Im about to change the head gaskets on my car because one for sure is leaking on cold starts. I know to drain the coolant, but do I need to bother with draining the radiator? Will the coolant in there keep running back into the engine or not? Or should I change it all out since its probably dirty anyways? Thanks

Aaron

 

You dont have to, I would just cuz, when you get the H2O pump off jack the back end of the car up in the air as high as it will go, so you can get the bulk of the fluid out of the heads, which means less you have to clean off of the pistons and block later. Be real careful with the steam hose in the back, you might want to take them both off as a whole if the banjo bolts dont come out right away.

 

I would drain it all. It allows for less mess when pulling the heads and when back running again you know you have new coolant. Old coolant over time will eat away aluminum. There are drain plugs on both sides of the block and the rad drains quite easily.

You do not need to remove the water pump to do the heads on an LT1.

As above the banjo bolts at the back of the heads can be a PITA, if you can get one leave the other until you have the heads off.