How many litres of coolant?

[gt_addict]

Hi guys,

Could someone tell me how many litres of coolant I need to fill it up? As I'm replacing the water pump and going to drain and refill it.

Thanks,

Peter.

[dieselboy1978]

If you loose all of it (drain down everything) I would say around 2-2.5 litres of coolant and rest water.
If you only loose from water pump then I would just say around 1 litre of coolant and top up with water.

[gt_addict]

Cheers for the reply dieselboy. We were changing the water pump and I had to buy coolant. I bought 3 1litre bottles and it took all of them plus the same in water. Took a while to bleed the git though after refitting and filling. Stubborn ford cooling system lol

[dieselboy1978]

Do a check on the % as too much coolant can do.as much damage as not enough mate. Too.strong a coolant mix can eat water jackets and parts away.

[gt_addict]

It was a 50/50 mix as per the bottle instructions. Used the empty coolant bottles filled with water to make sure it was right

[Adam_84]

What's the bleeding process then once the coolant has been drained? I'm looking to change mine as its been in there a couple years. Does it bleed itself or do you have to do a header tank thing, then fill it start it, warm it up and so on then drain any excess?

[gt_addict]

Me and my mechanic mate filled it up, ran it, then got it warmed up and made sure the heaters were blowing out warm. Mine weren't unfortunately so we had to massage the rad hoses to pump the coolant round by hand until they all got hot. Pain in the arse and took a good 30-40mins to do it. Then I took it for a very good drive using all the revs to make sure it was all working and all the air was out. I've had to top te coolant up once since then as all the air has moved out the system now.

[Adam_84]

Tidy nice one mate, couple other questions is there a drain plug you pull out or is it just pull off lower rad hose and did you say that you'd used roughly 6lts of coolant to replace it all? Just so I know how much to get

[gt_addict]

We were swapping the water pump over so most of it came out then. Take the lower rad hose off aswell and the resovoir cap and let it drain. If your doing it on the road then wash it all away as it was a bit slippery when we did mine.

I did use 3litres of coolant and 3 litres of water but I reckon get four litres of each and you'll be good.

[gt_addict]

Another note. Make sure you wt it up so the temp gauge is sitting in te middle you want the thermostat to open to make it go through the rad

[Adam_84]

That's brilliant thanks for the info