Coolant Flush and Replace

Tomorrow looks like being a nice sunny day...perfect for working on my '76 S3 88'.

I was planning to flush out the cooling system and put fresh coolant/antifreeze in (and replace the heater hoses that look badly cracked).

Does anyone think the flushing chemicals sold at Halfords are worth it..or will the old hosepipe forward and reverse flush be enough?

Does it usually *need* the block bleed screws opening? or do they only need opening on rare occasions?...I have had bad luck with screws and nuts shearing off when trying to untighten them recently...I don't like disturbing bleed valves unless I really have to!!

I might even try and paint the wheels with fresh Limestone

I have never used the flushing chemicals, I always just used a hosepipe. I have refilled a landy where all the bleed screws had seized solid. What I did was to fill the radiator to just below the filler cap and run the engine for a few seconds. If the water level fell, I topped it up and repeated until the water level stayed at about 0.5 in below the radiator filling hole. Don't forget to set your heater to hot before refilling and if you have an overflow reservior, make sure the water level in it is above the bottom of the overflow pipe.

put a couple of dishwasher "tablets" in the top of the rad while it's nice and hot, let them dissolve and leave it running for 10 minutes

then flush out in both directions

Use liquid, not tablets - if they dont disolve, they can block stuff.

The Mad Hat Man said:

Use liquid, not tablets - if they dont disolve, they can block stuff.

Click to expand...

these tablets are half an inch square and sit on top of the rad filler cap slowly dissolving, there's no chance of anything getting blocked

the liquid stuff is as good a way

Pure vinagar with dishwasher liquid, thats meant to be quite good!

I personally in the past, just left the hose running through it for half an hour, each way, that admitantly was not on a landrover, but an older vehicle, with a bigger radiator.

Cheers

Dave

Nice tips...thanks.

If the rad is as furred up as my house pipes and kettle then it may need something to help get the crud out.

Cheers

Make sure you use the old fashioned Green anti-freeze, not the fluorescent Pink stuff, the hoses and seals can't cope with the modern pink stuff.

Don't go too strong either with the antifreeze as there is a point where it gets too strong, and stops working so well. I had it 50.50 mix and it seemed to be very good on the refractometer, but wouldn't go any stronger personally. That was good to -55. hehe Was nearly tested last winter, hehe, you would never believe it was that cold after today!

Cheers

Dave

just bought some Red stuff will this be ok on my series 3 1977?

You should only use the green / blue stuff

opinion is divided - red is ok if not mixed.

When you do the flush be sure to flush the heater matrix as well. My heater improved by a lot for giving the matrix a good flush. I only use blue antifreeze the red stuff is for the steel type head gaskets and can give problems on old Landies.

not any more - OAT is just marketed now as "long life"