Home Made Coolant Evacuation machine

Ok with winter quickly approaching, for some already arrived.  The temps around here are dropping to below freezing at night and we are expecting our first snow today.  I needed a way to quickly and cleanly remove antifreeze from my Fiero.  Its too low to fit a bucket under it, and even with a bucket you end up making a mess.  So I decided to build my own Coolant Evacuation machine.

The idea is simple, have a device with a small enough hose to be able to open the rad cap and be able to slip past the veins in the radiator tank and sit at the bottom of the rad, then be able to collect the coolant in a clean easily sealable container.

You need a few things before you start.

Shop vac wet or dry, however wet is better in case something goes wrong.
Large Bucket with a lid that seals.  Anything will do so long as it has a large open top, and is strong enough to hold a small vacuum without collapsing.
Extra lid if you want to store the coolant in the same container
Length of rubber hose.  Again something that can hold a small vacuum, but still be small enough to fit down inside a radiator tank
Drill with hole saw / dremel with bits / worst case a razor knife with a steady hand.

You need to make 2 holes in the bucket lid, one for the vacuum cleaner intake, and one for the long rubber hose.  Make the holes slightly smaller than you need.  As you want to have a really snug when you press them into the lid.

Once you have the lid on the bucket, adjust the smaller rubber hose so it is almost touching the bottom of the jug/bucket.  Adjust the vacuum cleaner hose so that is is just barely (1" is enough) protruding into the lid. You don't want the vacuum sucking up the raw coolant.  Now seal the top onto the bucket and you are ready to go.

Open and the front rad cap, (Only the front for the time being)  Start feeding the rubber hose down inside the rad, if you feel it snag DON'T PUSH HARDER or you will bend the cooling tubes in the radiator.  Twist the hose back and forth gently pushing down,  it should go without much effort until you have reached the bottom of the tank.

Now go turn on your vacuum source.   With any luck the bucket you have made will only collapse in a small amount and it should start filling.

Now while this is running go to the back of the car and removed the rear cap.  

Wait until you hear the sound of something like a person sucking the last drops of pop from a container with a straw. 

Presto, you have an empty cooling system, ready to be re-filled. 

Notes.  In the pic I only used a 2.5 gallon container as I was only removing enough antifreeze so that I could add 1 gallon of pure in order to increase the concentration of antifreeze in the system.   If you are going to completely change out the system, I recommend using a 5 gallon pale.

This can also be used for sucking transmission oil, and just about any place you have liquid you need removed. 

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