If your coolant levels are low or if your cooling system isn't working as it should, you may notice your temperature gauge reading higher than usual, your heater may stop working, or you might notice steam coming from under your hood. It's a good idea to fix a cooling system leak as soon as possible to avoid damage to your engine that can include overheating, seizing, warped cylinder heads, or a blown head gasket. If you notice a coolant leak, you should inspect your cooling system's components for signs of wear, cracks, damage, and attempt to locate the source of the leaks. Your vehicle's owner's manual usually includes service intervals that indicate how often to flush and fill your car's coolant, and coolant levels and condition should be inspected at least at every oil change and before winter to ensure safe engine performance. Regularly checking and filling fluids is part of routine car maintenance, and not only does this help your vehicle perform better, but it also protects the engine from damage and corrosion. Antifreeze also helps prevent concentrations of water from causing corrosion and scale buildup inside the engine and keep your cooling system from freezing, which could cause extensive damage. Using the upper and lower radiator hoses, coolant is circulated throughout your car's engine and to the radiator where the hot coolant's temperature is reduced before it is returned to the engine. Your engine coolant, also called antifreeze, helps your vehicle maintain an appropriate operating temperature by absorbing heat from your engine. Which means if you include whatever didn't find its' way out of the rest of the system and include the reservoir, it's safe to assume the total capacity is somewhere in the ballpark of 4.5 quarts +/- a bit.Maintain A Healthy Cooling System With Quality Antifreeze Not surprisingly, after running, cooling, and topping off a time or two, the times I have refilled out of a gallon bottle I used to premix my coolant that it takes nearly the entire gallon. I have drained my 91 G10 system 3x over the past several months to paint the radiator, replace an old leaking drain plug, and install a lower radiator hose heater, and on a level surface each time draining just the block/heater core very nearly fills a 1 gallon container. I would consider all of the varying quantities specified for the G10 in different year FSMs that range from 4.1 to as high as 4.9 quarts (including the reservoir) as "about 1 gallon." I actually didn't even catch that after reading David's reply until I read yours. Using a coolant/water mixture at all times instead of straight water will also reduce internal system damage from electrolysis. Using distilled/demineralized water in your coolant mixture (~1$/gallon) can reduce mineral deposits/buildups in the system. I assume you meant you were draining the water and replacing with a "coolant:water mixture" appropriate (at least 50% but not more than 70% anti-freeze) for the temperatures you expect? Since your system just has water in it, a little soaking won't be as bad.Īlso, drain the reservoir and refill it with whatever coolant mixture you add to the rest of the system. I open open the cap once I'm out of glycol soakage range. I do raise the container I use as much as practical under the drain to reduce splashage, and also get the drain plug out before opening the cap in order to keep the initial flow rate down. On a level surface and with the system cold, very close to 1 gallon out of a 4.3 gallon system capacity will drain on its' own from the radiator drain, so I wouldn't worry too much about doing anything different to "completely" drain the system unless you also want to also flush the system to clean it.įlushing can be done "actively" using a forced flow of water through the system with the thermostat removed, or done passively by using the "drain, refill, run, repeat" method until the drained water is clean.
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