cant put more than a gallon of coolant in the radiator?

[AF Twin Turbo]

new to me 95 ram 2500, doing a full tune-up and fluid change.

I drained the coolant, this stuff was rust colored and disgusting, glad I am doing the change.

Closed the ****, poured in two bottles of the Prestone heavy rust stuff, and poured in almost a gallon of distilled water. The radiator filled up, and i can't cycle it down to add more. I ran the engine briefly, squeezed the coolant lines to get the air out, nothing has helped.

I empty the coolant out of the can and realize only about 2 gallons came out. I see that there should be about 5 gallons of coolant in the radiator, and then more in the rest of the system. So should i drive this for a bit and let it cycle through, and let the cleaner do its thing, or do a full fluid drain from all the hoses and start over again?

 

[nussdawg395]

Start it up and let it run and get hot with the rad. cap off and it will eventually cycle when the t-stat opens up. There should also be a drain plug on the block to get all the coolant out.

 

[ramhunter9]

Start it up and let it run and get hot with the rad. cap off and it will eventually cycle when the t-stat opens up. There should also be a drain plug on the block to get all the coolant out.

Yup , that drain plug is on the pass side

 

[AF Twin Turbo]

ok sounds good, i didn't let it run too long in case there was a lot of air in there, it would overheat. thanks!