trackdaycareracer

Had the heat valve explode, repaired it with a steel tube, filled up with tap water and drove home from the track. A new heat valve is installed and a quart of Porsche coolant is ready to go in. What is the easiest way to get a quart of water out of the system?

Thanks

bearone

suck it out of the expansion tank or pull the bottom hose.

krystar

well u don't want to just add coolant. u need to flush out the entire system. tap water will leave mineral deposits on inside of your radiator, which will reduce the heat conductivity.

u need to drain all of tap water and refill it with proper coolant mix. either 50/50 antifreeze or distilled water. and a QUART isn't going to fill up anything. coolant system has a capacity of like 2 gallons.

trackdaycareracer

Thing is, when you blow the heater disc valve, you don't empty the entire system (It sits above the water pump). The quart I've got is pure, undiluted, 100% anti-freeze. That's why I want to try with one quart first, measure the freezing point, and adjust if necessary. Tap water here is Long Island pure, so I don't worry too much about deposits.

I had brand new coolant less than two months prior to the "explosion", so I want to try the easy (lazy) way first

bearone: when emptying the expansion tank and re-filling it with anti-freeze, will the anti-freeze mix with the rest of the coolant just by running the engine?

Thanks again

krystar

it'll eventually dissipate in. but the tank isn't part of the flow.

u could try to get some kind of fitting or a small funnel to pour it into the bleeder hole....but that's really jerry riggin it hehe.

Mike C.

Yes the new AF in the tank will mix with the rest. I agree that you don't need to flush. The ratio of AF to water isn't that critical unless you live in Fairbanks (AK).... I've never bothered with distilled water either - city water seems to work just fine.

krystar

well depends on how cold it gets. i think capacity is about 2 gallons

0.25 gal AF +1.75 gal water = 12.5%


so yer fine to about -5 C or 20 F

944Ross

He didn't lose ALL his mix, just some of it. He's looking to bump his % up by replacing one qt of say 30% mix with one qt of 100%

krystar

ahh. i thought he lost all coolant and filled up completely with tap. yea if u just topped it off with tap and still had a good amount of 50/50, then yer fine

trackdaycareracer

Thanks guys, your help is really appreciated

bearone

yes, if you look in the expansion tank, while it running, you see flow into it and have the heater/slider all the way to the right to cycle theru the heater core.

bearone

if the tank isn't part of the flow why does the level come up as you get up to operating temp? isn't that why you add water/anti-freezewhen it's cold? doesn't the tank have both in/out?

krystar

well the two outlets go on either side of the radiator...so it's not really part of the flow as i see it.

well u'd try to avoid opening up the system when it's hot...cause it'd geyser when u open the cap and there'd be coolant everywhere and u'd get steam burns heh.

trackdaycareracer

It's been unbelievably cold here for a few weeks, but there aren't any signs of problems with the coolant, so the input I got in this thread seems to have worked. Thanks

Jfrahm

Yes, topping up coolant is a good thing. Refreshes the additives. Changing it is necessary, perhaps at timing belt time, but if your system is not leaking and a total drain and refill is a long ways off it's a good idea to get a couple quarts of new coolant in there maybe every year or so.

For water, I use distilled water from Wal Mart but my tap water is not municipal.

If you need to make room for some fresh coolant, a suction gun or a wet-vac does a good job.
-Joel.