one of my few attempts to take pics of WIP.

first, make sure the car is cold. this saves you from burning yourself, kicking and screaming later.

locate the after cooler reservoir. sits right infront of the throttle body.


there is two lines, one from the intake manifold. one to the heat exchanger.

remove the line closest to the drivers side of the vehicle. the clamps are a pain in the ass. i used vice grips to get it off.



now. get yourself about 5 gallons of purified water.



you're going to see them all, SAVE ONE GALLON!!!!!

now, take a piece of hose, a little bit smaller then the hose size going to the after cooler. make sure it is long enough to go from the hose, to the gallon of water. you can get a plastic barbed hose end and stick in the end of it. what i used was the catch can line that came with a turbo xs catch can kit. the hose outside diameter is 11/16th's this fits snuggly into the heat exchanger feed line.

do not plug the end of the fill, for this is the drain. you may want to get a large rubbermaid type pan that will hold at least 2 gallons. these can be found at walmart for a couple bucks to hold the anti freeze.





to start the process, roll down the drivers side window, turn the key to the run position while you are standing outside of the car. turning the car to the run position will turn the pump on. the stock settings for the pump will kick it on after 10 seconds. watch it very very closely, it will run for 2-3 seconds after the key is shut off.
now, i stress this very very much, DO NOT let the gallon of water run dry, if you do, the pump will move the water very slowly. it WILL suck that gallon of water dry in the less then 30 seconds.

pull the hose out of the gallon of water, switch gallons to a fresh one, repeat about 3 times.

this is for SUMMER TIME ONLY. if you run straight water in the winter, it will crack the manifold, and you will screw your motor up. do at your own risk.

the reason for the flush is this. water has a lot better cooling properties when it is just by itself rather then mixed with coolant. also, purified water does not have the contaminants that tap water does. it won't clog the pump with deposits.
coolant is more of a anti freeze. hence how it got the name in the first place. it can disipate heat, but it is best left to water alone for added cooling help

 

Approved. I have some suggestions. First, one should probably use a fitting (simple nylon barb from any hardware store) instead of trying to jam the water lines together and hope they are the same size. Second, describe in better detail on how to get the water pump to actually turn on to start with. You really only describe how is turns itself off. Lastly, what happens to the waste water? How do you open the drain? Why aren't you using anti-freeze?

 

added some more!

if anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

 

Nice! I was looking at the Water-Wetter products yesterday... asking myself, "How the hell do I drain the old coolant out and switch it to Purified water & Water-Wetter?"

 

And have a buddy there to watch you the day before and help ya figure it out!

 

can this be done on the 2.2 or the 2.4? if so how?

 

i think it should also be noted that water has no ability to give any anti corrosive, or lubricative protection to your cooling system parts.

its often worth using at least a "little" coolant

 

what about adding water wetter or royal purple-ice instead?

 

That is fine, would be better than water alone @ disipating heat.

 

afaik those additives will definately help with cooling, but i dont believe they will help with protecting your cooling system.

I might be wrong on that one though.

 

nope

unless there is an intercooler/aftercooler system installed

 

you can use a dash of coolant, or what i did, a little bit of water wetter. purple ice = foam, dei charge chiller = foam.

this is not a year round thing. i will be doing this again with a mix of the green stuff, and water when it gets cooler out

 

I use Water Wetter, and it says that it helps prevent corrosion.

 

green stuff is supposedly not good for our cars....

http://www.texaco.com/yourcar/havoli...eepingCool.asp

 

ya our cars run on a coolant called dex-cool. which is still a 50/50 mix all new gm cars.

 

You guys He knows that he can't use the standard Anti-Freeze.... but if he would have said add a little of the "orange stuff" you would have said WTF?

Good write up Squish, we'll be doing this to my car next summer!

 

coolant is coolant. dexcool is a sham anyways. think about this for a second. the aftercooler is a seperate part of the car. you can shut it off. rip everything out, and the car still won't overheat. so running the normal, none chunky green coolant will be fine.

 

So, you removed the one line and connected it via hose to the gallon of water. Where does it drain at? Where you removed the line first at the intercooler fill neck?

 

the line you pull off, is the same line you shove the hose into. it drains out of the open end of the aftercooler filler thing. it makes a mess, be prepared for it.

 

So the line you removed is more of a return line for the aftercooler, except instead of returning it is draining. Got it.

 

not to start anything but the glycol coolant (green stuff) has a completely differen't chemical makeup then the dexcool coolant (orange stuff) the newer cars have differen't coolant and lubricating demands then the older ones that dexcool provides, now im not saying that you can't run glycol in any of the newer cars but you will be replacing things alot sooner then they need to be replaced. i work at a dealership in the shop

 

So, I sat under my hood for over a minute with the key in the ON position. The intercooler never came on.

 

Now how can I get all of the air out of the system?

 

the map i sent you have the pump settings to kick on with the key in the run position. pull the cap. let the pump run, and fill as needed

 

I just did a H/E install. I guess my question is this and I know it sounds Noobish but I just never thought of trying it. With the I/C pump set to come on after 10 seconds and I turn the key to the start position without starting the car will the pump start working after 10 seconds.

Thanks