joefrontier

Well I did it! (V6 SE, 45,000 miles) (not sure if it was ever done before I bought it at 43,000) (old coolant looked clean and no debris)

And boy was it a pain. I mostly used the Hayes Manual to "Flush" the coolant since it made more sense to me and less mess.

By no means is this a NO MESS procedure (I am not a mechanic by trade).

The hardest part that I had to figure out was to get at the engine block drain plugs. If I could make a suggestion that is not in the manuals is to jack up the front of the truck, place on jack stands, remove front tires, remove protective rubber side shield in the wheel housing, set them aside and you will be able to get at the engine block drain plugs better than from under the truck.

Also, get yourself a torque air gun to get those bad boys off. By no means could I even move these out without my air gun. Also get the biggest pan you can under the engine drain plugs because it is going to pour out like Niagra Falls, even after you empty the radiator. Wear eye shields!

I removed the thermostat. Once you get the thermostat out you can replace the hoses (temp) (w/o the termostat) hook up a garden hose to the radiator and run water through and out the top hose that dumps into a bucket. I thought that this would work better than adding water, running the truck, removing the water, adding again, removing it again, and so on. I never had to run the truck to do the flush. I let the garden hose do the flush. I replaced the thermostat with a new one (Nissan OEM) 10$.

Total time - approx 8 hrs. - Took me a while to figure out how to get those stupid drain plugs out of the block. This included cleanup, mixing coolant, etc. However, this was the first time on this truck so I am sure next time will not take as long.

As I don't plan on doing a full flush next time. I'm going to drain the radiator and add new. I am planning on adding the Royal Purple engine coolant additive as soon I test drive it an make sure I have no leaks.