Can only get 2.9 qts when draining engine coolant?

Changed inverter coolant last weekend. Was a snap. Used bleed screw with vinyl tube back into fill tank to bleed off any excess air. Added just as much as I removed. No issues. Took about 15 minutes total.

Engine coolant not going so smoothly. I was only able to get 2.9 qts out. Reservoir is still full. Didn't drain that.

Started by putting car in inspection mode. Let engine run until it was 180 degrees (using scan tool to read coolant temp). While engine running, turned on heat to get coolant flowing through heater core.

Turned car off.

Opened drain plug behind engine. Got about 2 qts out of that. When that was done, radiator level had dropped too.

Next, opened up yellow drain plug on back of radiator on drivers side. Got about 2.9 qts out of that.

Drain plug is about 1/3 up backside of radiator. Doesn't seem like it would drain anything below that.

Either there's still a lot of coolant left in the system or I was missing coolant. Latter not really a possibility as reservoir is still full and coolant was at top of radiator cap when I took the cap off before drain.

Stated capacity is 9 qts. Most report having gotten 6 qts when draining.

References to third drain plug but I have no idea where this is.

Any ideas?

 

Thanks! The pump was good for another 2/3 qt. Nothing came out the radiator drain with the pump but once I opened up the engine drain plug one more time, some did come out. I then turned on the pump until it emptied out.

Is the reservoir included in the 6 qts other have been able to get out?

Time to do the bottle now. I'll report back on that hopefully soon.

 

Also, if I pull the coolant hose at the bottom of the radiator that is below the drain plug, shouldn't I be able to get more coolant out? There's got to be at least a qt in the bottom of the radiator. The drain plug is about 1/3 the way up the radiator.

 

Oh wait, I just realized CHRS *is* the bottle. Do I still need to drain it manually?

 

OK. Up to 6.2 qts. The bottle got a lot more. Obviously since it's the lower drain point in the system, you could theoretically get everything through this.

Is 6.2 qts enough now? This does not yet include the reservoir. Does the reservoir coolant really need to be replaced. i.e. does it cycle through the system if the cooling system stayed full and never had air bubbles?

 

OK. 7.1 qts now by blowing some air into the radiator fill hole with 20 psi air. Assuming this is safe as the airlift I'm about to use to fill the system back up has far more vacuum.

If I do the reservoir, that should put it at about 8 qts.

 

20 psi is what the regulator was set to. I doubt I exceeded 5 as I was just using short squirts of air into the system.

The airlift will suck 25 psi of vacuum. I just used it once without actually filling the system. It collapsed the hoses. I then opened the bottle one last time and got another half qt out. I also my pump to suck out the reservoir. I'm at about 8.3 qts now. I suspect that's more than most shops get.

I have 2 gallons and a third with maybe a half qt, so it's a good thing I'm done as I wouldn't have enough coolant on hand to completely refill the system.

 

BTW, to drain the CHRS tank, it wasn't necessary to take the wheel off. As you can see, removing the under cowl bolts for that section of the fender cover and it just slips down.