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What size hose do I use to drain radiator?

sleestack

NAXJA Forum User
Location
New York
I'm getting ready to change the radiator and water pump but I need to drain the radiator first. Here in NYC dropping coolant on the street is not an option. I know the radiator has a petcock accessible thru the grill (96 4x4 auto 4.0), but what size hose do I attach to it and how?

I looked over the drain on my new CFS 3 row and it just looks like a plastic butterfly threaded plug. Opening this would just let the coolant dribble out with no way to catch it in a hose. Am I supposed to transfer a petcock (if there is one) from the old radiator to the new?
 
I'd put a catch pan under it and pop the hose off the water pump. I think I used 1/4" ID vinyl tube for the drain, which took quite a while, and didn't fully drain the radiator anyway. Still made a mess when I took the lower hose off, because of that. I left the plug that came with the new rad in it. I didn't want a 15 year old piece of plastic holding the water in my brand new cooling system.
 
I did the lower hose thing last time, if you get caugh dropping coolant on the floor here you will get a ticket.

No back to my question, is there something to attch the hose to?
 
There is a small bit of "tit" on the drain to attach a 1/4" - 3/8" hose. Most of the drains (petcock) on XJ radiators are weak, made of plastic or flimsy metal. It's a 50/50 whether the thing will break. The lower hose is always the best option.

Get a big plastic "tote" that will handle all the errant coolant and slide it under there. Pop off the bottom hose and drin the whole thing into the tote.

You'd likely spill more juice if the drain broke or leaked while you're trying to drain it the right way.
 
I think you'll get fined...dropping any fluid on the floor, or evacuating fluid into the atmosphere just about anywhere.

I think the atmosphere thing is uhh...er...well, I've never heard of coolant being high VOC...freon yes, Prestone anti-freeze...not so much. So how do you do a flush n' fill? Still should be disposed of properly and responsibly.

A siphon hose will not work either. You'd have to get the hose to the bottom of the radiator (and you STILL might spill some)

1. Take it to a garage or 2. Drive it over to Jersey.

:sunshine:
 
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They are death here on spills. I have a big catch pan 2 feet by about 18", I put down an old rubber pickup bed mat and cover that with an old blanket. Drain the coolant through the bottom radiator hose, flush the area in the engine bay with a watering can and save the old coolant into empty plastic jugs. Wash the blanket when I'm done.
I'm lucky, the city has collection points (old coolant, old oil and old batteries) open twice a month.

The last time I had the radiator out of my 88 I put a brass elbow into the pitcock opening and ran a piece of 3/8" tubing down below the dust shield and plugged it with a greased bolt and a hose clamp. A little tricky getting the radiator in and out, but doable.
 
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