It's finally time for me to do a drain and refill, and wanted to know if anyone else has done it and has tips?

I can identify the drain valve on the passenger side bottom of the radiator. How do you prevent the coolant from splashing back onto painted body panels? How much coolant can I recover just by draining it through the radiator valve?

 

Take the lower hose off in your driveway. Start it up for a second. Boom, coolant is flushed. Reattach lower hose. Refill and bleed system. Done son.

 

Use a catch pan...

 

It tends to splash out a bit, and I was concerned it was going to touch the front fascia.

 

Just hose it off man

 

Just don't let it sit, it's not like the second it hits it the paint will peel off, as stated before simply hose it off. No worries.

 

It's not like brake fluid lol

 

Hose it down well off of the car and the driveway, antifreeze is deadly to pets!

 

Put the car on some jack stands and put a small bucket to collect the old coolant. Then just switch buckets when it starts to get full. Makes it easy to clean up and less splash.

 

Are you saying:
1) Drain from the drain plug under the radiator
2) after mostly drained remove the lower hose
3) start the car fir a second
4) reattach hose
5) refill
6) bleed system

What is the bleeding process for the coolant system?

 

Anyone?

What is the coolant bleeding procedure?

 

Just run it until all the air burbs out

 

I normally just drive the car and keep an eye on the coolant level for about 100 miles. The air generally burbs itself. What I don't understand is why I need to run the heat on maximum if the heater core has no direct connection with the temperature setting? I see this step on almost every procedure list. I can understand back in the 80s when certain cars really did have a coolant valve attached to the HVAC control, but even then the majority of heater cores had coolant circulating through the tubes whenever the engine was running.

I read a few posts where 05-up Mustang owners managed to drain less than 1/2 gallon through the radiator petcock. I assume I need to drop the lower hose to get the other 1.5 gallons? I can normally drop 2 gallons of coolant out of my Crown Vic (4.6L 2V V8) which has 2 quart larger capacity than the 4.6 3V V8 Mustang GT. I do not want to mess with freeze plugs or anything on the engine block/heads.

 

Pretty sure when I did mine a couple years ago that I got about a gallon from the radiator and another from the lower hose. I do remember that I got 2 gallons out pretty easy. Just ran it and massaged the hoses a little to get air out.

 

What is the total capacity of fluid in the 4.6 GT?

I assume the refill is 50/50?

 

I drained 1.75 gallons from the radiator. I don't plan to bother with the lower hose. I get about the same out of my 00 Crown Vic (4.6 2V). I normally buy 1 gallon of anti-freeze and 1 gallon of distilled water, and it seems the Mustang is the same.

 

How often should this be done? I've also heard that antifreeze never goes bad. And as Scott stated above rinse any spillage well, pets are attracted to antifreeze and it will kill them.

 

I changed mine for the first time in 6.5 years. The degas bottle/reservoir is coated in slime, but the upper hose was totally clean as was the thermostat neck and radiator. The old coolant still looked/smelled new and was very clear.

My Crown Vic hasn't had its coolant changed in about 6 years but was driven much harder. The coolant smells bad, like formaldehyde, and is quite murky.

 

What do you guys do with the old coolant? I can't seem to find a place around Pittsburgh that will take it. Most shops are saying they only recycle what they drain; they won't take coolant from outsiders.

 

Midnight sewer drain at the curb.