Mixing coolant in block, is it a big risk ?

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Kadonkadonk1

Kadonkadonk1

Member
Posts
73
Location
Cardiff
im having a nightmare with draining my coolant.
I've asked for help and only been told to take off some bottom pipe and drain the old stuff out.
I have no idea what bottom pipe I need to remove so today I put a load of fresh pink o.a.t coolant in, but didn't manage to get the old coolant from the block by flushing.... as I don't know which pipe to remove.

So my question is...

Is this now likely to cause the coolant to turn to jelly as the old stuff was blue/green or do I need to drain it all, fill with fresh plain water, drain, fill, etc etc until I've only got fresh water inside the whole system or will it be ok to leave as it is.

I don't want to have it turning into a sludge but not sure how many litres the block holds and if it's actually going to make a difference by draining it all again .

Somebody please help as I'm at my wits end and only had the bloody thing a month
 
Ignoring what was written before did you download the rave workshop manual?

Flushing the system of coolant is not the hardest of things.

Cheers
 
Kadonkadonk1 said:
im having a nightmare with draining my coolant.
I've asked for help and only been told to take off some bottom pipe and drain the old stuff out.
I have no idea what bottom pipe I need to remove so today I put a load of fresh pink o.a.t coolant in, but didn't manage to get the old coolant from the block by flushing.... as I don't know which pipe to remove.

So my question is...

Is this now likely to cause the coolant to turn to jelly as the old stuff was blue/green or do I need to drain it all, fill with fresh plain water, drain, fill, etc etc until I've only got fresh water inside the whole system or will it be ok to leave as it is.

I don't want to have it turning into a sludge but not sure how many litres the block holds and if it's actually going to make a difference by draining it all again .

Somebody please help as I'm at my wits end and only had the bloody thing a month
Click to expand...
if you look under the rad on inner side of the front chassis cross member youll see a steel pipe which has a drain bung its 13mm headed,if you have a plastic under tray you cant see it till you remove the access panel its round and twists out
 
jamesmartin said:
if you look under the rad on inner side of the front chassis cross member youll see a steel pipe which has a drain bung its 13mm headed,if you have a plastic under tray you cant see it till you remove the access panel its round and twists out
Click to expand...

I tried to remove that drain plug or the last pipe and it sheared off completely, it was rock solid until a few light taps with a wrench and hammer loosened it... permanently
 
Reading about your problem regarding the broken drain plug, you have got yourself in the pickies there.
In your other post you did mention that you'd knocked the drain off the block, but I tend to think that you really meant the plug on the bottom steel cooling rail, and therein lies a problem. If you try to drill it, once you start going through you're going to get water in the drill which if you're using an electric drill, well, you know where that's going. Anyway, let's assume that you do get a neat hole in the drain plug, which I assume is brass, "Easy-outs" tend not to work too well in brass.
The other way of easing a stuck bolt is to use heat, but here you have a "Chicken and Egg" situation; you can't heat the pipe with water in it and you can't get the water out until you've heated the pipe and got the drain plug out.
Alternatives include disconnecting the pipe from the thermostat housing near the bottom of the radiator to work on it off the car or replacing the whole coolant rail. Second hand ones go for about 40 or 50 quid.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.TRS0&_nkw=PFV100120&_sacat=0
 
Oh why is there three threads on this subject for the same issue.

As for the incompatibility of the two types of antifreeze it was true that they didn't mix, but now days it appears that OAT is universal or some makes are, I say appears as it's not something I'm interested now, my disco antifreeze is replaced every five years and normal cars I'm lucky to be able to never keep them long enough selling just before or after their first MOT hence no interest in antifreeze :)

But for me it's repeating the coolent flush, as already stated, before introducing OAT is what I would do.
The bottom hose = the large hose at the bottom of the radiator.
 
Last edited:
Kadonkadonk1 said:
Thanks but for some reason I can't download it. I really am having a nightmare with all this lol.

Much appreciated for trying though
Click to expand...
Hi I'm a little concerned about the antifreeze you mentioned you said it was O A T, so which land rover do you have? The reason I mention this is for eg I have a Discovery D1 300Tdi and after much research I found this is not OAT compatible, so if your car isn't OAT compatible it can do serious damage to the engine.
Also when they said drain it from the bottom pipe they meant the lower radiator hose which is a large hose its easy enough just undo the jubilee clip and ease it off the radiator pipe and let it flow into a bucket and dispose of it safely and clean up any spillages, to refill use ratio of 50/50 you can premix or measure equal amounts as you refill
 
Last edited:
Madman2Swords said:
Hi I'm a little concerned about the antifreeze you mentioned you said it was O A T, so which land rover do you have? The reason I mention this is for eg I have a Discovery D1 300Tdi and after much research I found this is not OAT compatible, so if your car isn't OAT compatible it can do serious damage to the engine.
Click to expand...

Don't be concerned any more, but if you had read the previous post and and the other OPs threads u would have see it's a D2. D2s left the factory with OAT antifreeze.
 
Madman2Swords said:
Hi I'm a little concerned about the antifreeze you mentioned you said it was O A T, so which land rover do you have? The reason I mention this is for eg I have a Discovery D1 300Tdi and after much research I found this is not OAT compatible, so if your car isn't OAT compatible it can do serious damage to the engine.
Also when they said drain it from the bottom pipe they meant the lower radiator hose which is a large hose its easy enough just undo the jubilee clip and ease it off the radiator pipe and let it flow into a bucket and dispose of it safely and clean up any spillages, to refill use ratio of 50/50 you can premix or measure equal amounts as you refill
Click to expand...
why would 300 not be oat compatible but td5 is?
 
My vehicle is a landrover discovery 2 td5 2001.
I've got the yellow labelling around the entrance to the expansion tank that says... o.a.t + h20.

I've had the vehicle 1 month without history on what was used as coolant in the past but it was a blue/green colour.
After reading online, pretty much everywhere says to use the red coolant so I'm guessing that the previous owner put anything in there... I don't know.

So now I'm trying to get the old stuff out and put fresh in.
I firstly broke the drain plug bolt by shearing it off. It was originally jammed and I hit it with a hammer and wrench to try and loosen it and that's when it went tits up.

The metal pipe has now been replaced and after not knowing which pipe to remove I filled it all back up with red o.a.t and distilled water at 50/50.

My concern is the old coolant that's left behind in the block so I now want to drain it all and start fresh by emptying what's in there, filling with plain water and draining again after taking it for a short drive.
After doing this a few times I been told that the old coolant from the block should be flushed out and only plain water left.

Once this is achieved I'm going to refill for the final time with 50/50 red o.a.t and distilled water.

I just need to identify which pipe it actually is that I drain from as I want to avoid the drain plug incase it breaks again.
So as soon as I can find the right pipe I should be sorted.

I'll be working under the vehicle with limited tools so looking for the easiest route as people have been mentioning taking the fan off etc etc.

I've looked on the net for diagrams but can't seem to find anything
 
jamesmartin said:
why would 300 not be oat compatible but td5 is?
Click to expand...

From what I read it's to do with the difference between the internal seals which are made of different materials in the 200/300 TDI due to the OAT having Organic Acid basically the non OAT seals deteriorate due to the acid which cases a chain reaction and also causes aluminium components to corrode.
 
Kadonkadonk1 said:
My vehicle is a landrover discovery 2 td5 2001.
I've got the yellow labelling around the entrance to the expansion tank that says... o.a.t + h20.

I've had the vehicle 1 month without history on what was used as coolant in the past but it was a blue/green colour.
After reading online, pretty much everywhere says to use the red coolant so I'm guessing that the previous owner put anything in there... I don't know.

So now I'm trying to get the old stuff out and put fresh in.
I firstly broke the drain plug bolt by shearing it off. It was originally jammed and I hit it with a hammer and wrench to try and loosen it and that's when it went tits up.

The metal pipe has now been replaced and after not knowing which pipe to remove I filled it all back up with red o.a.t and distilled water at 50/50.

My concern is the old coolant that's left behind in the block so I now want to drain it all and start fresh by emptying what's in there, filling with plain water and draining again after taking it for a short drive.
After doing this a few times I been told that the old coolant from the block should be flushed out and only plain water left.

Once this is achieved I'm going to refill for the final time with 50/50 red o.a.t and distilled water.

I just need to identify which pipe it actually is that I drain from as I want to avoid the drain plug incase it breaks again.
So as soon as I can find the right pipe I should be sorted.

I'll be working under the vehicle with limited tools so looking for the easiest route as people have been mentioning taking the fan off etc etc.

I've looked on the net for diagrams but can't seem to find anything
Click to expand...
if you repaired the plug drain it from there, its not going to have rusted solid again so soon
 
Madman2Swords said:
From what I read it's to do with the difference between the internal seals which are made of different materials in the 200/300 TDI due to the OAT having Organic Acid basically the non OAT seals deteriorate due to the acid which cases a chain reaction and also causes aluminium components to corrode.
Click to expand...
theres just as much ali in a td5 its rubbish the only seals are in the water pump,ive been stripping engines for long while and the only damage ive seen is from running on just water or very weak old coolant
 
Kadonkadonk1 said:
My vehicle is a landrover discovery 2 td5 2001.
I've got the yellow labelling around the entrance to the expansion tank that says... o.a.t + h20.

I've had the vehicle 1 month without history on what was used as coolant in the past but it was a blue/green colour.
After reading online, pretty much everywhere says to use the red coolant so I'm guessing that the previous owner put anything in there... I don't know.

So now I'm trying to get the old stuff out and put fresh in.
I firstly broke the drain plug bolt by shearing it off. It was originally jammed and I hit it with a hammer and wrench to try and loosen it and that's when it went tits up.

The metal pipe has now been replaced and after not knowing which pipe to remove I filled it all back up with red o.a.t and distilled water at 50/50.

My concern is the old coolant that's left behind in the block so I now want to drain it all and start fresh by emptying what's in there, filling with plain water and draining again after taking it for a short drive.
After doing this a few times I been told that the old coolant from the block should be flushed out and only plain water left.

Once this is achieved I'm going to refill for the final time with 50/50 red o.a.t and distilled water.

I just need to identify which pipe it actually is that I drain from as I want to avoid the drain plug incase it breaks again.
So as soon as I can find the right pipe I should be sorted.

I'll be working under the vehicle with limited tools so looking for the easiest route as people have been mentioning taking the fan off etc etc.

I've looked on the net for diagrams but can't seem to find anything
Click to expand...

I don't know about taking the fan off but if you undo the bottom hose and the top hose from the radiator and undo the thermostat and take it out you can flush the system with a hosepipe and refill with plain old water + antifreeze
 
Madman2Swords said:
From what I read it's to do with the difference between the internal seals which are made of different materials in the 200/300 TDI due to the OAT having Organic Acid basically the non OAT seals deteriorate due to the acid which cases a chain reaction and also causes aluminium components to corrode.
Click to expand...
So my D1 (with an engine that has a little bit of aluminium) is on borrowed time after 16 years + using OAT then.
 
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