flushing and refilling cooling system + additives

[menostig]

My bottom rad hose, a piece of vulcoflex, had developed a pinprick hole that only leaked at temperature. Hence difficult to find since water traces evaporated/blew away quick, and tended to only leak while moving. Anyway, I have replaced with a 45 degree bend samco silicon hose.

I now face refilling, so what's your advice on:
1- how to flush out any crap accumulated in 6 years with heater circuit open
2- refill from swirl tank with heater circuit open
3- then run on drive, again with heater circuit open and swirl tank cap off, until gets quite hot
4- then cool and top up
5- repeat 3 & 4 if have to top up more than 1/2 a litre

And what's best to use:
6 - battery type water ?
7 - quality antifreeze
8 - good mixture ?
9 - value of watter-wetter or similar ?

cheers !

Roger

[steve_d]

If you don't have a hosepipe ban then:
back flush the rad with the hosepipe for a hour or so
Back flush the block and if fitted open the drains in the side of the block.
Flush the swirl and header tank (2 mins.)
Refit all hoses and fill up with tap water and run until warm with heater on.
Replace half the water with quality anti freeze.

Job done.

You will only need water wetter if you have an overheat problem which you would be better fixing in some other way than relying on expensive additives.

Steve

[cortina1]

I took out the rad to do the reverse flush, if you can leave in place then do that, it was a pain to remove and refit with all the double skin kit and expndable foam etc. I have put in water wetter but not sure if it makes any difference, one big difference was upgrading my fans to Pacet which have worked a treat - out this weekend sitting in traffic was not the usual drama!