So yeah,

im trying to drain the coolant upon the advice of someone yesterday (that i should do a full tune up: oil, coolant, feul, etc)

I cant find the engine drain plug to drain the coolant out. I drained the coolant from the radiator drain plug and it was a plastic piece (is this stock? i jus used my hand to unscrew it out and drain).

also, whats the difference btwn a (flush) and a (drain and fill)? Is it really important that I do a flush right now? I'm jus draining and refilling the coolant at this point.

Thanks for the help.

-Blown420

 

The engine drain is located on the driver's side of the motor, right where the motor mount attaches to the motor.

When you flush a motor, you drain the system, and then run water through it for a while to help clear out some of the crud, before refilling. If you do that, make sure you turn your heater on, so that you run water through the heater hoses. You can also get a chemical product (Prestone, or similar) that will help clean the system when you flush. Sometimes the chemical products cause pinhole leaks; I guess because the rust/mineral deposits removed by the product are all that's left of the original metal in some places. Or, maybe because the the products are too strong to use on aluminum systems.

 

All this information can be found in the Factory Service Manual. You can download your own copy from the FAQ. It is the most important source of information if you want to work on these cars. The Haynes manual contains basically the same information but in a more condensed and convenient form.