Coolant flushing an L45

[scowser]

The manual for my L45 tells me to remove the plug on the bottom of the radiator to drain the coolant. Doing this I get 4½ litres of coolant but the manual says the tractor holds 6½ litres plus one litre in the recovery bottle. I assume the missing 2 litres must be in the engine block, but the manual doesn't make any mention of a drain plug for the block.

If my assumption is correct, then if I don't drain the block, it makes flushing very inefficient and complicates the antifreeze dilution, because there may or may not be 2 litres of water sitting in the block after I've flushed it.

Have I collected all the coolant in the system, or are there 2 litres in the block? Is there a way of draining the block? The bottom of the radiator is below the lower rad hose so I can't do it that way.

 

[AStanton]

I'm no big-time wrench. When I do a anti-freeze change on the tractor or atv, I just change what's in the radiator and upper and lower hoses. I change it every 4 years, and believe that the residual anti-freeze in the block will always be fresh. In my opinion, if you start messin with the engine drain plugs, you are inviting leaks and disaster. This works for me.

 

[scowser]

Do you just drain and refill or do you flush it? If you flush but don't know how much water is sitting in the block, how do you know how much to dilute the antifreeze?

 

[AStanton]

I just drain it. I buy the green anti-freeze already pre-mixed 50-50 for aluminum block engines. My local tractor dealer told me always stay with the anti-freeze your tractor came with.

 

[HEC]

On my kubota m5700 I take off the lower radiator hose and i get almost all of the fluid out as I don't even have a radiator drain on mine , or at least I could never find one .

 

[The Fred]

I would drain it best you can and flush, flush, flush with water (engine running high RPM) then refill with Dexcool longlife GM type coolant. Once accomplished you won't need to flush the system for a long long time.

Check out some of the types of coolant used by car and truck manufacturers, NONE of them use or have not used green crap coolant since 2008.

Fred, running on Dexcool.

 

[Recoveryhill]

I drain, stick a hose in the radiator and flush with engine running for a couple of minutes, stop, withdraw the hose and let the radiator drain finish, close and re-fill with 50/50.

If you're paranoid about dilution below 50/50, just dray and refill. If you do this on a reasonable schedule nothing will be wrong with what's left in the engine.

You're a long way from Liverpool, by the way?

 

[scowser]

Hi folks,

Thank-you for your comments and advice. I've been in contact with Kubota and they are supposed to get back to me. I mentioned that I had initiated a discussion about the subject on this forum and would let everyone know what they advise.

Yes I am a long way from Liverpool. And it's been quite a few years too. Are you also from my home town?

 

[Recoveryhill]

Yes I am a long way from Liverpool. And it's been quite a few years too. Are you also from my home town?

No, I'm an Island man, swallowed the anchor here many years ago, but we get a lot of sailors passing though and I've tipped a few with Scowsers is how I recognized the term. Good boys all......

 

[scowser]

Hi folks,

Well here is the official reply from Kubota:

Remove the drain plug from the bottom of the radiator to drain the 4½ litres. They didn't say it but I would also empty and clean the recovery tank.

Replace the plug, fill with water and run until the top rad hose is hot and the remaining 2 litres is thoroughly mixed with the added water.

Let it cool then repeat this process two more times.

After the third time, for folks in really cold climates like where I am, refill with undiluted Prestone. This will give protection down to around minus forty but it should be checked with a tester to make sure.

I assume that folks in less frigid climes can dilute their Prestone before adding it but if you already have 2 litres of water in the system, I wouldn't add more than one litre of water to your 3 litres of Prestone to give you a 50/50 mixture overall.

In each case the recovery bottle should be filled with the same concentration as you ended up with in the rad and block.

I have some problem with this as it seems to contradict the manual, which says that the antifreeze concentration must not be greater than 50%.

I checked the coolant that was originally in the machine when I bought it and it corresponds to 50%.

Therefore my advice, and what I'm going to do, is follow the procedure of purging three times but add my Prestone such that I end up with 50%.

Hope this is usefull.

Happy July 1st. to all the Canadians and Happy July 4th. to all the Americans.