Can I remove coolant from hot engine ?

[CoupeWannabeS2]

Sorry if this has been addressed before on the forum before, but just wondered if its OK for the car if I pull off the lower radiator hose to remove coolant while the engine is hot ? I'm not sure if it may put the engine at risk of being too hot with no coolant in it ? Could it warp the head, or cause other damage ?

Im asking this as i'm currently flushing the cooling system through with distilled water, and found that if you pull the coolant hose off while the engine is warm, you can get more coolant out compared to a cold engine.

So I just thought I would check before doing this again weather I am putting the S2 engine at risk ? Many thanks in advance

[Greg_S]

Well as long as you havent just come back from a full throttle track assault it should be fine. Just let it cool for 10 mins befpre hand

[PeteRR]

I know it's a bit of a ball-ache, but it would be much better just to remove the thermostat to drain and flush the engine block when cold.
You can then check that the small bore hose to the thermostat housing is sound, and renew the stat if it's been in there for a while.

[jameswkr]

When I replaced my radiator, pulling the thermostat only released about 2/3 of the coolant - logical from its position. If the thermostat is working properly I would leave well alone, unless the small hoses are suspect; Pete RRs advice is spot on..any doubt, do it properly. I took a whole day to get mine sorted ( and a week to be able to stand upright again ! ) ABY with aircon.

[CoupeWannabeS2]

Thanks for the help guys, the thermostat seems ok so I will leave it alone for now. When I removed the bottom rad hose with the engine still warm I got about 5 litres of fluid out of the engine.

I have been draining and refilling with distilled water, since I changed the additional water pump last week. My plan being to dilute the old coolant that is left in the system (some sort of blue coloured coolant). Will add the G12+ at the weekend and that should be job done.

Until the next job that is.