[Ronald]

Dan I am on road today will try and answer tonight to help u out or maybe Jon or Jeff might jump in before I get stopped for the night sorry

[Archived]

I found Jon’s posts from November 2010 at the prevost owners group site. He was changing his coolant to the organic acid technology type at that time. After reading them several times, learned a lot of what I was wanting.

1) Use only one drain, the petcock at the bottom of the radiator. No engine block drain, no heating circuit drain.

2) With the engine cool, initially drain the old coolant, expect to get 15 of the 24 gallon capacity out.

3) Refill with fresh clean water, run Detroit, run over the road heat at full blast, run webasto, all for about 15 minutes, let cool, drain 15 gallons. Do this four times.

4) Introduce the cleaner of choice, refill fresh water, perform above run cycle for 60 to 120 minutes, let cool, drain 15 gallons.

5) Repeat step 3. But use distilled water on the fourth cycle.

6) Introduce 9 gallons of coolant concentrate to blend with the 9 gallons of distilled water unable to drain. Add 6 gallons of 50/50 diluted coolant.

[Archived]

On other coaches, and I assume my present one I have had petcocks at the various Webasto heat exchangers. I am sure there are ways to do a more complete job of draining that will eliminate some of the drain-fill-drain cycles i went through but then I would trade that effort for the effort required to purge all the trapped air out if the system was refilled. Opening the bleeder valves helps immensely with total draining, but then you have an issue burping the system or you have to pull a vacuum on it to pull coolant into all the empty spaces.

I don’t know which is the best way to do it. I made a guess that draining, and then filling and draining several times after that would be easier than having the system with air trapped and often having to refill it as it “burps”.

If I do the math, one initial drain, followed by 3 more drain cycles and then the final fill does a good job of removing old coolant. If we start off with a 50/50 mix and drain 15 gallons and 8 remain, the system gets refilled with water so out of the 23 total gallons, only 4 of coolant remain. When we drain again, we are taking out about 65% of the cooling system contents so the second drain takes out 65% of the 4 gallons leaving only 1.4 gallons of old coolant. If we do the third drain we remove 65% of that leaving only about 1/2 gallon. The final drain leaves less than 2/10 of a gallon of old coolant, far less than the 5% allowable in the system when you switch over to extended life.

I can tell you that even with such a small amount remaining the water being drained the last time is still quite pink (I used the Detroit Power Cool).

I made sure to always replace the same amount as I drained and the mount of burping required was minimal.

Where I live in Knox County TN there is no limit to the amount of coolant I can bring to the recycling center, free, so it wasn’t difficult or expensive to properly dispose of old coolant.

[Archived]

Dilution is the solution to changing coolant types

[Archived]

Yes, thanks Jon and Peter. I will prefer the fill/drain cycles rather than risking air pockets to burp. Time is not money since it’s a diy job. It’s ok if it takes two days. Going to Power Cool Plus or Final Charge which are both OAT and on the DD approved list.

[Archived]

ETLC just drained mine last week, pulled a vacuum on the system (which also verifies no leaks if it holds vacuum) , and then, the new coolant is pulled back into the system with no air pockets. Installed Detroit Power Cool Plus Extended Life.

[Archived]

I also have the vacuum system ETLC has and I use it to supplement the drain-fill cycle to minimize or eliminate burping, but I just don’t open all bleeding valves, probably mostly because most of them are just a difficult job to access.

[Jeff]

I am thinking of using shop vac blower to push more coolant out after having drained system. My questions relate to the webasto heat circuits- does the webasto (heat and hot water) have to be energized to open any valves, or does the enginge coolant circulate thru the heat exchangers, just the fans do not operate?

Also if I need to engage the heat systems, the webasto will fire since the coolant is not hot-does anyone know what sensor on webasto to trick to think coolant up to temperature?

I purchased vaccuum fill system to help with air pockets.

Thanks

1996 Marathon 45xl

[Archived]

I’m not sure the entire cooling system can be fully drained without disconnecting hoses, opening some valves or plugs blowing air in, vacuuming the system out, etc. And what might work for a Liberty might not work for a Royale Millennium or Marathon because each converter has their own way to place things and plumb them.

When I needed to do a complete flush such as to switch from a conventional coolant that used SCA’s to an extended life I just drained everything I could then refilled the system with water, circulated it by running the engine and the Webasto until I came up to operating temp, and repeating three or four times.

I may not have removed old coolant or radiator flush by doing that but with draining and refilling multiple times what ever remained was so diluted when I drained the system for the last time it was inconsequential.

My systems were supposed to have about 24 gallons, but the most I could ever drain was 18 without disconnecting hoses or opening petcocks at multiple heat exchangers so if I started with a system that was 1/2 and 1/2 conventional coolant what remained had 3 gallons of coolant after the first drain, 1 1/2 gallons after the next drain, 3/4 after the 3rd drain and 1 1/2 quarts after the 4th drain. I believe dilution is the solution.

[glen]

Jon, just because you own a Liberty doesn’t mean you have to use such a sophisticated vocabulary.

Instead of inconsequential why couldn’t you say it didn’t make a damn !!!

I had to look that word up in my Webster to spell it, you know I’am a former CC owner.

[Dick]

Buddy I keep my goggle on fire when Jon posts and have learned a lot. That being said, at the start of this post,, sure miss ole Peter and his posts. He helped me out a lot on my old coach.

[Archived]

Jon:

What did you do with what … 18 x 4 = 72 gallons of 50/50 down to 10/90 waste coolant? How did you get rid of it?

I presume you used water in your shop to refill, probably softened. Please confirm.

[Chad]

Being a Liberty he used Distilled and it comes from the tap right next to the flush valve 🙂

---

1984 96" with 8V92TA

(remodeled Liberty Coach)

Greenwood, MO

[Archived]

Southerners do not speak English so it is no wonder when Yankees speak they require translation. When we moved south we had to learn the southern language, which by the way is not in any Websters.

Southern folks are always “fixin’ to” or they are “yonder” or they are “pondering”. We are now bi-lingual because we speak in a proper fashion, but we can speak and understand southern.

As to Dick’s concern about proper disposal this is where I have to praise the southern attitude. In NY if a person had to dispose of almost anything except food scraps they had to get a special permission from minions that because of political favors got jobs at the landfills and transfer stations. So nobody could dispose of tires, refrigerators, old paint, drain oil, engine coolant, etc. They had to pay to get rid of that stuff. As a result a lot of those type items found themselves in ditches or dumped on the ground.

Here in Knoxville they take ANYTHING and they have bins or tanks or designated areas for anything that is being thrown away, including tires, oil, anti-freeze, appliances, etc. And it is free. So I keep containers for my drain oil, coolant, oil filters, and anything else I haul to the transfer stations. It is a really good deal and they recycle everything.

As to what I mix with coolant when changing coolant I usually order water from springs in France because my engine likes the quality.

[David]

Dick, it’s probably Perrier water.