ok every time i changed the coolant on my former '83, i took it into a shop and had them do it for me for $75. but i think now i would like to start doing it myself on my 84, being the last bit of maintenance i need to learn to do on the FB.

how exactly do i do it? i searched around for "changing coolant" but i couldn't find anything... maybe this would be a good topic for the archive? obviously draining and refilling would be involved... i just need to know particulars.

 

on the bottom of your radiator there is a plug, well on mines theres a plug but i got a new one. If theres not a plug to unscre, take the big hose off the bottom of the rad. All the coolant will go all over. Get soemthign to catch it in. once thats done, with the hose still unhooked start your car and wait for the thermostat to open up, ull get some more coolant comming out, dont let it run to long, but try and see if alot comes out. Once thats done, if your going to flush it as well, hook the hose up and run just straight water through it. Empty as did earlier, do it a few times then refill colant. Thats how we do it atleast

 

EDIT: Jim's Post was not there when I started mine... Stupid Phone

There is a drain plug on the driver sies of the car on the lower part of the engin housing.

The owners manual shows the location of the plug.

I think it is an M10 bolt.

The coolant drains out of there. Do your selfe a favor open the Rad cap first to allow air into the system.

There should be instructions on how to flush your cooling system in the ahys manual as well.

But this will ge you started.

Good Luck

a

 

I got a question about this, instead of running it for what seems like forever in order to open the thermostat couldn't you just take the thermostat out for the flushing procedure? that way it would just cirulate reguardless of temperature. Just a thought. I really need to flush my system, I changed oil coolers and radiators last year, but only filled the system back up once done, never cleaned it out.

 

i dunno, id assume it would work but not sure

 

another question (something i should probably just get a haynes or FSM for) - what is the coolant capacity of a stock '84 SE?

 

10 quarts