Alert to those who will drain their cooling systems.

[EEdmondson]

I spent a couple hours on these threads on the drain petcock Sunday. Mine looks like the picture above posted by Kry226 but the picture is missing the part that the the valve screws into. That part snaps loosely into a square hole in the radiator tank. Both parts came out together when I pried them out with a screwdriver. Install them loosely together. The trick to closing the valve is to pull on it while turning it clockwise. I was pushing it and getting nowhere. After filling the radiator with distilled water and driving the truck, I opened the valve and drained it again and closed the valve and filled with Zerex G05 solution.

I'm sure glad I didn't have to replace a perfectly good radiator!!!

 

[p-Bar]

I knew in advance and wouldn't go there. Pull the bottom hose

 

[Regcabguy]

Somebody posted a NAPA replacement drain valve and I wrote it down.
Problem is I can't remember where I jotted it down.

 

[EEdmondson]

Somebody posted a NAPA replacement drain valve and I wrote it down.
Problem is I can't remember where I jotted it down.

NAPA shows a 605-1372
Dorman shows a 61134
These are different than on my '04.5.

 

[Motorhead]

Somebody posted a NAPA replacement drain valve and I wrote it down.
Problem is I can't remember where I jotted it down.

Funny how that happens to us OLD guys Dave! ........ME TOO! Chris

 

[GardnerM]

Walked out of parts store yesterday to a nice pool of coolant. The one in the radiator would not tighten so I made the mistake of unscrewing the threaded part. Meanwhile ran in and bought a drain pan from them and went out, drained in parking lot. Because it was impossible to dig the square part out of radiator, I stuck a new one in , wiggled it around , but nothing snapped in. So I finally in desperation inserted the square part through the square hole in radiator indexed it and turned the screw down snug but it would still come out if you pulled it. Again and again couldn't get it to catch inside I screwed it down very tight to where you cant pull it out and driving it since. Makes me nervous but ....

 

[jfluffy2]

My did the same thing, it was hard to pull out to get it draining. I had to push in and twist the drain plug, once it snap into place I had no problem installing the drain plug.

 

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

While we're sort of on the subject of replacing radiators, I've been thinking lately that if I ever need to replace my radiator I might be inclined to go custom with one of these guys:

Mesabi Flexible Core Radiators

-Ryan

I realize how old this post is, but just for future injuries, L&M radiator does not make radiators for our trucks. They make huge industrial radiators.