My car is a '99 with 68K .
So I'm driving down to the new Atlanta Motorsports Park on Sat to observe a Tracks Unlimited event to get a feel for things before our upcoming PCA DE weekend in July. Beautiful day, top down, making good time. Finally get off the main road and as I slow down I get a whiff of that unmistakably sickly sweet smell of antifreeze. Check the gauges. Not running hot. No idiot light flashing. "Must be someone else". Next stoplight and I smell it again. Check behind me as I take off and don't see where I'm dripping anything. Still figure I'm good. Get about 5 miles from the track and the low coolant light starts flashing. No problem - only down a tad when that happens. Pull in a store and get 2 jugs distilled water to refresh things after I get to the track and it cools down. I make it to the track and stop to sign the waivers. As I'm signing the kid at the gate says " Hey Mr. - You know you're leaking coolant" . Me - "Yeah - I know - little water pump issue". Him " More than a little".
Well I pull over into a parking spot , turn off the engine, open the door and peak underneath. Sure enough, I've got a waterfall coming down. Anyway - long story short, my very understanding wife drives the truck down to pick me up (can't wait to see what payback she'll want for doing that!). We manage to locate and rent a uhaul auto transporter and haul it home. I've got a new pump on order, read all the DIY's, have the car raised, panels off and feel confident I can get it off. I'm waiting for delivery of a UVIEW Airlift system to help with coolant replacement (what's the fun in DIY if you can't use the money saved to buy more "stuff').
Here's my question. The write-ups for using the airlift system seem to all talk about draining the coolant system before starting the process of creating a vacuum. . I know I'll get a lot of coolant to drain naturally taking off the pump, but I don't want to go to any heroics to drain it all. It's fresh coolant as it was replaced not too long ago when I had to replace the passenger side radiator. For those who have used this device before, will it function properly if I have a good bit of coolant still in the system? Any special suggestions? Operation seems pretty straightforward from what I've read.
Thanks
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