the engine block coolant drain bolts. yea alldata has a picture of them clearly visible near the end of the headers.... cannot find a thing! i changed my coolant previously but didnt drain out everything and the coolant was more concentrated making the truck run colder then norm. does anyone know where the exact location is for these bolts on each side of the block? i cant even see down the top or up from the bottom of engine with all the lines, hoses,and harnesses. the truck is sitting in my driveway empty of coolant and might rain soon.... what a mess.

 

They are a ROYAL pain to get to. If you really are set on draining the block completely, then you will likely have to disconnect the motor mounts and jack up the engine. Then you can get a wrench on them from under the exhaust manifold.

Honestly though, cooling is controlled primarily by the thermostat. Too much antifreeze will actually hinder the cooling system efficiency.

The way that I flush a radiator is to drain as much out of the radiator and engine that I can. Flush with the garden hose through every opening that you can. Button everything back up without the thermostat installed and fill with water. Run the engine. Repeat the draining. If you have good water, then you can skip the next step, but even so, I recommend using distilled water. The cooling system capacity is 11 quarts. I use 5 gallons of distilled water. After draining the system a second time, button everything back up (no tstat again) and fill with distilled water. Run the engine again for around 10 minutes, then drain it all back out again. Install the thermostat and then pour in one and a half gallons of coolant. Top off with distilled water until full. It helps to have the front passenger side of the truck a bit higher than the driver side and the whole front end higher than the back. This allows air to work its way out to the radiator. Run it up to operating temperature a few times, checking the level in the radiator after each cycle.

 

thanks bro. I found where the bolts were and yea..... royal pain like you said. got banged up trying to unfasten them through the fender well, no luck whatsoever. I was thinking if I can drain out the block another way by removing the radiator hose from the water pump inlet. wouldnt it work just as good? can coolant deteriorate anything such as the timing belt? thanks for the reply.