Hey guys, I've looked with no results on directions on doing a coolant flush. Can someone be so kind to shares link or directions on doing so. Many thanks in advance!
Your best bet is to buy an airlift vacuum evacuator for about 100 dollars at Amazon.com; you will need access to a compressor with 90 PSI. If you go to www.uview.com it will show you how to bleed and refill the system without draining the radiator. A fitting is placed on the coolant tank creating a vacuum with the compressor; the procedure will drain and refill the system in about 60 minutes.
I just need to know how many gallons of 50/50 to buy. Black 360 I'm very interested in your method and do products such as the Robinair 75700 or the Uview 570000 work on our cars? I wouldn't see why they wouldn't....
This might be what you are looking for: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=283428&highlight=coolant And here's a link to the Refill Servicing Table from the Ferrari Workshop Manual A 1.02: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=141906505&postcount=1
I just did a little research on the Airlift, and it seems like a great tool! I have a few questions though. First of all, what is the difference from the airlift, and the airlift II? From just looking at it, it seems that the original is made out of brass instead of plastic, the original has a storage case and more adapters. I'm curious though, is it worth the 50% higher price to get the original, or is the simpler Airlift II just as good at getting the job done? I don't like wasting money, but I do want a tool that actually gets the job done better, and I'm willing to pay if necessary. Also, on the Ferrari, we have a tank that the level doesn't show. How are we supposed to know when to stop adding antifreeze with this unit? Thanks in advance!
The 89 dollar airlift (2) of which you refer to does have more plastic components and probably not designed for multiple use. The 550 with the brass knurl nob (now at Amazon for 109) is a heavy duty unit. I have used it on my rear engine FGT with great success. I would recommend you get two 6 gallon plastic gasoline jugs. As you are running vacuum the system will start purging and eventually collaspe the rubber coolant hoses. Run the dial up to 25 (green mark). I let mine run 40 minutes with a 90PSI compressor. The compressor fitting is disconnected and inlet line reconnected. When you turn the valve open again the vacuum pressure created will take in and replace with new coolant. Have the 50/50 misture already prepared in the two aforementioned jugs. You must close the valve as the first jug gets low on coolant (do not draw any air in). When the dial indicates 0, you have taken in what you evacuated.
That would make sense if the whole cooling system can collapse under vacuum. The only part that can collapse is the rubber parts, so all the radiator passageways, engine passage ways and the water pump components don't cpllapse. I'm shocked that it would work out perfectly that once the gauge reaches 0, the system is filed perfectly. I guess the negative pressure actually IS equal? I wouldn't have guessed that, but I'll take your word for it, If it's good enough for your GT, it's good enough for my car!! LOL I guess, even if its not exactly the right amount, I can top it off at the end, or I can suction some out, right? I have no problem with that, as long as it doesn't get spilled during the fill process.
Leave your heater in the on mode so the heater core vales open up; hook up your battery retainer so you will not discharge the batttery. In many cases your car might run cooler particularly if the process at the factory was rushed and left air pockets inside.
Thanks, I'm definitely getting one. Now I just have to decide on the Airlift original, or the Airlift II. I was leaning towards the original at first, because it is stronger, and has replaceable parts (according to customer support). Unfortunately, after doing research on it, there was a guy who tried both, and said that the simplicity (All self contained, and no hose changes etc.) of the Airlift II won him over! That sounds good to me along with the 50% savings.....hmmm, I'm confused now. I like keeping my tools long term, but even if I get a few changes out of the tool before it breaks, at $80, it pays for itself in no time. For those of you that own either one, what do you think?
Airlift II is just as durable as I had spoken to a person who is a mechanic and uses it daily at his shop. That should be enough for us to know about its durability. My question is what are the specific instructions prior to using the airlift to vacuum the system? Ie: drain with heater on, do we warm the car up ect.,ect.
Has anyone here done a complete coolant flush on their 360? I am told that the only way to change all of the fluid is to remove the front bumper and the driver's seat as well. Is this true? Do you know how much fluid is actually being changed at your Dealer or Independent shop? Is there a tutorial on the flush procedure?
Remove the front under-tray (not bumper), remove filler cap from reservoir, remove plastic bungs from each radiator and allow to drain. In my experience this only allows approx 10 litres to drain (total capacity circa 18 litres). I understand there are drain plugs on each side of the block underneath the headers which can be released to allow more fluid to drain but there is potential for difficulty with these if they've not been undone for many years. One could also disconnect the main supply and return pipes at the front of the the centre channel, I suspect this would allow a little more fluid out. I'm not aware of any reason to remove the driver's seat. Refilling - loosen off the bleeder screw at the top of the thermostat housing to allow air to escape as you fill the system. Tighten off the bleeder screw and run the car with the interior blower set to to high. Release bleeder screw and release any more air. Repeat until there's no more air. Top up coolant as required.
I just did my Scud; a previous poster had issues just using the airlift so I took upon myself to do some research; after taking off the front belly pan, I drove the the rear of the car on to raceamps, used the smaller profile ones to cause a down tilt to the front. Opened the plastic bleeders from each of the radiators. Previous to this step, I ran the car with the heater on and turn it off with the heater function on. After radiators emptied out, I used compressed air with rag (around the mouth of the tank) and forced 20PSI through the resevoir tank (to blow by the thermostat). I then used the airlfit to suck the rest out. Believe there is about one gallon that will stay in the car.
I was watching "Wheeler Dealers" last night (Velocity Channel) and they were changing the coolant on a Triumph T6 and he refilled it with a non water coolant. He said it has a freezing point of -40 C and boiling point of 180 C. He said because there's no water, there's no pressure build up and took the radiator cap off while the engine was at full temperature with no boil over. He also said because it's waterless, there's no rust created in the system which is very important with all the various metals the engine coolant comes in contact with, therefore it's virtually permanant and never has to be changed! I thought this was very interesting. Has anyone ever heard of this type of coolant? And if so, has anyone used it on their 360/430?
Yes, I saw that episode a while back - certainly the lack of water and the lack of pressure is a huge positive. I haven't seen or heard of the product being generally available but it seems like a winner all-round. Many of the small leaks we find on our cars would probably never present themselves for remedy were it not for the 20 lbs of pressure behind them.
I watched that episode last night too, and I am a little skeptical regarding the lack of pressure build-up. Fluids expand with temperature, and if the volume is fixed (as in a sealed engine cooling system) then the pressure will rise as the temperature goes up. What did I miss? Jes
The only thing I can think of is - since it has such a high boiling point, no steam is developed, therefore no pressure?? I googled waterless coolant and found a product produced by Evans. I may run this by Foreign Cars Italia and get their input.
Been looking at it too. I'm the one who tried the airlift without opening the radiator drains with no success. I went the traditional route and everything is good, used the Peak long life 5 year/ 150k mile product. Of course I'll drain it in 3 but nice to know I have the long life product in there.
There is no steam in a traditional water based engine cooling system, unless it is overheating/malfunctioning. Jes
Well......... the only reason there's no steam (or not a lot of steam) is because it's in a pressurised system which pushes up the boiling point. If there was no pressure there would be steam a-plenty. The waterless coolant doesn't even begin to loose molecules to gas until considerably higher temperature, hence there's no pressure built up in the typical car coolant system operating within the typical range.
Exactly, there is no steam in a car coolant system due to it being sealed - it remains in its liquid form. The pressure increase is from the volume expansion of the fluid due to temperature increase, not due to steam. Just like your engine oil volume expands with temperature - the oil does not enter the gas stage either. The "waterless" coolant apparently does not expand with temperature... That is the puzzling part (to me). Edit: maybe this is the wrong assumption on my part...? Jes
This is what I found on Evans own web-site: http://www.evanscoolants.com/evans_waterless_engine_coolants_faqs.html "Evans Waterless Coolant thermally expands to within 1% of 50/50 water based coolants at 100°C so you can use the existing fill level in your cooling system for Evans Waterless Coolant." Jes
David- If you go to ferraridatabase.com, you can download 360 coupe and spider workshop manuals. There is a good procedure for filling the system using the bleed valve, but all they say for draining is to open the radiator drains. For whatever reason, chainging the coolant did not make it into most Ferrari WSMs for the V8s or V12s, so that is one area that has been neglected in the past, to the detriment of the cooling system after the corrosion inhibitors become worn.
