Coolant service done with Vacum device

[CJ_Boxster]

Went to my dads shop on saturday and had my cooling system placed under a vacum of 50PSI and sucked nearly all the coolant out of the car... so i think haha, The level of the "Old Coolant" tank was at .5 liters and when it was done pulling my coolant out it filled up to the 8 liter mark. Anyone know exactly how much coolant the entire system holds?

When the Coolant was being sucked out, it looked very clear, almost like water with a light green tint to it.

Here are acouple pictures i took while i was there of the vacum device.

Heres the dirty old coolant.. i have no idea how old it is, atleast 20k miles old cause thats how many miles i've put on the car since ownership. Notice how the coolant separated from the brown "matter"...scary stuff


Heres the old coolant tank next to the new coolant that was pushed back into the system.

[blinkwatt]

What did you replace the old coolant with?

Notice anything different after changing the coolant?

[CJ_Boxster]

That im not sure of, I know i seen afew blue coolant container in the back... i think that stuff is called "Peak" but ill have to call the shop and check on that.
I also noticed on the way to work this morning that the coolant temp was alot better than it usually is, Normally the temp settles with the Gauge needle over the "0" but today it was pegged over the "8" on the 180 print.

[CJ_Boxster]

Ok talked to my pops, he said they get the coolant in large 5 gallon drums that are labeled - Trinity Heavy Duty Coolant..... anyone have any info on that stuff?

[dcporsche99]

Cool pics CJ! Nothing like having cool tools and a nice garage to work in....I wonder how much that pump goes for??

[CJ_Boxster]

That one in the shop probably costs around $4k-$6k cause its got this panel with levers that divert vaccum to other tanks and use air pressure to dump the old liquid... pretty neat, i should have taken a picture of it. The fluid change took about 5 minutes to complete.

[dcporsche99]

Don't think I've ever been at a shop for ONLY a few minutes...this is definitely a good case of, "you get what you pay for" !!! :dance:

[CJ_Boxster]

Originally Posted by dcporsche99

Don't think I've ever been at a shop for ONLY a few minutes...this is definitely a good case of, "you get what you pay for" !!! :dance:

I agree, i didnt pay for it either... free of charge, I also tried to install my eibachs but gave up cause i think i didnt have enough tools so i repaired my Pops boss' laptop and hes paying me back by installing the eibachs for me tomorrow. Win Win for me,

[j.fro]

Not to hijack, but Griot's Garage makes a home version extractor pump, and it's under a hundred bucks.

[CJ_Boxster]

I wonder if it works the same way this one does... This one has a plug that makes a seal around the coolant cap... it doesnt actually touch the coolant fluid, then it creates a large vaccum that causes all the fluid to shoot up and get sucked out. Then it holds that vaccum pressure and the technition pulls a lever to switch over to the tank containing the new coolant and then switches another lever that makes it to release vaccum pressure which pulls the fluid out of the large tank and back into the car.

[CJ_Boxster]

Alittle FYI, i called the Porsche Department Service tech and asked how many liters of coolant does a My97 Boxster hold and they said 2 gallons... they didnt know in liters but 2 gallons = 7.57 liters which is just about how much that device removed from my cooling system.

Thats great! I still cannot grasp how 50+psi of vaccum can "pull" fluid all the way from radiators without opening any breather valves or anything. It goggles my mind cause i do not understand the physics behind it.

[Paul]

I recommend that you do it again and use the correct coolant this time.

[CJ_Boxster]

Originally Posted by Paul

I recommend that you do it again and use the correct coolant this time.

Ah, Were you able to find some literature on Trinity Coolant cause i would love to know why it isnt recommended... If yah dont have any, Ill have to look it up, Google didnt return anything so maybe tomorrow when i stop by the shop i can take a close look at the containers the coolant is shipped in for an ingredient list.

For now I am more than happy with how the coolant is working in my cooling system.

[saaber]

Originally Posted by CJ_Boxster

Ah, Were you able to find some literature on Trinity Coolant cause i would love to know why it isnt recommended... If yah dont have any, Ill have to look it up, Google didnt return anything so maybe tomorrow when i stop by the shop i can take a close look at the containers the coolant is shipped in for an ingredient list.

For now I am more than happy with how the coolant is working in my cooling system.

From internet it looks like they are an antifreeze recycler (redistilled ethylene glycol). Green is non-lifetime, yellow is lifetime according to website. The sheet for the lifetime (yellow) says it meets Mercedes fleet specs.?

Note that one of the "specs letter" below refers to the lifetime, where are the green stuff "specs"?

http://www.demennokerdoon.com/Trinity%20N512%20Spec%20Letter%20042705.pdf

http://www.demennokerdoon.com/Trinity%20AF%20N245%20Spec%20Letter%20042605.pdf

http://www.demennokerdoon.com/antifreeze.htm

I'm gonna take a wild guess here but I would guess that green stuff is a long way from Porsche specs? In a short "coolant change interval" it should be fine I would guess but if it were my car I would sure feel more comfortable with g12 or another good, aluminum friendly, "lifetime" antifreeze (still changed out every 2-5 years max of course) in there.

In the first photo I wonder if the "brown matter" is actually orange dexcool, prestone, or other coolant mixed in there? Hard to tell from the photo but just a thought and I would guess it would separate like that.

[Paul]

Here's a discussion from the past:

http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9112&highlight=coolant+replacement