Best way to flush coolant??

Hi there,

The metal water pipe (that runs round the right of the engine) on my 1996 1.8GL has corroded and is leaking coolant so I need to replace it. I'm guessing I will lose a reasonable amount of coolant removing the pipe and looking at the state of the coolant it probably needs changing anyway - doesn't look like G12+ in there and would explain the corroding.

Couple of questions if I may?

1. To fully flush the system will I need to remove the thermostat (hoping not to but guessing it is inevitable)?
2. To flush the system is it simply a case of:
a) running water through the top rad hose into the radiator to flush the radiator and;
b) running water in through the expansion tank to flush the engine (assuming the T-Stat is out)?

Thanks for any advice?
David

Leave the stat in ..thatll need a clean out too..use some RADFLUSH,fill the system with it and clean water,run the engine up to temperature,then dump the system again(into a container..not the drain..lol),then flush with clean water,fill the system with a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water,:beerchug:

Thanks for the advice.

Sorry just one more thing, which pipes do I disconnect then and will water run through the stat if its not open - I assumed it would retain the water that is in the engine??

Cheers

i remove the stat first, usually, then add a flush, run it, drop the coolant, refil with water , run it, drop it, and keep doing that until the water comes out clean. depending on how bad it is, a hose can be used , put into the top hose, bottom hose, heater pipes etc, to get anything else out. put it all back together, new stat, refil with coolant. bleed, test drive, check level.