Best way to drain all of the coolant out of a 312 cl.

[Digwizz]

I made the mistake of pouring a half gallon of green antifreeze into my 312. As soon as it got to the level where I could see it, it was strawberry red and I knew I screwed up. Some say they're both ethyl and it should be ok, some say don't do it. I don't want to take any chances. (Never bothered to look in the expansion tank to see what type it was) :Banghead So I went to my local Cat dealer, picked up 6 gallon of ELC and start the drain, flush and change process. Opened up the draincock on the radiator and drained it, but only about 2.5 gallon came out. I know there should be a couple more gallon in there between the hyd oil cooler, air conditioner, and what's in the block. What is the best way to get it all out without running 50 gallon of water through it and having a large volume of waste to dispose of?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Nige]

According to the book the complete system capacity is 5 gallons or thereabouts - that will include the heater lines. The only way I know is to start disconnecting lines, especially in the heater circuit - be especially careful if the hose runs have a "hump" in them somewhere which means they don't drain completely. It might be better to disconnect them at the heater end. IMHO you should run the complete cooling system (inc. heater lines) filled with water at least once after you have drained as much coolant as you can by removing hoses.

 

[big ben]

It will be very tough to get it all out. Even when every line is disconnected, all drains open and rad removed to remove an engine from any machine the engine still pours almost a gallon out on the floor as you tip and turn it to get it out from the machine.

As Nige said pull off as many lines as you can. If you want you could pull off the heater lines at the engine and try blowing very very low air pressure through one of them (10 psi or less and water valve open) and put the other hose in a pail. Maybe try pulling a pipe plug in the rear of the head somewhere and again blow some air in to push the coolant towards the front of the head/block where all hoses are off. If your lucky there will be a block drain somewhere. If you have 2.5 gallon, maybe a 1/2 gallon of so in heater lines, and get 1/2 - 1 gallon pulling a few more lines that would be about as good as you get without getting super involved.

If the green stuff went in the rad and you didn't run the engine it will be drained when you opened the rad drain/ pull lower rad hose. If you can get 80% or more of the old stuff out I would lose to much sleep over calling it good.

 

[CRAFT]

I know when I had My issues with the cooling system …. (over heating due to clogged Rad …. a side effect of running the Green Methyl Glycol in a Lead based Diesel Rad) …. anyways, I had to replace the rad with a brand-new one ….. Over heating problem cured ……. But what I did was drain as much as I could out of the system, with the old rad in and after that began to run a system flush thru it …. after I ran the chemical stuff thru it I basically only had to deal with one pail of toxic wasted material, put a lid on the pail and took it to our local Bulk fuel Plant where they deal with the stuff environmentally ……… so after the chem (bulk was out) I kept a slow fill flush with fresh water until it ran clean ….. by the time it began/begins to flush it's so diluted that there is not enough harmful waste to do any damage …… I then drained the system completely (in my case removed the rad which was empty anyways) and began to add the Propylene Glycol (the Barney Purple stuff or Red type) …. assuming that it was mostly clear pure water remaining I added the new Anti-freeze at more of a 60/40 ratio not at the recommended 50/50 for the dry system ….. topped it up and tested for the exact temp range we operate at …..

Digwizz : I do believe you were very correct by removing the bad "oops" mixture …. I too was very Warned about mixing the to types, from CAT and other sources, there are some brands/types that say its safe to mix, but not the stuff I buy for my Diesels, ……. VW, CAT, Cummins, and my Kubota in the Bcat …. all of them recommend the Propylene Glycol Type Specifically ! ….

Cheers …. GK

 

[Mjrdude1]

If you didn't run the engine after topping it off, just drain the radiator and refill with correct coolant.