draining down for the winter

[bowesy]

just looking for some advice on draining my camper as it is off road for renovation and it has been for 3 years.my radiator needs a recore and i dont know how strong the antifreeze mix is i was going to drain it and leave it but do i need to do anything else or is it better to keep it so it can be turned over and run occasionly? many thanks dave

[California Dreamin]

Better to leave it stood with a proper 50:50 mix. IF however, you suspect the coolant to be much weaker (10/20%) then you run the risk of ice expansion damage if/when we get a really hard frost. In that case it is obviously better drained.
Incidently...the engine could still be started and run BUT for a very limited time (a minute max)...best senario is stored with correct mix.

Martin

[bowesy]

cheers for the info think ill drain it off and put a proper 50/50 mix in it until im ready to change the rad and thermostat etc can i use the longlife stuff in this?

[California Dreamin]

The Diesel engine variants are less critical on antifreeze type than the petrol wazzerboxers, pretty much any antifreeze would be fine but make sure you give the system a proper flush before the refill. OAT (organo acid technology) long life antifreeze sulphate/phosphate free would be ideal.
I would also point out that they can be run quite safely on a lower concentration 40/60 mix. The reason being that the engine design critically does not directly expose the head studs to the coolant unlike the wasserboxer.

Martin