Dont touch the petcock... whoops!

[ShoeterMcgav]

Hey there XJ fam... it was time for me to do a radiator flush, it'll be easy I thought... wrong. Nothing comes easy on the 97' Xj it seems.

Anyhow, I didn't look up the job on the internet, because I've done much harder jobs and this seemed like a layup. Drain radiator, fill with flush and distilled or deionized h2O, run for a few hours drain, rinse, and refill. I decided to grab a new water pump to install after the final rinse as well as a new thermostat and gasket. Should be easy, right?

Those are the exact words to jinx any job on my jeep and surely she was listening! Instead of following the countless warnings online about NOT using the petcock to drain the sytem and instead use the lower hose... I found it on the passenger side and thought "bingo." Drained it in what seemed like forever.. slownbut steady, no biggie. Closed it up and filled it with flush and distilled water.... only to spot a drip!

Ok that's no good. I tried to finagle it and all too soon the drip became a leak! Ooooh shit. Open the petcock again, only this time I remove the whole unit. Whoops. Althoug, I find the oring was fubared, so eh not too bad that it came out I guess.. went on a mission to find new orings. Mission indeed, ace is the place btw.. autozone and orielys had a new petcock that looked nothing like mine after a couple back and forths.

My petcock drain plug is the fancy one.. not really threads exactly, but I mean ya it does thread in.. just wider threadaand only like a couple? Needless to say it's an absolute nightmare to get back in. I've messed with it and cursed it's existence for what feels like countless hours. I'm at a point of just getting a new radiator and be done with it... but still urked that I couldn't get this pos back in and leak free. I know my particular model (the one without the finer threads) is more push than twist? But sob it just will not seat back to how it was before I tried to do a good deed! Now, trust me the flush is long over do. I'm a bit worried about getting a new radiator and not still flushing the system tbh. I likely will have too as I see residue in the overflow and elsewhere. It's not clean by any stretch.

Assuming I can't fix the pos petcock, new radiator it is... should install the new radiator, new pump, and maybe remove the tstat and run for a bit to clean out the system a few times before filling up? Or keep the old pump in to do the flush? I know I'm over thinking it... just dreading what other headaches I might run into as the job gets bigger and bigger like every time I try to wrench on my shitbox

Thanks for any input

#JeepOn

 

[Goose_XJ88]

My $.02 is to RTV the petcock in place and allow to fully cure before messing with it so you are less likely for it to get loose junk in the cooling system. Then continue your fill/flush with the lower rad hose.

Id do that before buying a new radiator. But if you go that route and still have junk in your system, I would run hose water through the system to clear as much junk as possible and then continue to drain/flush/fill with distilled water. Just dont forget to flush your heater core at the same time.

 

[Unclewolverine]

The right stuff silicone will seal anything.

 

[Anak]

I hate the petcocks.

I would get a new radiator with a threaded petcock, remove the petcock and install a pipe plug. End of problem.

 

[ShoeterMcgav]

New radiator is on the way.. wanting to flush the crud out before new water pump tstat and radiator in the most efficient way possible. I have some jb weld, maybe I can just plug it and continue with the flush, even if it drips to circulate as much of the system as I can

 

[ShoeterMcgav]

This style petcock is an engineer getting revenge, I swear... F that guy

 

[ShoeterMcgav]

My $.02 is to RTV the petcock in place and allow to fully cure before messing with it so you are less likely for it to get loose junk in the cooling system. Then continue your fill/flush with the lower rad hose.

Id do that before buying a new radiator. But if you go that route and still have junk in your system, I would run hose water through the system to clear as much junk as possible and then continue to drain/flush/fill with distilled water. Just dont forget to flush your heater core at the same time.

Would running the prestone flush and filled system with distilled for a few days and running the heater periodically not be enough to "flush" the heater core?

I recall doing a flush with a hose on my zj over a decade ago... like medium pressure into the outlet and the inlet or something? But I wasn't having radiator replaced back then iirc correctly (not likely).

 

[tjmotter]

I did a couple of flush cycles on mine and then just because I was curious, I removed the heater hoses and ran water in both directions. I was surprised by how much crud still came out. The good news is that it now blows nice and hot.....