So I picked up my new to me quad cab 2004 Dakota yesterday and was eager to start working on it. I was told it needed a coolant change so I went ahead and did it for the first time. It all went downhill from there.... I drained the radiator via the plug and got much less coolant out than I expected so I turn the truck on to get the coolant to flow while adding water. Then I filled the reservoir and tried to get that to flow into the system which I assume now has a substantial amount of air in it. The engine rose in temp extremely. How do I correct what I have done? I am a fairly good mechanic but something went wrong here. Any and all help is much appreciated.

 

The radiator drain might be clogged up. Maybe try disconnecting the lower radiator hose, either at the water pump or at the radiator. You should get a lot more water/coolant out of the engine and radiator that way. Then refill with a 50/50 mixture of new antifreeze and distilled water.

To get the air bubbles out of the system you need to let the truck run with the heater set on high until the truck reaches operating temperature, and leave the radiator cap off. When you see bubbles in the coolant when looking down the filler neck you have air in the system. Let it run until there are no more bubbles, then top it off with 50/50 coolant/water again. You might have to do that several times to get all of the air out. Check the coolant levels over the next few days to be sure it is correct and add if needed.

On my truck I had problems when I first replaced my water pump, I did not have the correct coolant to water ratio and it caused my truck to run very poorly. I think it is very important to get the mixture as close as you can to 50/50.

Jimmy

 

I never use the drain on any veh. for any case.. because when you flush it with super flush you cant get all the gunk and junk out of the drain hole like you can the bottom hose.. its the best to use

 

When will the reservoir empty into the coolant system?

 

Should I go ahead and install a flush kit to thoroughly clean out the system? How do I get all of the water out of the system that I have added to try to flush the old coolant out?

 

Typically you should add the super flush to your rad and drive it a bit before you actually do the flush to give it time to circulate through the system and do its job.. Other than that for the Heater core I just connected the out of the core to a water hose and back flushed it becasue it was clogged up and the heater was not working.

 

The overflow does not go from the reservoir to the engine, it flows from the engine to the reservoir. You can siphon it out or remove the overflow/windshield washer tank assembly and dump it out if you want.

When you remove the radiator hose it will drain most of the water/coolant out of the engine and the radiator too. You may not ever get all of it completely out, unless you remove a freeze plug and you really don't need to do that here. Just drain the coolant from the radiator hose, empty out some or all of the overflow and refill with a good 50/50 mixture of coolant and distilled water. Burp the air out of the system, check the coolant level and hiose clamps a few times over the next few days and it should be OK.

You can install the flush kit, I had one on my old Jeep pickup and it worked well but you don't have to have one unless you want it. You can also buy a chemical radiator flush and follow the directions on the bottle if you think the radiator needs to be more thoroughly cleaned. Probably not a bad idea if it has never been done before.

Jimmy

 

The water pump creates a vacuum effect if you will and it will pull the fluid out of the reservoir. This is the case in all cars/trucks that have the seperate fill tank with only a hose connecting it to the actual rad.. When the engine is hot and no longer circulating the fluid will flow back into the tank as the pressure inside builds pushing it back to the tank. Thats why if you look you always have your "HOT" full down towards the bottom of the tank and your COld full at the top.

 

I guess I am wrong. I thought the overflow was the other way around. I guess that is because I have never seen it do that on my truck.

Jimmy

 

When I filled the coolant system with water to help flush out the old stuff after it was drove around and drained out I only got about 2 gallons out. According to the users manual I should have 4.25 gallons. Is this not an issue?