Coolant replacement the easy way

Toyota recommends changing the coolant first time after all sorts of warranties were expired - at 100k, and then, suddenly, every 50k. I decided to replace mine at under 50k and keep replacing it at this pace.

Watched a few youtube videos, where folks were removing the tin skid plates and front wheels as well. They also bent over and disconnected all the coolant hoses and squished a few more drops out of them. This is not something I wanted to do. Like, if you are THAT obsessed, why don't you drop the engine pan and unbolt the oil cooler to drain the last quart of old oil?

So I started with draining the radiator, which is pretty obvious. My skid is RCI, I could simply reach the radiator drain cock with my hand, and even pull a silicone hose on the cock and fix it to the skid with a spring clamp. The other end of the hose went into a bucket. I haven't warmed up the engine and haven't opened the radiator cap to allow vacuum to drain the expansion tank for me.

While radiator was draining, I drained the passenger side block, because the drain cock is directly visible and reachable, so it was easier than the driver side where it is obstructed by the frame/suspension. No need to remove wheel. Used a cheap fuel transfer pump on the cock to direct coolant to an empty gallon jug. The pump:

$10 Luigi's Fuel Transfer Pump - Large Squeezing Syphon hand pump water| Manual Siphon pump for Gasoline, Water, Alcohol and more Fluid Liquid | 22" Gas Siphon hose & oil transfer pump

www.amazon.com/Liquid-Fuel-Transfer-Siphon-Pump/dp/B06XKHP8Q4 Unfortunately, don't have the pictures for the easy side, but do so for the hard side.

For driver side I removed the wheel to at least see what I'm doing, but it turned out it was unnecessary, because the block was drained via radiator and passenger block. This is how much was collected from the driver side.



Was it worth it? In my opinion, strictly not.

And that's why the driver side is hard:







I think capacity of my engine/trim is 12.4 liters or 3.25 gallons, and I maybe left about 0.5 gallons inside the cooling system, which is totally fine with me.



Next I filled the system with fresh coolant, closed the cap, topped off the expansion tank, started the engine and spent like 20 minutes waiting for things to heat up and burp. Nothing happened even after thermostat did open. I drove a couple of miles around the block, including some steep grades, and the coolant still was flush to FULL. Let it cool down for about 30 minutes and, finally, the level was dropping, which means the system is burped, there's no air and it is able to suck coolant from the expansion tank.


So, next time I'll be doing just the radiator and the passenger side. If you have clamps, etc ready, the whole process can be spill-free. I spilled half a quart of so.

The biggest surprise was that the cooling system in this engine designed so well that it does not leave much air inside while filling it up. In my other vehicles I had to top off like 25% of capacity due to burps.

 

Thanks for the tips! Plan on doing this in the next week or two, so its good to see that the driver side won't really net me out that much coolant

 

Leaving the wheel alone certainly makes the whole process twice easier.

 

nice write up!

 

Thanks for tips and advice!

 

Good pictures also

 

Thank you! I'll be doing this and my serpentine belt in a few thousand miles at 80K. Nice write-up.

 

Very nice write up. I've literally been stalling on doing this job because I'm recovering from hip surgery and didn't feel ready to lift my 35" E load tires off. Now I can do this knowing I don't have too

 

I just installed a SC and I had to empty the radiator and drain the oil cooler to replace the crossover pipe. When it was time to refill, I just added distilled water. It took about a gallon and half. I am almost at 40k. Figure at about 50k I will dump the radiator again and add water and some anti-freeze. I live in FL so no real need for a 50/50 mix since it's like 1000 degrees year round. Good write though on hoe to get to the block plugs.

 

Nice write up!

Does the radiator have 1 drain plug or two? I remember seeing one on the driver side when changing oil but iirc my friend said there is two. Doesn't make sense but I haven't looked.

What brand of coolant did you use?

 

I'm permanently semi-unrecoverable with herniated spine disc. After upgrading the stock 32" tires to 33" LT I could not lift it anymore, so ended up buying this dolly:

$132 Aain DY016 Heavy-Duty Adjustable Tire Wheel Dolly for Workshop, Garage, Orange

https://www.amazon.com/Aain-DY016-Heavy-Duty-Adjustable-Workshop/dp/B08HVBH1Y9 Highly recommended!

 

Ethylene-glycol acts as lubricant for water pump. You actually want some of ethylene-glycol even in hotter climate, because water does not lubricate well. Also coolant has additives that fight formation of scale on the cooling jackets.

 

One drain IIRC. Can look tomorrow.

Toyota 00272SLLC.

 

Is the pump needed or would some tubing on the cock allow it to drain via gravity? I'm getting ready to do this myself. I'm only at 39K, but past 5 years.

 

Not worried. I have had plenty of high mile engines that probably never had coolant change with out issues. It's been at factory specs till I did the SC at 40k. Like I said, at 50k I will do another radiator drain and add some anti-freeze/water.

 

Did the reservoir fully drain using your method?

I've always opened the radiator cap while draining and emptied the tank manually ...


"I haven't warmed up the engine and haven't opened the radiator cap to allow vacuum to drain the expansion tank for me."

 

Tubing only. It is gravity drained.

 

This is how much left. I guess, that came from the hose connecting it with the radiator when all the coolant drained and vacuum broke.

 

As you have experimented, it sounds like if you drain the radiator and one side of the block (for example the passenger side), then draining the other side (Driver block) is somewhat unnecessary and won't yield much coolant.

The reason I'm saying this is because I was reading another thread about changing the coolant in a 4.6L engine and the author was saying that he drained the radiator and then the driver side block and then, he drained the passenger side block and not much coolant came out.

This is the opposite of your observation making me guess that once you drain one side, most of the block coolant comes out and the other side won't be holding much!

So you might as well drain the "easy" side (passenger side in this case) as you've done and forget the driver or the "hard" side. Granted the other thread was about draining a 4.6L engine and not a 5.7L ... But I have a feeling that draining one side, drains most of the block coolant.

Nice post! I need to do mine now or in a year or two and will skip the driver side block drain.

 

Taking the wheels off definitely makes it a lot easier to get a hose on the drains, I did mine recently as well at 50,000. These funnels that attach to the radiator make bleeding the system easy as well. I only used about 2 gallons.

 

Any chance you could link the funnel please?

 

$20 EPAuto Spill Proof Radiator Coolant Filling Funnel Kit

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I40ZQWE

 

I've used one like that, or maybe exactly that model. A big fancy funnel, it has no provision to separate fluid going in and air going out, so it all burbs and splashes like hell. The only positive side is you can plug it when the radiator is full and still have the process largely spill-free

Wheel with LT tire installation is never easy for old guy.

 

I just leave the cover on with a little crack for air to escape and make sure not to overfill it, seems to work pretty well, I've used it on the Tundra and a Subaru so for.

 

After draining the radiator and passenger side of the block, I got about three teaspoons out of the driver's side. Definitely a waste of time.