Draining coolant in Sprint

[flatfour]

Hi there. I'm about to change the coolant in my Sprint for the first time and was reading another thread which says " then wait to the water stops running out and put the drain plugs back in, but make sure they have a copper or brass washer under the drain bolts and do them up to about 15lbs". Where can I get the copper or brass washers from? Cheers

[colcol]

Must be one of the easiest cars in the world to drain the cooling system, there is a drain plug under each bank of the engine, the bolts are 10mm, so you need a 15 or 16 or 17mm socket, [cannot remember which], put drain pan under jacked up car, loosen centrally located drain bolt, and coolant will gush out, [usually all over you], into the drain pan, then take off radiator pressure cap on coolant reservoir, to get the coolant to drain out quicker, when coolant has finished draining on that side, put back raditor cap, and drain other side, you can get copper or brass washers from Repco or an engineering supply place, but take bolts with you, as they usually only have imperial washers, that are 3/8 inch, [.375 inch], where the 10mm bolt is [.393 inch], so make sure the washer will go over the bolt, 10mm [.393 inch] washers would be better, but in Australia, some of these suppliers still think its the 1950's, and we drive Zephyrs, and instead of buying 2 washers, you will have to buy a pack of 20, do up the bolts to 15lbs, and you will be done, Colin.

[flatfour]

Thanks very much. I'll be doing it Saturday so will head down to Repco with one of the bolts. Cheers

[flatfour]

Thanks again for the great advice. I changed the coolant this morning with no dramas. Now I have nice green coolant in the reserve tank instead of something that looked a bit like pumpkin soup!

[colcol]

Be carefull that the new green coolant doesn't go thru and loosen off any remaining sludge and cause a blockage in the radiator, what sort of coolant did you use?, Colin.

[flatfour]

I used Tectaloy 90 Plus. Most of the crud seemed to be in the bottom of the reserve tank. I gave it a good cleanout and flushed water through the system until it was running clear out of both drain holes so hopefully it'll be ok. I'll keep a close eye on the temp gauge for the next few weeks.