Heater Winterization

[jburnside]

All,
I have winterized my 2005 Mobius LSV myself this year using CAB's detailed instructions (great job CAB) but I also added the pink RV antifreeze to my engine after I went through the entire draining procedure. I put the plugs all back in and I sucked in a few gallons of the pink stuff utill it was coming out of the exhaust. I made sure the engine was at operating temperature when I did this. My question is; did the pink stuff circulate through my heater core even though I forgot to turn the heater on? If it didn't, does anyone know what lines to remove so I can blow out the heater core?

[snowboardcorey]

Your heater core is a pretty sensitive piece when it comes to freezing. You don't need to turn the fan on to have rv circulating through the system but I would still recommend putting a vacuum on the core to remove as much liquid as possible.

If you can locate the heater box there should be two lines, one going in and one going out. Disconnect the hoses and use a vac or air compressor to remove additional liquid.

[zabooda]

The water always circulates through the core and because of the long lines you may want to blow that part out if you didn't run the antifreeze through for very long. You can disconnect the two hoses at the engine and blow it out.

[jburnside]

Thanks guys for responding. I hoped that just by running the engine it would circulate through the core. I did run it for some time, I actually pulled like 6 gallons of the RV antifreeze through it. Enough to put like 3-4 gallons of waste out the exhaust. I used a large plastic tub to catch it as it came out. Worked pretty well with minimal spillage. I think I'm safe.

Zabooda,
Do you know which lines are directly related to the heater? I couldn't easily figure that out when I looked. I think they are hooked up to the engine near the water pump but I'm not sure.

[zabooda]

You are correct the lines are located near the engine water pump and are like 3/4" lines that go into the bilge and run to the front. The reason I say to run it for awhile is the heater of mine doesn't get real hot when I use it which indicates the flow isn't the best and that makes sense since the path of least resistance is through the engine. Water has a 10% expansion so removing some or all of the liquid is good insurance.

[Sled491]

On my 07 Outback the one heater core line is at the rear of the engine under the exhaust manifold on the drivers side, and the other one is up by the pump. I just blow them out with my mouth. Not much resistance there and I was confidend that I got 99% of the water out.