I'd stay totally away from dex-cool. It'* so called "advantages" are not worth the extra price and hassle of changing it. The green stuff is fine, but definately flush it out good. BTW there are not any drain plugs on the block. Just remove the bottom radiator hose and do the flush procedure. That will do the block. Then install your new radiator. Refill with the green stuff.

Dex Cool and Green mixed WILL CAUSE MUD. Seen it before....Rather reccently too. From whast I know.....GM has the really HIGH powered solvents that will whip any other solvents *** off the shelve to remove the sludge.....Having GM do it normally runs about $120 something said and done I believe.

OK, assuming your '93 is the same as my '92...the coolant drain for the front bank is shown in this pic as the little, square-headed plug, item no. 27. This is not easy to get at or see, but if you use a mirror and a flashlight, you can locate it. For the rear bank, just unplug and remove the knock sensor, shown in this drawing (not well) as item 17. Can't remember, but I think it has a heat shield around it that you might have to remove. Not real easy, but not really all that hard.



EDIT: If you have mud elsewhere in the cooling system, it is quite probable that you will find a sediment behind these plugs too. If nothing flows when you remove them, poke out the crud with a small screwdriver or rod until you get a solid stream flowing.

Great instructions Bill.. I'm about to flush my coolant myself and would like to drain as much as I can out of the block. There'* some stop leak or something in there that I wanna try and get rid of. Keeping floating out of the system into my resivior and clogging my hose.

Ok guys. Crack in the plastic end housing discovered yesterday on mine. Can we say Ahhhhh Crap!

Bill Buttermore... $100 from which sites? I looked around and best I could find for my 95 SSEi was $200ish...the same Advance Auto quoted me. Mechanic Dan found me one for $150 so I'm running with that. But in the future it would be great to know the sites. Specially for others with the problem.

Here'* my basic plan since I just did a self induced flush when the plastic intake tube let go. Everyone just heard Fais'* eyes pop right. (Passenger side follow little hose from waterpump to intake. The factory piece in the intake that the hose attaches to is plastic..it corrodes..breaks and you lose all ur coolant..big mess...enjoy the tow)

1. Grab a couple of hose pinch off'* from Sears
2. Compare new rad to old rad.
3. Repeat step 2 for another few minutes...LOOK VERY CAREFULLY!
4. Attach pinchers and get petcock to loosen up. Once petcock is loose..close it back up pretty well.
5a. Loosen all lines going into rad (all 100 of them)
5. Pull top rad support off
6. Remove rad cap and open petcock
7. While it'* draining finish all the hoses cept the coolant.
8. Once done draining do the coolant hoses
9. Swap
10. Hook coolants up and leave hose pinchers on
11. Hook it all back up and filler up
12. Remove pinchers...check bleeding and levels on all fluids.

Least that'* my plan...

I'll probably sit back drink a beer or two while mechanic Dan does it cause he'* faster than I am at swappin.

Ok, last night, I put in Prestone Super Flush, and, according to instructions, ran it for 10 minutes at full heater after reaching op temps. Then, I repeated the process with water twice. Then, (almost) took the radiator off. There are total of seven fittings: 2 (pass side) trans lines, 1 (pass side) coolant level sensor, lower rad hose (pass side), 2 oil lines (driver side) and upper rad hose (driver side). I got all but the lower oil line off (didn't have the proper wrench - 20 mm I believe, and working without jacking up - loaned it to my brother).

So far, very easy. Tonight or tomorrow, I plan to take off the remaining oil line and pull the rad out. Thanks Bill Buttermore, but trying to find the plugs might be difficult. Since my rad is out, I plan to take off the heater hose going to water pump and hosing it with water. It should drain out of lower rad hose and/or upper rad hose.

I plan to see if the rad can be repaired. Otherwise, new rad for me.

I just google'd "discount radiator" and got a $149 delivered price on a rad w/ 1 yr warr. from radiator.com The SSEi rad is more expensive than the last one I changed in a n/a 3.8 'cuz it has more fittings and probably more rows. They offered one-on-one help in selecting the right replacement unit.

On flushing, I should have added to remove the therrmostat - FSM recommends, and it is way faster.

EDIT: Radiator express says $119 (overstock) for '93 SSEi direct shipped from NJ to me in IA.

http://www.radiatorexpress.com/produ...aia_id=1247442

Haha...That looks like the same site I checked on yesterday..

Ok.. for a 95 SSEi, Tranny cooler, Oil cooler, Level indicator hole... $141 + 10 shipping.

Great price actually. Best I could do locally w/o Mechanic Dan ($150) to save the day was $220.