Diluting coolant to bleed system

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sarahandthebear
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Diluting coolant to bleed system

Post by sarahandthebear »

Our new water pump has arrived (thanks Brickwerks) but I have a question that yes I know may sound a bit stupid but it's the only part of the bleeding process I'm worried about. This is the first time I have ever drained and bled the coolent on our 1.9 dg 1984, and I'm a little nervous to be honest. After reading the wiki I know how to do the process but I'm a little confused about the coolant. When I top up the van with coolant I mix it 50 50 and add it to the expansion tank behind the number plate. When refilling the whole system do I put in a certain amount of coolant in neat first and then add the water, or do I pre mix it all 50 50 and top it up that way? Some other websites are saying to add it neat whilst others say mix.
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Mocki
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Re: Diluting coolant to bleed system

Post by Mocki »

add the water first , to the main header tank to be sure nothing is leaking , then let some out and add the antifreeze , top up with water as you bleed it
dont mix it first, and dont add the antifreeze first unless you are 100% sure all is water tight and good , or its pouring money on the car park
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Re: Diluting coolant to bleed system

Post by Stesaw »

Mocki wrote:add the water first , to the main header tank to be sure nothing is leaking , then let some out and add the antifreeze , top up with water as you bleed it
dont mix it first, and dont add the antifreeze first unless you are 100% sure all is water tight and good , or its pouring money on the car park

It's almost as if you've done it before!

Cannot be as bad as when I did mine recently... Drained the system and stuck water in it to flush it through, left it like that for about 100 miles. No leaks anywhere and the temperature remained stable.
Drained the water out and filled it up with a nice new mix of coolant and distilled water. Run the engine to bleed the system, bam leaks on the thermostat housing, and a couple of pipes in the engine bay and then the radiator decided then was a good time to fail... I was not impressed... but I didn't lose that much coolant so it wasn't as bad as it could of been.
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