4.3L Engine Block Drain Plugs

[MountainManJoe]

Sounds like a lot of pointless extra work to me.

[doyoulikeithere]

Pointless?
To me, it seems like the ONLY way to drain the block COMPLETELY.
Just draining the rad will not empty the block.
Water will still be in the block below the holes where the water pump mounts to it.
He asked for the info. That was the only point to it.

[MountainManJoe]

The OP didn't want to drain everything out. He said he just had too much water. The solution to that is add antifreeze.

Even if he did want to flush it, you still don't need drain the block. Just keep adding fresh water and let pump push it through the system.

When you get a blood transfusion, they don't drain you out first They hook you up to a pump.

[doyoulikeithere]

I agree with all that except my thinking is its not that its the mixture in attributing to its lack of coolant. Its mainly the fact that I'm supposing the water I did have was enough that froze and blocked my coolant lines keeping everything from flowing smoothly.today and yesterday were the first days we've had north of freezing since two weeks back.

That happened to me the winter before this one. My top rad hose froze up. Then after starting and driving 20 min or so, it overheated. Shut it off and sat for 10 minutes it thawed out. I could tell because the top rad hose felt like ice, but the rest of the engine was hot. Anyways It happened twice and then I put a thermostat and some more antifreeze in it, fixed it up. You asked about the plugs but I got feeling you obviously know about the drain on the rad already...?

[infinite.chris]

That happened to me the winter before this one. My top rad hose froze up. Then after starting and driving 20 min or so, it overheated. Shut it off and sat for 10 minutes it thawed out. I could tell because the top rad hose felt like ice, but the rest of the engine was hot. Anyways It happened twice and then I put a thermostat and some more antifreeze in it, fixed it up. You asked about the plugs but I got feeling you obviously know about the drain on the rad already...?

Yeah, and that's what I used in the fall, to flush it a couple times, thought I did things right, but I realized all too late because....

What you said, that's what happened to me, except it took about an hour to cool back down. LOTS or gurgling, and what I guessed by sound alone, was ice being pushed around.

Pic I found:


*scratches head* gotta wonder where that is. (from Here.)

Just got out from under it and thought it was this orange guy... hoooo noo... that one just dribbled out oil. This is before I spun anything off down there.

[MountainManJoe]

By the way, I want to clarify that using plugs can be a good way to drain your block, but it's not required for flushing. Just a little misunderstanding on my part.


Those things in the pictures look like core plugs. I think they're designed for single use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_plug

[infinite.chris]

Yeah, and from the looks of it, in order not to screw things up, considering I don't have anyone else for an astro-head around, or even a shop I really can trust, I'm going the tried-and-tested method. I'm just going to end up draining the coolant over the next few days, replacing it all with 100% antifreeze until I see it test good down to at least somewhere in the negatives. As it is right now, she only tests good down to +20*F (tells me my mixture is something like 70/30, 80/20 water:anti freeze)

[MountainManJoe]

Tried-and-tested by whom? Using pure antifreeze will destroy your engine.

#1. It will freeze solid. Pure antifreeze freezes at around +9°F

#2. It will overheat because pure antifreeze will not be able to carry the heat to the radiator.

As I said before the ideal mixture is between 60-70% antifreeze.

[infinite.chris]

tried and tested meaning the method described on here elsewhere and even by yourself. By your chart I have likely less than 10% antifreeze in there, so pure isn't going to hurt anything in trying to get it closer to 50/50

[MountainManJoe]

I would never suggest "replacing it all with 100% antifreeze".

If by that you meant adding more antifreeze to the solution, then yes go ahead.