With no drain valve to speak of, is there a realistic way of catching coolant and keeping it clean enough to reuse during a t-stat change?

Not that I am that cheap, but I flushed my dex-cool and replaced with peak less than a yr age(prob 8 months) and 2 weeks ago added a pricey bottle of water wetter. Any ideas?

 

I see no reason to save. But as for the catch to save or at the least not let the dangerous fluids run all over the place... a good 3 gal bucket under the bottom hose, off of the radiator will work pretty well..

 

Strain before refill

 

Good idea, run it through some cheese cloth.

 

Make sure you catch it in a clean container. Do not use the same drain pan you use for engine oil, gear oil, tranny fluid, PS fluid, etc. Even after cleaning, the plastic the drain pans are composed of retain the oils, and it will leach into the coolant. I used a piece of flexible plumbing pipe, and if you are really quick, you can pop the lower radiator hose off and attach the plumbing pipe (the clear/opaque kind) to the radiator with minimal spill, and direct it right into a clean container. You gotta be fast, tho, and you will spill a little coolant no matter what, so have the pan under the car ready to catch all the fluid that you miss.

 

Also, a few years ago when I was in school, I reused the coolant in my 87 GN. I strained it through a coffee strainer. I bought a little coffee strainer/cup thingy that makes individual cups (see here Amazon.com: Plastic Filter Cone #4 Large coffee maker (colors may vary): Kitchen & Dining ) and placed a coffee filter in it, then strained it into a new plastic oil container that I got from a plastic manufacturer. I couldn't even imagine trying to strain over a gallon of coolant through a cheese cloth. Talk about exercises in futility. You will probably spill more than you save.

 

Red Line Water wetter is $10 at Autozone here in Austin. Purple Ice is 19.99. Distilled water is 99cents a gallon. Antifreeze $8 a gallon. Watching you drain and strain and refill out of a bucket, Priceless!

Seriously save your self the aggravation and frustration of all that and just replace with new coolant and water wetter.

 

Love it ralph, besides you should change the coolant every 2 years so you are just loosing one year of life.

 

Ya know, sometimes I get cought up in ideas. I guess thats why I originally posted if there was a realistic way to reuse coolant. The last SUV I had before my rovers had drain valve right on the bottom of the radiator. Made life alot easier(cleaner).

 

This is why when you open the cooling system you replace everything at once, not that coolant it that expensive, just why waste it?
And no, do not re-use old coolant unless you are stranded and have no choice.