Screwed up and used the green stuff

I had to replace the radiator in the Tundra several months ago. I filled the new radiator with distilled water and old Prestone green antifreeze. Thinking I should flush it out and replace with Asian red?

Any good ideas on flushing the system out completely?

 

Search is your friend. Go buy 5 gals of distilled water (cheap) drain your radiator with heater full hot and remove lower hose. Then open the two 10 mm block drains. Fill it up with tap water and repeat 2-3 times till water comes out clear. Now do same with distilled water to get rid of tap water from system. Finally drain and fill with Asian Pink - you’ll need 2-3 gallons of premix or 1 gallon of concentrate for 50/50 mix. If radiator cap not new when your did radiator, replace it.

 

Thanks much. You're right...I'm lazier on the search than I should be. Thanks for the mild scolding

 

"Open the two 10 mm block drains"
I've never heard of doing this. I usually go the Chilton or Hayes route with distilled water and turning the heater on high to get as much old coolant out.
But this method sounds like a full on military style assault on removing the green stuff. I like it....

 

1 gallon of concentrated pink is insufficient I'm thinking? Looks like total cooling capacity at 12+ quarts and want at least 50/50 mix?

 

Right! So 1 gal = 4 qts. 50/50 mix > 8 qts. So...

 

You need 2 gallons of concentrate.
I like and use PEAK OET extended life red/pink concentrate coolant for Asian vehicles. I also use the green in my Subaru. I called them and was told their red, green and blue are basically the same (for Asian vehicles) but they change the color so it looks like what is supposed to be in it.

Now if you can believe it they state "Service life of up to 15 years/400,000 miles with a complete cooling system flush and fill". I wouldn't run it that long lol.

Here's my issue with the OEM pink. It only comes as 50/50. That's okay if you have a completely empty system or you want to top off your overflow. But if you flush with distilled water and there's some left what are you going to wind up with. 40/60 or 30/70. Who knows.

That's why I like the Peak concentrate. I shoot for 60/40. Just my 2 cents.

 

I, too, prefer concentrate. I went with this stuff:

$24 Recochem OEM 86-174POEM Pink Premium Antifreeze Concentrate Extended Life PINK, 1 gallon, 1 Pack , BROWN

https://www.amazon.com/Recochem-OEM...=1732582365&sprefix=pink+anti,aps,137&sr=8-10

 

Painfully obvious I know....was trying to wiggle around shelling out $50 in antifreeze

 

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=10411273&cc=0&pt=11393&jsn=16

 

Nice! Knew about the parts on RA. Chemicals didn't occur to me. Thanks

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Prestone...9f3WWAWlew4bI_-JW4KSvvNxqOadC4XUaAgB8EALw_wcB

I have been using this in all my vehicles. If you want a non shipping option.

 

I have beef with "universal" coolants, especially with the 2UZ-FE many of us use in our trucks for this subforum. Maybe it's different for later years, dunno.

But generally speaking, I don't buy into this concept of "one size fits all" for coolants. Toyota calls for silicate free, borate free, nitrite free, and amine free coolant in HOAT format for our 1st gen trucks post-2004 (and I believe backdated to 1998). If you look at the bottle for the "universal" coolant you linked, all it says is "HOAT" compatible. It doesn't bother to mention anywhere I could find in their documents or product info if it lacks silicate/borate/nitrite/amine. That's sketch to me; why doesn't it say?

It's also problematic to mix coolants, and the vast majority of 2000-2006 1st gen (+2007 Sequoia) came with red or pink from the factory. Mixing yellow with red/pink, mixing brands, you never know what you'll get. But we've seen what's happened with some of our 2UZ-FE owners, and it's not pretty. Like, this exact type of buildup, @Tundra2 had that crap ended up jammed in everything in his engine, like the throttle body bypass, the lines to the oil cooler, clogging everything up to the oil cooler, clogging the internals of the oil cooler, completely clogging cooling hoses, one radiator hose, another radiator hose. This was the consistency of it. His previous owner was a dumbass and didn't understand you can't mix coolants and there's no such thing as "universal" coolant.

Beyond that, using pink super long life (SLLC) has diagnostic benefits, it shows leaks absurdly well compared to other colors that won't throw a red (harhar) flag.

tl;dr - Toyota says use SLLC pink in my 1st gen engine. They built the engine and know what's best for it, so I use their recommended coolant and OEM filters because that's what was designed to work with it, and it's what they tell you to. I'm not gonna knock you if you prefer generic/one-size-fits-all, I just question the validity of the "Universal" claim Prestone and a few others are using, and we've seen negative results from mixing OEM/factory pink with other colors. Anyone moving from pink to other colors should be opening the block drains and running/flushing a few cycles of distilled water through their block before switching colors.

 

I'm going pink

 

Haynes manual states to remove the thermostat during flushing and crank heater to high to flush the heater core. Makes sense to me...not sure if entirely necessary to achieve the goal....

 

If you run the engine up to operating temperature (thermostat is open) the water circulates through the heater core. Yes, you have to have the heater cranked to hot because there is a mechanical valve on the firewall that opens/shuts flow to the core. There are various types of cold water/garden hose flush techniques, in which case it would be necessary to remove the thermostat.

 

And honestly, this is true for nearly every vehicle I've ever owned that had a heater core. I feel like it's pretty standard practice that any fledgeling wrencher like @bing5 should know, if you're dealing with coolant, and the car has heat, open/run the heater during flushes and fills to circulate fluid fully.

 

I'm now in the pink so to speak...
Thanks to bfunke, shifty, and others for the tips. Very straightforward. Most difficult part was locating the coolant drain plugs in the block. My Haynes manual showed them at the locations indicated in the illustration. Not sure what they were smokin'.....must be a first edition.

.

 

Identical image to the FSM, so more like, "what Toyota was smokin'"

​

 

I just went through this myself because my former shop used the green coolant when they replaced my timing belt 100k miles ago

it took quite a few flushes, and I also drained it using the 2 block drains. I think the problem is what is still in the heater core. There is a method where you can disconnect the hose going to the heater core at the valve on the firewall and blow air into it to get more of the old coolant out


Someone already mentioned their problem with the pink was that it would be diluted with the old coolant or water that was still in the system after draining. That was my concern as well, but the pink is good for 100,000 miles where as the concentrate is only about 50,000 if I remember correctly. That's why I'm doing it again down the road but try to blow out what is in the heater core this time

 

the largest oldest independent yota shop in my town uses a universal ( they also specialize in subies) it is a off green color. Except ours has to be mixed for minus 60 degrees.
I had called them because they had put a timing belt kit in a few years back for previous owner and told them I had green coolant, thats when they told me they use the universal as of a few years back