Hi all, I am planning on doing a coolant flush on my truck soon. I can’t seem to find out exactly how much coolant I need to do a complete flush. Do yall know?

 

What year??? What engine??? A/C ???

 

Google would tell you, also in the owners book.

Yes we know, try searching its been posted 1000 times

 

I assume you are going to flush it with water from a garden hose.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
When fully drained about 1/2 of the water will remain in the engine, hoses and transmission cooler, so if you have a 20 qt system (rough number) 10 qts of fresh water remains in the block when fully drained.
Distilled water should be used for the final couple of flushes so that tap water inventory is reduced. Due to chlorine etc tap water will promote internal corrosion in the aluminum components.
Final fill (~10 qts) needs to be with 100% concentrated antifreeze so that when it mixes with the 10 qts of distilled water stuck in the system you will get a 50/50 mix as the final concentration. Future top offs should be with 50/50 mix.

 

I did mine a few months ago, 2020 F150 XLT, I purchased 4 Gallons, and I purchased the Blue Devil Cleaner. I read and did exactly as Blue Devil said. Flush the Old Coolant Out. Garden Hose Cleaned out the Radiator system and Engine Block. Close it off and put in the Blue Devil. Went driving for 1 hour to get it circulated. Got back home. Drained it again. Garden Hose flushed the System for 10 minutes with Heater on High. Flush, Flush, Flushed it until Clear Water and No Smell. Then Final Drained the System. Closed it. Finally installed only 1.8 Gallons of Antifreeze/Coolant 50/50 as per Ford Manual. Burped the System. Monitored it. Went for a Drive and updated my Ford Pass to indicate Coolant Flush at 83,000 Miles. ( Note: I was unaware or forgot that the Engine Block hold the other 50% of Coolant. Something about the Freeze Plug and it further drains the actual Engine Motor Block Live and Learn right? It's all good no harm to Wildlife when I did this).

 

based on post, it sounds like your mix is way off target.

when doing diy flush, it’s impossible to get mix correct if you only use 50/50 coolant.

 

How hard is it to bleed the air from the lines to remove air pockets?

I seen on another post there is a Engine Cooling System Draining, Vacuum Filling and Bleeding procedure.

If it is started for a short period several times will it eventually burp the air through the system, or is it a complicated procedure?
Anything a DIY guy can accomplish with a vacuum cleaner some how?

I am concerned that turbos may require coolant in the lines and don't want to risk overheating turbos, but don't think they would get too hot unless driving, and working them.

 

An old trick that's always worked for me is to leave the overflow cap off and repeatedly squeeze the upper radiator hose hard, rapidly, and repeatedly when the thermostat is open. It will also sometimes work itself out of the system after a while, which will show as the coolant level going down in the reservoir, so you should always monitor the reservoir level for a while after a coolant change.