I replaced my radiator with an aftermarket metal/almumin radiator about 50k miles ago. When I change my coolant last week, I see some rust in the coolant. I suspect it's from the radiator. Will that be any problem?

 

Did you use a 50/50 mixture of coolant and distilled water?

Regular tap water has minerals in it that can cause corrosion. That's why you need to use distilled water.

 

You should not be seeing any kind of rust in your coolant.

I would flush the system out so that no chunks will block any of your jackets.

 

I use bottle water.

Do I need to replace radiator?

 

Bottled water has minerals in it, also. At the very least, flush out the entire system, including the engine block and heater core, and replace with a 50/50 mix of coolant and distilled water. You should be able to find gallon jugs of distilled water at the grocery store on the aisle with the bottled water, and I recommend Prestone coolant.

Just buy a gallon of each product and mix together in a large, clean bucket and pour into the radiator after flushing all the old crap out.

 

What do you use to flush the system? just regular water? or distilled water?

 

You need to use a garden hose to flush the system. You have to remove the thermostat, then put the housing back into place and hook the hoses back up. Set the slider on the heater controls to full hot. Then stick a harden hose into the upper radiator hose inlet on the radiator, and let the water circulate until it comes out of the end of the upper radiator hose (into a container below) fully clear.

After that, there will be some water from the hose left in the block and radiator. Just loosen the drain plug on the radiator, and also remove the drain plug on the block behind the exhaust header. This will let all the garden hose water out of the system.

Then put the thermostat back in, hook up all the hoses, make sure all drain plugs are closed, and fill with your 50/50 coolant/distilled water mixture.

 

just a quick question on this...

is it ok to just pour in 50/50 mix without distilled water? cus i just pured in that mix til it was full and i capped it up....

so is my crap gonna blow up or somthing?

 

Original poster: The aluminum radiator won't rust, it's aluminum. The block will, so the advice on flushing it is your best option. You can use the chemical flushes too, depending on how long 50,000 miles is to you. That way you're getting any built up crap out of the system. Remember not to add cold water to a hot engine! I use Zerex G-05 with distilled water. It doesn't contain phosphates which will eventually degrade the aluminum parts. But regular antifreeze is just fine for these motors also.

50/50 poster: 50/50 antifreeze is already mixed, so don't dillute it more by adding distilled water.