Changing engine coolant. What would you do diffenrent?
Posted by Big_Hunt7898@reddit | sailing | View on Reddit | 5 comments
First time i changed my engine coolant.
Here is what i did:
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Drained the old coolant (image 5)
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Opened container cap (image 1 to 4). The coolant inside was ok. But there was some pretty nasty coolant around the cap and also this crystalized blue coolant on the sides. Cleaned both of them, used a bit of paper to prevent the crystalized coolant to fall inside the reservoir when i was removing it
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Flushed the whole system 3 times with demineralized water (was not able to find distilled water nearby so had to go with demineralized) (images 5 to 8)
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Filled system with new coolant
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Topped up return reservoir
Anything you would do different?
Anything I did incorrectly?
kcmike@reddit
Don’t want to hijack the thread but I have a similar question. I just recently had to replace heat exchanger in a yanmar 4jh5e. Precious coolant was blue in color. After replacing exchanger I filled with red coolant. Did I completely screw up my system? Is she going to blow up?
Big_Hunt7898@reddit (OP)
Did you flush the system? As far as I read you should only change from one type of coolant to another (normally differe t colors) of you flush the system pretty good. If you do not do that you risk mixing the new one with the some of the old one that might still be in the system. If that is the case they might react with one another and generate substances that in theory are not good for the system. I am not an expert so take my advice with a grain of salt
Secret-Temperature71@reddit
Say more about the engine.
Make, year, hours, how long it has been sitting, last time anti-freeze was changed.
I have never seen that kind of degradation.
Has the heat exchanger ever been serviced?
Big_Hunt7898@reddit (OP)
The engine is relatively new Yanmar 2ym15 It runs really smooth actually. No problems what so ever I dont know the last time the anti freeze was changed. But definitely more then 2 years (which is for how long I have the engine) I dont know if the heat exchanger was ever serviced. I would say no. It was not.
ccgarnaal@reddit
Yes, I would not buy demineralized water for a flush. I would fill the engine with regular tap water and the garden hose.
Like really flush it. As in keep the drain open, hose in the radiator and keep filling with the engine running till it's draining clear. But that is more on older engines that are long overdue.