The Jaaaaag is nearing completion

Kinja'd!!! "Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
05/27/2020 at 11:12 • Filed to: The Hot Mess

Kinja'd!!!5 Kinja'd!!! 6
Kinja'd!!!

I didn’t take any pictures, so here is one of the supercharger pulley getting ready to go on. It... didn’t go brilliantly but I’m calling it a win because the other option is to sob uncontrollably

Oh man I’m close, but yesterday was a tedious exercise in frustration. Also I didn’t take any pictures.

Because apparently the world is gripped by some sort of global pandemic whose primary symptom appears to be the irrational purchase of water and paper goods, I was unable to purchase the required amount of distilled water to do a proper cooling system flush that way I like to. Which is to say my local grocery had a limit of 2 water products per visit, Target had a limit of 5, and Walmart wouldn’t let you order them for curbside pickup. I ended up with 5 gallons from Target as they seems to have the best curbside system, even if it involves using their app.

T hen I popped over to Lowe’ s... and then Home Depot because Lowe’s didn’t have what I needed... to buy fittings so I can add a high flow output to my RO system. As configured my RO filters only outputs through the fridge upstairs, which is painfully slow and requires you to hold something up to the output and periodically release and restart, so I added at the filter output in the basement.

Then off to O’Reilly’s for some coolant... which they claimed they only had in 50/50 and literally had never sold concentrate I must be crazy . After going back to my car and confirming they had concentrate listed at that location, I went back in and the guy found it in back. He at least had the good graces to be sheepish about it.

Home and hopefully not infected with plague, I proceeded to flush with tap water 4-5 times. Turns out even with blowing the cooling system out with air it still manages to hang onto about 1.5 of the 3.6 gallons of coolant between drains... which is inconvenient . Hooking up my vacuum filler seemed to extract some of it from wherever it was hiding, but at the consequence of making some REALLY horrible noises, so I desisted. My best guess is the heater and supercharger systems are isolated enough they’re not draining, but I didn’t have enough give-a-fucks left to look it up.

After the tap water flushes had been good and clear for a while, I started with distilled/ RO water. I did three of those, letting the car warm up between fills to make sure everything was good and circulated. Then, of course, I had to let it cool down a bit before draining. I repeated that until I ran out of distilled water.

Then it was time to fill and I won’t lie... I made a spreadsheet.

Basically the thinking is there is now around 1.5 gallons of distilled water in the system, which means I need to add 1.5 gallons of concentrate to get a 50/50 mix and then top off with 0.5 gallons of 50/50 pre-mix. The actual math was slightly harder using real numbers, but in the end I ended up with what I think is about 43/57 mix and I’m OK with that.

On the bright side that means I should now be able to put the skid plates and front bumper cover back on and start buttoning up the car. Might even be able to get it on the road again tonight or tomorrow!


DISCUSSION (6)


Kinja'd!!! TheRealBicycleBuck > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/27/2020 at 11:26

Kinja'd!!!0

Dang. I’ll admit that I’m one of the heathens with a flush kit installed so I can drain the system, hook it up to a hose, and flush it until the water runs clear. I’ve even been known to just use regular tap water to dilute  the coolant. My truck was treated this way for 18 years and 269,000 miles, so it can’t be too bad. 


Kinja'd!!! Sovande > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/27/2020 at 11:28

Kinja'd!!!1

Why not just flush then use the premix? Is there a benefit (other than a few bucks saved) with using the concentrate? Especially when you aren’t sure of the current current coolant levels after draining ?  I’ve always been lazy and just used the premix.


Kinja'd!!! UserNotFound > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/27/2020 at 11:30

Kinja'd!!!0

O -O -O -O ’REILL Y’ S

damn you


Kinja'd!!! Aremmes > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/27/2020 at 11:39

Kinja'd!!!0

Oooh, supercharger pulley shabu-shabu! Yum!


Kinja'd!!! Jayvincent > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/27/2020 at 12:36

Kinja'd!!!0

I’m totally binge voyeuring your jaaaaag project because it’s raining here and the wrong car is in the garage to get any of my own projects started... but you really need a coolant hydrometer if you are going to mix your own! They are $5 at any autoparts store or Walmart. The key to corrosion protection is to ensure complete protection. Slightly over-rich on coolant is fine, but even slightly lean is going to go badly... and you will have a cool tool forever you can impress your friends with by checking their antifreeze at a moments notice.


Kinja'd!!! Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Jayvincent
05/27/2020 at 12:49

Kinja'd!!!1

Ha fair point. I have one. I’ll pull it out and check my measurements. Enjoy the read and I apologize for all the typos.