This past weekend I flushed the coolant in my truck for the first time. Not too happy looking back at my process and wanted others to weigh in on what I might have done right vs. wrong. Process:
- Drained old and filled with distilled, ran truck for 10 min.
- Waited 15-30 min. Then drained
- Added Blue Devil cleaner and water, ran 10 minutes and waited 30 minutes to cool.
- after draining I did the same thing twice with distilled
This is where I kick myself; after waiting around 10 minutes on the last circulation, I drained the radiator and then idled the truck for 4-5 minutes max to try and get remaining water out. The radiator was empty during the idle.

I realize idling the truck to remove coolant wasn't the smartest move. Could this have caused head problems (crack or gasket issue)?

I have filled with antifreeze since, bled air and have ran the truck the last couple of days without noticeable issues. No sings of air coming through radiator or oil/coolant mix. Mainly just worried and pissed at myself for doing something that could have cost me a lot.

I appreciate the feedback

Also, how do you post pics? I'd like to add some of the engine work I've been doing this summer.

Welcome to the forum, Dan.

Don't feel too bad, we all do stuff like that at one point or another...I recall my Dad trying to weld a gas tank without blowing air through it to remove the last traces of fumes...no need to weld that tank after it ripped itself apart in a microsecond.

Good sign that you don't see any issues. You're probably OK if it weren't running but a few minutes without coolant. At least part of that time the water left over in the block was boiling out, and there's a good bit in there unless your blow or suck it out.

If I were trying to dry the system out on the last step, I would have drained the system while the block was still pretty warm/hot, bleed off the pressure with a venting type cap, and blown compressed air through it for a long time (like days).

Still, it's hard to totally dry the system out cause the block and heater core hold water in reservoirs of internal space. For example, if you drain the radiator, remove it, remove the water pump and a bunch more pours out, then if you flip the block over or tilt it forward a bunch, still more coolant pours out. The heater core as a good bit in it as well.

Once I disconnected my heater hoses and sucked the water out of the heater core with my shop vac, that actually worked pretty well and I got a lot of crap out of the core. Then I dumped methanol into the top hose and held it up to get it into the core, then sucked it out again. I did this a few times and then blew compressed air through the core, that dried it out completely without removing it. I wouldn't recommend that for the whole system though, considering how much volume there is.

Brian

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Thank you Brian for the reply and tips. Definitely good information to have next time. I'm hoping I got off lucky this time, without learning the hard way and a lot off extra $$$. So far everything seems to be operating as it should be and how it was before the flush. I guess it's the "what-ifs" and second guessing that gets me the most.
Thanks again!

Yep, not knowing is sometimes way worse than the diagnosis...

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