Good way to contain engine block coolant mess?

Hey guys;

I've been searching around and I find a lot of info on where the engine coolant block drain ports are (I know that part!) and a lot of people saying the best time to drain is with the engine out of the car (also knew that part!). But I've found no information on the best way to drain the engine block coolant without removing the engine and without making a huge mess.

I did an experiment on the passenger side; I put down a drip tray and used a huge oil pan, then tried to use a funnel to direct the fluid into the pan. It was ......... semi successful. If I had used a bigger funnel, it may have worked, but the flow rate was way too high and the coolant just shot out and overflowed my funnel.

For the driver's side, I have no idea. It's just above the cat converter, and I'm pretty sure that's not easy to remove (correct me if I'm wrong). So its either pull the plug and let the fluid spill out all over the cat, or maybe feed a pipe up there and still let fluid spill all over the cat, or ..... ? I don't know, I'd love to hear your innovative solutions :D


Thanks in advance!

Hi there,

I drained the block during my coolant system refresh. I drained the block last, and duck taped a piece of 6 mil plastic under the drain plug and in a vee so that the fluid would drain over and away from the cat etc. I used the plug to partially cover the hole to temper the volume so it wouldn't shoot out too fast.

If you don't see coolant when removing the plug, you may need to clean some crud that blocks the drain hole.

Good luck!:thumbup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DMC-81

Hi there,

I drained the block during my coolant system refresh. I drained the block last, and duck taped a piece of 6 mil plastic under the drain plug and in a vee so that the fluid would drain over and away from the cat etc. I used the plug to partially cover the hole to temper the volume so it wouldn't shoot out too fast.

If you don't see coolant when removing the plug, you may need to clean some crud that blocks the drain hole.

Good luck!:thumbup:

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This sounds like a good plan to me -- thanks for the idea! :)

If you look at Step 1 under Service in this Knowledge Base article on the cooling system:

http://support.delorean.com/kb/a34/cooling-system.aspx

It mentions draining via the two larger hoses under the car first. It does say it will drain everything EXCEPT the engine block. I've not done this before so I can't say from experience, but I was thinking it could get some of the additional coolant out of the way before you get to the messy part with the engine block drains. The hoses underneath being a low point and all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jonathan

If you look at Step 1 under Service in this Knowledge Base article on the cooling system:

http://support.delorean.com/kb/a34/cooling-system.aspx

It mentions draining via the two larger hoses under the car first. It does say it will drain everything EXCEPT the engine block. I've not done this before so I can't say from experience, but I was thinking it could get some of the additional coolant out of the way before you get to the messy part with the engine block drains. The hoses underneath being a low point and all.

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There's a few different sets of instructions floating around, and naturally the one I followed suggested the engine block first :D

What I wound up doing is taking a big zip-lock bag that I had, cut the bottom, and I held the opening of the bag against the driver-side area as I worked the bolt open. The bag acted as a channel for the fluid, guiding it to a bucket I had under the car, and it worked okay. There was some spill, but not much, and I think its pretty much impossible to do this with 0 spillage :P It was sort of a modification of the recommended process because I didn't have a proper tube.

There was a LOT less stuff in there this time, and when I took off the rubber hoses that lead to the water pump there was practically nothing in them, so I think I actually drained most of the fluid in the system through the passenger side port.

If I were going to do this again, I would drain from the larger hoses under the car, then do the passenger side block bolt, then do the driver's side, using my bag trick.

As far as containment goes... I bought two of those "under the bed" plastic storage trays. They were inexpensive and hold a lot. And they're large enough that you don't need any funneling system... Just slide them under the car and go.
https://www.amazon.com/Sterilite-196...age+containers

Cheers
Steven