I have no idea when the last time this XJ had a coolant flush so I am doing one tomorrow. I want to replace the hoses too, is there a benefit to buying the silcone hoses or should I just stick with rubber? I don't have access to a hose where I a doing the flush, can I drain the coolant and fill it with water and let it run up to temp and drain it and then fill with coolant? Is there a good chemical flush I should use?

 

Be carefull when opening the radiator pet ****. It's very fragile and if you break it you have to get a whole new radiator! Get a flush kit from a auto part store and use that . Instead of using the pet **** to drain the radiator just pull the lower radiator hose off. I just did mine last week

 

X2 on draining by pulling the lower radiator hose. I don't think I could get to the drain plug if I wanted to. Used the Prestone flush and seemed to do a pretty good job. My Dad swears by the Bar's flush but the Prestone was free so I thought I'd try it. IMO... Biggest thing is to keep flushing until the water comes out clean. May take 2-3 times or may take 10 depending on how neglected the coolant was and if they put any stop leak in it.

 

Don't mess with the petcock, it's easier and faster to pull the lower hose off of the radiator. The petcocks never seem to work anyway.

 

I would use rubber hoses. The silicone hoses will last forever, but they are spendy, and require special clamps.

 

If u don't have access to a hose, do not add any chemical flush to the system. Drain the system by removing the bottom rad hose from the water pump. Remove the heater hose and top rad hose from the t-stat cover. Get a funnel and 8-10 gallons of distilled water. Using the funnel, pour water into the heater hose to flush the heater core. Put the funnel into the nipple on the t-stat cover and pour more water to flush the head/block. Put the funnel in the top rad hose and pour more water to flush the rad.

 

X2 on pulling the lower hose if you have no access to a hose let everything drain out from the radiator and removed the old coolant in the coolant bootle and fill everything with new coolant, as for the hoses the silicone ones are pricey but both rubber and silicone do the same thing depends on you if you want to spend the extra money for better quality