifreeze pump is running. So running the engine flushes the loop too.
Can someone confirm that to get a thorough flush, it's critical that the coach is at normal operating temperature and the thermostat is open....or do I have my engine coolant plumbing confused.
There is a bypass system in engines around the thermostat, just not enough flow to keep an engine cool under use. Flushing without the thermostat open would still circulate the coolant.
Good to know...thanks 👍
So high idling for ten minutes or so should circulate enough...hopefully.