OK, so this might have been a little more overkill from what it needed to be, but it honestly wasn't that much of an investement and that much work (other than dealing with corroded threads!)

 

So I did this for an ea82 obviously, but IIRC any subaru has these plugs in place to do this modification.

 

OK, so the question is, How often do you swap manifolds, water pumps, cylinder heads... whatever?? Woulden't the world just be a better place if you could drain the engine block of coolant, neatly, painlessly, no muss no fuss?

 

I already know the manifold will come off this engine sooner or later, and I always hate pulling the manifold and letting coolant pour down in to the intake, etc.. not to mention subaru made the cyl head plug on the driverside useless, because if you want to drain that side, it still pours all over the crossmember, exhaust, whatever... either way I wanted to be able to drain the coolant without getting my torso covered in ethylene glycol!

 

I started by drilling the head plugs (on a lathe, I know I am spoiled), and then I tapped the heads to fit standard 1/8 pipe thread, so I could fit brass hose barbs in them.

 

Put on new gaskets and some #1 sealant on the plugs, but used more of a teflon based sealant on the brass threads.

 

Then I ran the hoses out in front at the bottom of the radiator, and joined the two sides with a Tee, and then attached another length of hose with a petcock.

 

And lastly to keep my well hung petcock () tucked up and out of harms way I used one of the subaru "reusable zip ties" to hold it against one of the bottom rock guards.

 

 

So, any comments or further suggestions on the idea? Living in california I want to be able to "Swap" things quick and easy when smog check time comes around.

 

-Mike

So long as you aren't going off-road with that setup I think it's a fine idea. Although I generally just open the radiator drain cock and let enough out that it brings the level down below the coolant cross-over in the manifold.

 

GD

In my experience, if the nose of the car is sitting at any up-angle at all, draining the radiator won't get the level below the crossover. It'll be sitting right at the gasket level, dumping what's left over straight into the intake ports.

That seems to be an effective way of dealing with it.

that's how I tapped my re-circulating block heater into the 'lowest point' on the cooling system, nice documentation - btw-

All I do is pull the manifold, then walk away. Come back in 30min and all the coolant had drained to the propper level, and evaporated.

 

 

Either that, or just pull the radiator. Sooner or later, all the coolant will be gone

 

 

Better hope that hose doesnt get too close to your exhaust. I imagine if you sprung a leak in any of those hoses, it wouldnt take but a half a mile for every last bit of your coolant to drain out.

I just realized one major difference, I only picked up the fitting behind the oil filter. You grabbed both and used a 'T.' I think that'd be worth adding this summer so I am ready for the next ice age. I really like the pictures you took, very clear. I was snickering at your nice clean underside though, I drive gravel and dirt roads everyday... mine is not so clean!

 

You should re-write this and submit it to the 'repair manual' section. It's a good mod for drainage, but it's also a great way to tap into the cooling system for recirculating heaters.