Radiator drain

[timber74wolf]

Was going to drain my cooling system and flush it before I put fresh antfreeze in it, but I cannot figure out how to drain the radiator. I see the drain, but there is not a screw to unscrew for it to drain. Anyone seen this before? With that said is the only way to drain the radiator is to pull loose the lower radiator hose?

[oleshifty]

vaguely remember grabbing mine with vice grips when I changed my radiator, was a 1/4 turn pull straight out deal.



But doing lower hose would work too.

[timber74wolf]

Well after removing my CAI and grabbing a hold of the lower radiator hose clamp with a pair of pliers and pulling with the other hand I finally got it off. To my surprise or rather what I imagined... the amount of radiator fluid that came out was less than I expected. I know I have the smaller radiator, but any idea of how much radiator fluid the system holds? My radiator measures 28 or 29 inches across between the plastic reservoir ends.
Oleshifty... I might just look into that bit of information instead of pulling the CAI again and wrestling with the hose clamp again. Thanks

[oleshifty]

should hold like 2 gallons for smaller rad...3 for larger. Motor holds a bit. If it wasn't completely disgusting, I wouldn't worry about it.

[timber74wolf]

I wouldn't call it completely nasty, but it is pretty rough after a 104K miles on it.

[PitchBlackC3]

There should be a petcock on the driver's side. There is a rubber hose attached that is held vertically along the rad tank by a loop. Pull the hose out of the loop and you can run it down to a catch can. Some aftermarket radiators don't have the petcock.