Flushing a 2.2 radiator the easy way

[John Gilbert]

For a tech writer I hate to admit I was a little stumped at first, but I figured out the fastest and easiest way to flush the cooling system on my '00 S-10 with a four-banger. Some of you guys might even be familiar with this truck, it's white S-10 I bought shortly after starting Tailgate magazine, and used in some tech in TG.

Anyways, forget about the draincock you can't get to on the bottom of the radiator and disconnect the lower hose. I dumped the first load of old antifreeze with Prestone fast flush in it, and then repeated the process about ten-times until the water was clear. Antifreeze should be a 50-50 mix, so I added about a gallon and a half of pure Prestone, and it took it to the right mix. I verified I had the right protection by used a Prestone antifreeze level tester.

My next project later today is dump the oil which I always hate because the 2.2 filter is a pain to get to.

That's my 2-cents, hoped it helped someone.

[68C15]

while your at it I would highly suggest you back flush the heater core. these things are at least a 10 hour job to replace so you want to protect it like it you manhood.

[Hottrucks]

fill it with water and some CLR...run for 10/15 min..flush..be sure to turn the heater on HOT alos...do a complete flush with water which means a warm up to get the water out of the heater core also.....

[John Gilbert]

Thanks you guys, yeah I forgot to mention that I had the heater valve wide-open the whole time. The S-10 has an incredible heater, they warm up fast and they'll blast you out of the cab with heat.

The gas prices are starting to climb in So Cal again. I really enjoyed driving my C10 and the '05 GMC Sierra this last year or so, but the little S-10 is starting to look real good.