Only use 50/50 if you removed ALL water from the cooling system. When I replaced my water pump, I used about 2.5 gallons of full strength antifreeze to get full protection based on a Prestone coolant tester.
Yes, correct stuff. Color of cap also dictates what's in the container. Pre mixed is the way to go. How much you need depends on how you are going to do the flush. In the OM it will tell you the capacity. I did a very interesting flush with a shop vac. Took off one side of radiator hose and connected the shop vac with the cap off of the reservoir. Sucked from the Radiator, sucked from the hose side. Put everything back and filed with about 3 containers if I remember correctly. You can always buy an extra and return the unused. Better than running short. I'm sure others will chime in with better info, but this worked for me... If you decide to use Radiator flush cleaner, you can use regular water. Thee only problem is if you just drain the radiator after flushing out the cleaner, you leave regular water in the block. Its not a lot to affect the mix, but it will. That's why I decided to try out the Shop Vac and it worked!
I actually put in 2 gallons of full strength anti-freeze and filled up the rest with distilled water. It was weak so I
pulled some out and added over a half gallon more of full strength anti-freeze to get the right concentration.
I did flush out the old anti-freeze with water but I did not vacuum it out with a shop vac. So I had some straight
water in the engine and heater cores.
Did you keep the factory spring clamps on the hoses.... They are way better than the gear clamps in the auto parts stores.. Most people don't know that they can be re-used.
I did save them since they were in good shape. But I will take (took) my chances on a properly installed "quality"
gear clamp.
I had a small leak in my Mercury Tracer. Turned out to be a rusted spring clamp on hose from the water pump
to lower radiator. Could not see it from above or below. Only way to access the clamp was to remove the alternator.
No "gear" clamp is better than a Spring clamp. ( 2 Cents here ) The spring clamp has even tension all around, the Gear clamp does not, and if not properly tightened, you can over tighten and crack the hose connector which is plastic in some areas or you can strip the strap by over tightening and actually have a loose clamp. Once the gear clamp is snug, should the hose shrink/degrade under the clamp, the hose can become loose. The tension clamp will always have even force around the hose.
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