How to pour in antifreeze without turning on the engine

[jharmon203]

I am having troubles getting my engine started (as posted in the electrical section) and I want to prep for having to winterize without running the engine.

I was planning on draining the engine from the two plugs on either side of the engine and disconnecting the garden hose style of connection that connects the manifolds. Once I put everything back together, do I just pour the anti-freeze into each of the hoses on the thermostat housing that isn't connected to the raw water pump?

[Footin]

Drain the block then fill the "J" Hose:

Here is a picture, I do loosen it at the pump first to drain the water out of the hose. Then reattach to the pump and remove at the thermostat housing to fill the block with about 2 1/2 gallons of the pink stuff.

[JohnE]

^^ What Footin said^^ My MCX took just under 3 gallons iirc.

[d2jp]

This^^^ is also my method. I also drain each manifold and the trans cooler. Then I remove the hoses going from T-stat to each manifold and fill ‘till either full or AF runs out of exhaust.

[jharmon203]

Thanks so much. These were going to be my next questions. How do I know when there is enough in the "J" hose? So you don't worry about the pink stuff in the other hoses that connect to the manifolds or does the "j" hose take care of the manifolds as well?

[JohnE]

J-hose fills the block. And even that is debatable on whether it is needed. Plenty of people winterize without the AF. The manifolds are empty, they don't receive antifreeze by filling through J-hose.

[d2jp]

J-hose fills the block. And even that is debatable on whether it is needed. Plenty of people winterize without the AF. The manifolds are empty, they don't receive antifreeze by filling through J-hose.

The manifolds need to be drained, according to my owners manual and I’ve drained water from them for years when winterizing. Adding AF via manifold hoses is totally optional as is filling the J-Jose/block with AF.