How to TEST Your Coolant for the Winter (Before Major DAMAGE is Done)

hey guys chris fix here now it's that time of the year again the leaves are falling it is starting to get real cold out and that means winter is right around the corner so today i'm going to show you guys how to check and test your coolant in your car that way your engine doesn't freeze it doesn't crack your cooling system doesn't burst and you have nice warm heat all winter long inside the cabin of your car so you can stay toasty now for those who are lucky enough to live in an area that doesn't get cold in the winter don't worry this video still applies to you and here is why so coolant is a mix of antifreeze and distilled water and it does three main things it prevents your engine and cooling system from freezing overheating and from corroding so the first thing coolant does is it prevents your cooling system from boiling and overheating boiling water does not cool well the air in the water doesn't cool doesn't have good heat transfer so to prevent overheating we don't want the fluid in our cooling system to boil if we take a look right here you can see our water is boiling but our antifreeze is not under normal conditions water boils at 212 degrees fahrenheit and 50 50 coolant boils at 226 degrees fahrenheit now cooling systems are pressurized if you take a look right here on this reservoir cap it says 21 psi and if you take a look right here on this radiator cap it says 16 psi and when you pressurize liquids the boiling point increases so at 15 psi water boils at 250 degrees fahrenheit and coolant boils at 260. so making sure your antifreeze is a 50 50 ratio is pretty important to prevent it from boiling over like that now the second thing coolant does is it prevents corrosion if we look here we have the water pump from my pickup truck before i owned it the owner used straight water in the cooling system and look at all that rust and that scale in the water pump and the radiator was 20 times worse and what happens is when you have scale and rust clogging up the radiator it prevents good heat transfer and your cooling system is just working harder to keep that engine at operating temperature it could also cause things to fail such as the water pump which is why i had to change it now antifreeze has additives in it that prevents corrosion check out this bolt you can see it's in pretty good condition and then if we check out this bolt you can see it's all rusted water does not have any of those additives in it so stuff will rust in water and then finally if you take a look at this water pump that was in my jag it looks like it's in great shape compared to the one that was in my truck and that's because before the jag got a head gasket leak it was running fresh 5050 coolant and then the last major thing that coolant does is it prevents your cooling system from freezing water freezes at 32 degrees fahrenheit and 50 50 coolant freezes at negative 34 degrees fahrenheit and it's important that water does not freeze inside the cooling system because it could actually break the engine it could crack the block water expands about 10 percent or so when it freezes you can see this used to be at the same level but now this is a little bit higher because this is frozen you might have experienced this when you put a can of soda or a bottle of water in the freezer and it expands and breaks that soda can or the bottle and as you guys know i don't like to just tell you things i like to show you real life examples so what we're going to do is we're going to fill this pipe up with antifreeze a 50 50 mix and we're going to fill this pipe up with regular plain old water h2o and these are metal pipes and we're going to leave them out overnight in the below freezing weather and just wait and see what happens it's amazing so let's fill the antifreeze metal pipe with 50 antifreeze and 50 water good and cap it off and then let's fill the water pipe with well just water good all right so now we have our 50 50 antifreeze pipe and our 100 water pipe and let's let these sit outside in the freezing cold overnight and also i thought it'd be cool to show you guys what happens to plastic as well so let's add a 50 50 mix antifreeze water into one pipe and our plain water into the other pipe and we'll get these to sit outside overnight as well in the freezing cold and let's see what happens this should be good alright so a couple of freezing days later check out our results i love real life tests because look at this so the cap here actually blew off it cracked off from the expanding ice the ice had nowhere to go in here so it had to go somewhere and it broke the metal that's how strong it is and if we take a look at the pvc pipe with the water in it it didn't blow anything apart because pvc has a little bit more flexibility but you can see that nice big crack just picture the plastics in your cooling system that crack would leak out all the coolant and then meanwhile the 50 50 ratio protected these there is no damage at all it's not blown apart you can see there's no cracking or anything so that's why you run a 50 50 ratio now one last thing i want to mention is about freeze plugs because i know i'm gonna get comments on this so this right here is an extra engine i have so we could supercharge the drift car and if we take a look on the side here these right here are freeze plugs this is what they look like they are a press fit cap that goes into the block and they got this name because people running straight water or not enough antifreeze in the winter would come to their car with these on the floor because the ice would actually push them out now this could actually save your engine block from cracking it won't work all the time but that's how it got this name what these actually are are just plugs for the block for when they cast it this is how they drain the sand from the block to make sure you get all that sand out when the blocks are actually made at the foundry so that's how a freeze plug got its name it's not designed to prevent your block from freezing and cracking so don't rely on this instead make sure you have that 50 50 mix so that you don't have any chance of the block freezing so i think you get it it's very important to have that 50 50 ratio of antifreeze to water in your cooling system so it runs properly now let me show you how to test it here are all the tools and products you need and as usual we're using common hand tools and easy to find products that way you can do this exact same thing at home yourself no problem at all the first thing you're going to need is one of these antifreeze testers also known as an antifreeze hydrometer sounds complex it's actually really simple to use and inexpensive this is only five bucks i'll be sure to link this in the description the next thing you might need is a funnel you can use any funnel i really recommend one of these spill proof funnels they work amazing for the cooling system especially if you have air in your cooling system maybe you don't have a lot of heat coming out of your heater that could signify that there is air trapped in the heater core and if so i will show you how to get all that air out in this video that way you have nice warm heat using one of these spill proof funnels i'll be sure to link that in the description as well and then finally we need to get some good old antifreeze we're using peak 10x this is a universal antifreeze meaning it works in any make and model and you can mix it with the antifreeze that's already in there which is perfect because we're going to be topping off the antifreeze we're not doing a full flush now depending on what our tester says we might need to add straight antifreeze we might need to add just 50 50 and top it off or we might need to add distilled water now when adding water to your cooling system it has to be pure distilled water there's no minerals in this if you add tap water if you add water from your hose bottled water any of that stuff that has minerals in it so make sure you find distilled water and make sure your distilled water doesn't have anything that says minerals added for example this water right here you can see it says enhanced with minerals for taste although it is purified water it's not distilled and it has minerals in it that's what we're trying to avoid so i wanted to cover that real quick because i see people add hose water or bottled water to their cooling system all the time and you don't want minerals in there minerals will coat the inside of the cooling system and make it so that there's less heat transfer also it'll increase the rate of corrosion which isn't good so make sure you use that distilled water and with that that's all the tools and products you need i do want to thank peak very much for supporting the video and sending me out the coolant that way i could teach you guys how to properly test your coolant and then top it off with the correct ratio so with that said let's go get started let me show you how to test the coolant so the first car we're gonna test is susan the previously vandalized car that we've been fixing up i got her this summer i have no clue the condition of the coolant system so that's the perfect candidate to check especially before the winter now what we're going to need to do is get a coolant sample to fill this up so you need to find access to the coolant and in this case we have a coolant reservoir right here that we could get our sample from now whenever you're working on the cooling system it's super super important before you do anything make sure the coolant cap is cool to the touch it cannot be hot these systems are pressurized when they're hot so if you remove this when it's pressurized you'll get hot scalding coolant pouring all over you which would not be fun so this cap is cool which means we could remove it then we could grab our antifreeze tester and insert the hose into the coolant reservoir to press the bulb and it's very important we get enough coolant to fill all the way up to our fill line right here you can see right there it says fluid level we need it to that level or higher so that we could get an accurate reading and once we have our sample we could remove it from the reservoir and let's take a look so the way you read this on the side here is your freezing point in blue we have fahrenheit in red we have celsius this is the temperature at which your coolant will freeze at a perfect 50 50 ratio we have negative 34 degrees that's the freezing point so we have negative 35 right there close enough these things aren't crazy accurate anyway so we just want to make sure our arrow here points in this vicinity now before you take this reading there's two things you want to do one you want to make sure you tap on it like this that's very important because there could be bubbles supporting this float and since it works on specific gravity bubbles could be supporting it up and giving you a false reading and two you can see this arrow right here if we take this and we tilt it to the side you can see the arrow is no longer in that crosshair we want the arrow to be in the crosshair which means that our reading is level otherwise our float moves side to side so line up that arrow in the crosshair like that and make sure there are no bubbles which there aren't and then take a reading you can see it's right around negative 34 degrees which is perfect we have a 50 50 ratio of antifreeze to coolant that is what you want to see now while this tool is very helpful you did hear me say it's not very accurate i mean it's only five bucks but there is a good way to test it out to make sure it's at least relatively accurate and that is get a cup of distilled water and we're gonna take a sample of the distilled water because we know distilled water's freezing point is 32 degrees fahrenheit zero degrees celsius so we have a freezing point that we know for sure and with just plain water our freezing point is right there so our arrow should be pointing at that freezing point and it's a little bit below so like i said it's not 100 accurate but it's pretty close so that gives you a pretty good idea of the accuracy of these it's good enough for what we need it for and now with that all done we know we have 50 50 in here we could put our cap back on and make sure you tighten it down all the way just like that beautiful and while we're here the last thing to look at real quick is to make sure our coolant level is at the proper level and if you take a look at the side of the cooling system you can see it says minimum and maximum and then our coolant is right above that maximum line so if your coolant was at the minimum line i definitely recommend filling it up to the maximum line that little amount does make a big difference in the cooling capacity of your system also keeping air out of your system and we are a little bit above which isn't a big deal if it was way filled up to here i'd definitely consider taking some out so you have room for expansion but being a little bit above isn't a big deal but always check this and that's all there is to testing and checking your coolant so you know it's at that optimal 50 50 ratio it takes less than a minute to do it's less than five dollars to buy one of these there's no excuse for you not to check it and it could save you thousands of dollars in repairs especially if that engine block goes bad from overheating or from cracking in the winter now there's one other thing that could freeze in your engine bay that we want to check it's a little bit different it is your washer fluid now if you fill this up with straight water in the summer or you buy washer fluid in the summer from the store they're probably using a summer mix which doesn't protect as cold so you need to definitely make sure that you change this out and what we're going to fill it up with is washer fluid that not only has de-icer in it which will help when the windshield gets icy in the winter but it's good to negative 25 so we don't have to worry about this freezing and cracking also potentially the lines freezing and cracking and the sprayer nozzles freezing and cracking all bad things that we don't want so in order to get all this out of here go in the car and hit the wipers holding this down for about 10 to 15 seconds we'll remove enough washer fluid so that you could add your winter washer fluid so now with our washer fluid reservoir pretty much empty or at least close to it we could fill it up with our winter washer fluid and this will give us the protection we need for freezing and also make it easier to get the snow and ice off the windshield good and the last thing to do is hit your wipers one last time for a couple of seconds to flush the new fluid through the lines and spray nozzles so they don't freeze beautiful so our coolant's good our washer fluid is good we don't have to worry about anything freezing over the winter and we are done with this car all right so now you know how to test your coolant but what happens if your coolant isn't at that ideal 50 50 ratio probably like what we're gonna find in the jag the jag had a head gasket leak or maybe it still has one i don't know i've been using this head gasket sealer i'm making another video all about using a head gasket sealer documenting it showing you guys how i added it and whether or not it works and it's a long-term video so it's going to be over a year giving you an idea if it worked or not but in the meantime what that means is we added a lot of water to the system because the engine was consuming a lot of coolant and it got expensive constantly topping it off with coolant so instead we topped it off with straight water definitely not the best thing to do but we did what we had to do for a car like this so let's go check out this coolant again only remove this cap if the engine is cool which it is and for whatever reason the caps on these jaguars are a pain to remove there we go and now we can take our sample and this is crystal clear so it's definitely mostly water so if you take a look good thing we're changing this out this is only protected to 10 degrees fahrenheit about negative 12 celsius which it definitely gets below that temperature sometimes where i live so that could have been bad now let me show you what we need to do to get this ratio 50 50. first we need to raise the front of the vehicle so you could get under it and i'm using ramps to make it simple but you can jack it up if you want and remember to chalk off the rear wheels so with the car safely lifted up what we're gonna do is we're gonna go underneath and drain the radiator so we can get the correct ratio so let's go get our safety glasses on and i have my drain pan ready and let me go show you where the drain plug is so under the car to orient you guys that way is facing forward you're going to look behind the grill for the radiator that's this silver piece right here and you want to go to one of the corners of the radiator now one of the corners will have the drain valve in this case it is located right there so that is what we're going to have to unscrew to drain the radiator i'm using a flathead screwdriver and be very careful because this valve is just plastic and you can easily strip it so unscrew it and you can see the coolant starting to come out so continue to remove that drain plug the rest of the way and there you go definitely have that drain pan under there aimed properly because this coolant is coming out quick and now we just have to wait until it completely drains and once it's drained screw that drain plug back in and make sure you tighten this but don't go crazy you want it to be snug but don't force it again this is just plastic all right so with our radiator completely drained of coolant that doesn't mean we drain the entire cooling system there's still coolant inside the engine inside the heater core and probably some of the hoses but we did drain it enough that way when we add our new coolant we could get our 50 50 ratio we're looking for now in order to figure out how much antifreeze we need to add we need to figure out how much we removed and to do that you could use old bottles of antifreeze like this you know they're a gallon each and just fill them up luckily i have one of these large fluid storage containers which has the volume on the side so i can see how much coolant we emptied and it also makes it easy for me to bring all this coolant to the parts store to be recycled when we're done so the entire cooling system in the jag is just about eight quarts or two gallons so with about a gallon removed or four quarts now let's figure out how much we need to add to get to that 50 50 ratio the first thing you need to do is check the total capacity of your cooling system in your owner's manual so in the jag the total capacity is eight quarts now just to remind you that coolant was protected down to 10 degrees fahrenheit so if we grab our chart the temperature's over here you can see 10 degrees fahrenheit that gives us an antifreeze concentration of 25 percent and water concentration of 75 percent so out of the eight quarts in the system we removed four that gives us four left in the system and then to figure out how much antifreeze versus water there is the four quarts left in the system times 25 antifreeze gives us one quart of antifreeze and then the four quarts left in the system times 75 percent water gives us three quarts of water so what we want to do is we want to get this ratio to 50 50. this is what's still left in the car and in order to do that it's really simple we just need to add two quarts of antifreeze straight antifreeze concentrate and that'll give us three quarts antifreeze three quarts water 50 50. and then from there we could just fill it up the rest of the way with 50 50. and don't worry i'll be sure to link this in the description so you could easily find it that way you could reference the temperature and your antifreeze and water concentration so let's go fill our cooling system so now grab your funnel and we're going to add our two quarts of straight antifreeze this is that spill proof funnel i was telling you about comes with all these adapters these are the adapters we need for the jag that goes in there like that and then this just tightens down and then finally our funnel connects just like that so now we need to add two quarts of full strength antifreeze this has to be concentrated antifreeze that way we could get that 50 50 ratio and this specific 10x coolant i'm using has 10 times the concentration of corrosion inhibitors in it which is awesome to help prevent the cooling system from corroding so let's finish up pouring those two quarts into the cooling system good and now we can top this off the rest of the way with our 50 50 antifreeze knowing that our ratio inside the cooling system is 50 50. and with the spill proof funnel we could keep adding coolant to fill the funnel up then let's start the car and back off the ramps to get the car on level ground that way the bubbles in the cooling system aren't trapped and can escape now with the car level we're going to let it run until it warms up and that thermostat opens up that's when all the air bubbles will start to flow out we do want to go inside the car and you want to turn your heat on all the way that way if there is a heater control valve it will open up so now the coolant is flowing through the heater core and our air will be nice and toasty once all those bubbles are pushed out and as the car runs you can see the trapped air coming out of the system and those bubbles are being replaced by coolant and after about 10 to 15 minutes of the engine idling our thermostat has opened up because we're at operating temperature and if we take a look here our coolant is almost all the way empty you want to make sure you keep this topped off but i'm not going to because this is pretty much as much coolant as we're going to need our system has been completely bled of air and the reason why that works so well is because if you take a look the heater core the engine the radiator they are all way lower than the highest point of our funnel right here so now we can shut the car off we could get our plunger and plug the funnel that way we can remove the funnel without all the coolant pouring out and then let's remove the adapters from the reservoir and finally let's take a sample to make sure we have that 50 50 ratio and check it out we are at that negative 35 degree protection mark so we now have a 50 50 ratio in our cooling system beautiful now one last thing we need to do don't forget the top off the washer fluid with the winter mix that way it doesn't freeze and if you're wondering what happened to this cat mice were actually chewing away at this i found a little nest inside the engine bay they're trying to keep warm but we'll get that back on there and that'll do for now so there you go that's all there is to checking your coolant and making sure it's that perfect 50 50 ratio so your engine and cooling system is protected hopefully this video was helpful if it was remember to give it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider hitting that subscribe button and as always all the tools and products i used in this video are linked in the description

Channel: ChrisFix

Views: 790,968

Rating: 4.947371 out of 5

Keywords: ChrisFix, coolant, antifreeze, engine, car, how to flush coolant, how to change coolant

Id: 29z94xBdAjE

Length: 19min 26sec (1166 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 07 2020