Coolant Flush Confusion

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DylanB

Junior Member
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Jul 25, 2017
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Ram Year
2007
Engine
Hemi 5.7
So I flushed my coolant today and bought 5 gallons of 50/50 to prepare for what I understood to be about a 17 liter coolant capacity in the radiator. When I drained, I'm not sure how much I got out but it wasn't even close to 17 liters. I filled with distilled water, ran the engine with heat on high and drained again. And again. The last time the drained water was pretty much clear. So I filled with my 50/50 and to my surprise, I was only able to use about 2 gallons before the radiator was full. What's the deal here? Could there really be that much water trapped in the engine block? And if there is, shouldn't I have used full strength coolant concentrate since it's going to get diluted anyway with the water in that's in the engine block?
 

bhonshell37

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hemi 5.7
I never use 5050 mix. On my 04 hemi, I have two block drain plugs. I could not brake either one loose.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 

earl.allen

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South Louisiana
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2008
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4.7 V8
I could tell by the color of the coolant the PO of this '08 Ram 1500 4.7L (111K miles) had been using Dex-Cool, so I knew I had to get that stuff out. Yesterday, I did pretty much the same as the original poster did. I had two gallons of Zerex G05 and two gallons of distilled water at the ready. I was able to remove the radiator drain plug and the block drain plug (passenger side only) and removed the coolant overflow/washer fluid tank to get the remaining orange stuff out. I later realized just a bit of compressed air will purge that tank quite effectively without removing it... doh! I filled with just water, drove it with the heater on, let it cool, then drained it again. I was only able to get a little over 10 qts back into the system. I'll check it over the next few weeks to see if any more air purges, but I would be surprised if I get two more quarts in it. I really with I would have tried harder on the driver's side block plug.

I drive a few (really old) Mercedes, so I always have a good supply of G-05; so I may do this again in 6 months to maximum the dilution effect.
 
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