I've got to change out my oil filter adapter gasket today and I was wondering what you guys did to drain the coolant? Also, a friend at work suggested reusing it. Will I have to burp it and everything, too? My 98 got backed into yesterday, and I've got to get my 97 drivable TODAY so I can go to work tomorrow. I'll probably post pics of that later, but I really need to get this gasket done.

Thanks guys.

I just drained the radiator that opened the t-stat housing into a bucket. There is no totally clean way to do it, but that worked for me.

But I never re-use fluids, including coolant.

You may have to add about almost a gallon of coolant back in, after replacing the gasket.

Anti-freeze is CHEAP - especially the standard green anti-freeze our cars are spec'd for. Why on earth would you re-use it?


Make sure to use distilled water if you aren't using pre-mixed coolant.

...I was wondering what you guys did to drain the coolant?
There's a petcock which you can twist open on the bottom passenger side of the radiator.

The big thing to remember...if you take a gallon out you have to put a gallon back in...accounting any spillage....then you know it is full.

Thanks for all your replies guys, but I just ended up getting it done at a service center instead. I usually pride myself in the fact that I do all of my own car work, but yesterday I decided it would be better to just pay to have it done. It HAD to be done yesterday in order for me to drive it to work today, and before I even got everything set up, I broke open two different big cuts on my fingers a couple different times, which just pissed me off. I've found that it's usually not good for me to start something on the car when I'm already pissed off. It never ends well. Plus, it only ended up costing me $90.35. Not too bad.

Again, thanks.

90 bucks?


thats pretty cheap.

Yeah, I was really surprised that it was only $90. It did help that I supplied the gasket, the oil, and the coolant though. There's no way I was going to let them charge me for that stuff after I had already bought it. There's no leaks either, so I'm pretty happy.
Like I said before, I really like to do my own work, but just last weekend I replaced the front pump seal on the transmission and all the rear differential seals on my 98 in one day, and the weekend before that I replaced a lower control arm on the 97 before I could buy it and take it home, and the week before that I replaced both the upper and lower control arms for both sides of the 98, so I'm kinda burnt out on car work for a little while. :eek: