coolant replacement question

[Larry Bastanza]

BTW, the logic behind the car being angled down, is that if you manual bleed, and start in the front and work your way back, the angle will allow the radiator to fill first, then heater core, then engine bleeders. This will give you a good bleed manually.

After you do this, bring to full temp, run heater for 2-3 minutes to make sure the heater core does not have any air trapped in it, then check/add about 1 QT more coolant after the car cools. Then you are ready to go.


Regards,
LarryB

 

[UnhuZ]

Hi,

Larry..i use your method, but with the raised rear, i don't get any coolant out of the thermostat bleeder... on the other hand, if i have the car leveled, i get coolant out of all 4 bleeders. I connect little hoses to all of them to see the coolant raise and air bubbles come out.

Thanks,
Nuno

 

[OLDMNSX]

I am in the process of changing all of the coolant hoses. I did a little shopping for coolant. It seems that Honda and Acura do not sell the undiluted coolant anymore. The 50/50 Honda coolant is selling for around $20 a gallon, so I would need to buy 4 gallons to refill, for a total of $80 plus tax.
My daughter has a Lexus is300 that I did her timing belt and coolant flush and replaced her coolant with the Toyota Red stuff. I can get it for $25 a gallon, so $50 to refill the NSX plus a couple gallons of distilled water at $1 a gallon. So, $80 vs $52 for an equally good coolant.
I am going to go with the Toyota Red undiluted.
Thoughts?
Brad

 

[Sylvan]

I thought the Toyota red stuff was already mixed 50/50. At least it was when I bought it a few years ago.

 

[TOOLTIME]

Toyota sells two types of the red coolant.

 

[TyraNSX]

NAPA has Zerex Asian car coolant (50-50) for ~$14. Silicate & borate free. HOAT formula, meets all the Asian car company specs, including Honda. Long life & it's pink. Check it out on Zerex's website.

 

[Honcho]

There are no bleed screws under the radiator, or in the center tunnel. All bleeders are located up top, radiator, heater core, two in engine bay on thermostat housing and return pipe.
Regards,
LarryB

D'oh! That clears it up.

 

[TOOLTIME]

There are no bleed screws under the radiator, or in the center tunnel. All bleeders are located up top, radiator, heater core, two in engine bay on thermostat housing and return pipe. Regardless, no need to worry about that at all if you use this tool:

I use a snap-on vacuum bleeder. Pull 25" of vacuum and put the fill hose in a 5 gallon jug of Type2 coolant and open it up and watch it fill. Thanks to pbassjo for telling me about this years ago.

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...roup_ID=681175&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

Regards,
LarryB

Interesting, I may have to consult with my Snap On dealer. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Larry Bastanza]

Hi,

Larry..i use your method, but with the raised rear, i don't get any coolant out of the thermostat bleeder... on the other hand, if i have the car leveled, i get coolant out of all 4 bleeders. I connect little hoses to all of them to see the coolant raise and air bubbles come out.

Thanks,
Nuno

I think you did not add enough coolant. If you did, it would come out. The total system takes over 4 US gallons if it is dry. Although it usually does not take quite that much it is well over 3 US gallons to change.

Once you lowered the rear of the car, or course coolant came out, because you lowered the bled valve.

Regardless, if you took the car for a good run, up to full temp, ran the heater for 2-3 minutes on full, then let the car cool and top it off, you are fine.

Regards,
LarryB

 

[juejaimon]

Larry,

can you share where to attach the vacuum hose with the use of that snap on tool?

thanks,
Steve

 

[Old Guy]

What vacuum hose are your talking about? There is a suction line on the tool which goes into the container of fresh coolant to refill the engine. There is no vacuum hose connection. The vacuum refill tools like the Snap-on do not use a vacuum cleaner, they use a high pressure air supply from an air compressor which flows through a venturi in the tool to draw a vacuum on the cooling system. This type of tool works best with large air compressors - the tool instructions should specify the minimum required cubic feet / second and required air pressure.

There are lots of different versions of the tool (much cheaper than Snap on). The Snap-on appears to use a cap specific style adapter for the coolant tank. That is good; but, make sure it comes with the correct adapter to fit whatever tank you have on your car. Some of the re fill tools come with a universal style adapter that looks like a rubber cone. These work quite well; but, you may need to hold in place by hand to stop them from flopping around during the initial vacuum pull and once the vacuum drops during the refill phase.