Congratulations on your first car too! Bart has some good advise below. I'm
here in Texas and don't run thermostats in any of my cars however. But for the
radiator, the little plug, usually on the driver side of the bottom of the
radiator, is called a petcock. don't know who named it that bu timages of Beavis
and Butthead pop up, hhuuuuhhhuu. When the car is cold, and has not been
running, I take off the radiator cap, to release any pressure, then crawl under
car and turn the petcock to drain the radiator, I usually put a big bucket to
catch the anti freeze.
When it gets to a trickle, I put the water hose in the top, and turn it on,
not full blast, just well, regular, and crank up the car, as this will flush out
the remaining water in the block trapped behind the thermostat, when the car
reaches operating temp. Let it run for awhile as Bart mentions, until the water
coming out the petcock (have a hard time typing that word without laughing) is
clear as the water coming out the hose.
Note there are some flush kits, notably by some places like Preston, you
can buy for under $10 at auto parts stores, this stuff also releases some of the
grime, rust, and other crap inside the radiator before you flush it, so it will
function like it is supposed to. Good luck with yuor Gremlin, there are a lot of
good people here on this list.
Eddie Stakes'
Planet Houston AMX 713.464.8825 eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.planethoustonamx.com volume of email is currently moderate 5-12 day replies, call if important
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