faithless

Hey guys,

Today I decided to flush and change the coolant in the 944. I read through the Clarks Garage walkthrough and also the Tech Session walkthrough. I'm sure many of you have found out... unless you remove the "batwing" from the bumper on the turbo model, draining the fluid can be quite a messy operation. Clarks Garage mentioned this briefly, and I heeded their advice and taped a small plastic scoop to the edge of the radiator that I cut out of a milk gallon container. Following the directions, I unscrewed the expansion tank cap and let her rip! That turned out to be a huge mistake because all I had on hand was two drip pans and a roll of paper towel. I ended up using about two hole rolls of towel to clean all of the coolant off the floor of the garage.

I was just now redraining the new coolant out of the radiator because I accidentally cracked my stupid blue drain plug... Instead of unscrewing the expansion tank cap, I left it on. With the cap on, the coolant really only trickles out. What a relief!!!!! I spent more time making a nicer little scoop out of my gallon container, and just about every drop of coolant was going from the radiator into my funnel and gallon container. I realized (as I expected) that the coolant was coming out much more slowly because of the vacuum inside of the cooling system created by not taking off the expansion tank cap. I decided I wasnt going to wait 5 hours for it to all trickle out, so I cracked the expansion tank cap a little. Basically I discovered that if you turn the cap to be pulled off, but hold it down with pressure, it will still hold the seal. Then you can sortof twist the cap a little to let some air in slowly. This allows you to control how fast the coolant rushes out of the system, and makes the job MUCH MUCH easier. I was able to get almost all of the 2.5 gallons of coolant out of there without losing much more than a half cup of coolant on the floor... MUCH better than I did the first go round.

Just thought Id throw that tip out there for people that have had trouble before or people that havent done the job before...

faithless

Also, anybody know where I can get a new plastic radiator drain screw? Is this something that any auto parts store might have?

schumi

auto parts stores often stock some common sizes of plastic drain plugs.

adrial

I usually use a wide storage container, and just pull the lower radiator hose...

tifosiman

Why not remove the batwing? It's a total of about 9 screws in the front and (if they are still there) 3 in the back, takes about 5 minutes max.

Porsche-O-Phile

That's what I do, just undo the lower hose and a standard bucket catches 100% of the coolant with no problems.

cas951

What I do is I take a 1 Gl empty container. Lay it sideways and cut the bottom top half of the container so that it will fit directly under the drain plug and under the radiator. Once you place it under the drain plug it pretty much holds itself in place. Place a bucket under the spout of the plastic container open the drain plug and release the pressure from the expansion tank. I hardly loose any fluid.

Jfrahm

two words: wet vac. Slorch it all right out the top.

-Joel.

faithless

lol, ya i have one. I dont know if id want coolant in it tho... kinduf... toxic

faithless

I thought of that but I dditn want to get into something I havent tried before. The screws looked like a pain to get to, and from experience most of the screws on my car are all corroded and a pita to get off.

theedge

I just pull the hose. Not totally clean, but a ton cleaner than that screw.

faithless

I havent looked at the hose. How do you keep coolant from coming out of it when you pull it off???

theedge

Gotta move quick

If you keep the bleed screw closed and the cap on, then it drains a lot slower. I get it all in position and open those up.

Edit: I get a rubbermaid container, big one. I hold the hose over it, and pull down on the corner of the batwing to catch the stuff from the rad. Really there isnt a perfect way to do this without a lot of work and hassle.

faithless

lol, well I emptied it last night so it wont be bad I assume. How do you guys recommend that I get the best (cleanest) flush at home? I think I might go pick up some radiator cleaning fluid to flush it with. I already did it with water twice but I wasnt sure how effective that would be.

Jfrahm

Well I do not mix margaritas in my wet vac very often, so toxicity is not a problem for me. After the coolant it's actually a lot cleaner too.

It works great.
-Joel.