89 Volvo 240. Old plastic radiator finally cracked, replaced it and did a flush.

I don't know what the previous owner put in there but appears to be green stuff, old coolant came out pretty clean. I pulled the lower radiator hose to drain it (didn't use the engine drain port cos it doesn't look so good), Heater to max, roughly 8L of fluid came out, must got some left in the old radiator and spilled some. Then I did a flush until the water came out clear. But when I put new coolant in, only about 6L and its full (with new radiator). Engine was running, heater works fine, drove it all over the place, no overheat, no leak, temperature stable, but the fluid only went down a little in the expansion tank (less than 0.5L).

I'm confused, what happened, how come the capacity becomes smaller than before. Maybe the new radiator has less capacity? Maybe some old fluid was inside and has to be drained through the drain plug? Anyone had similar experience before?

Also the newer coolant I put in was yellow ish (little bit green/gold depends on light) color, says on the bottle esigned for Volvo..... and its OAT. I mixed the old coolant and new one in a bottle, nothing happened. I know its better not to mix them but just in case there is remaining green stuff in the system, what will happen if I put the new stuff in.

Thanks.



Here is the coolant I bought.

 

This happens a lot, and don't worry about it. As long a the level is OK, and the heater is right, you are fine. Some mixing will always happen, but you flushed it, what else can you do? These cars especially, more so than newer ones, are very tough and forgiving anyway. I just did the same on one of my 940s, changed from green to Zerex, but I never bothered with the actual volume--you can never flush every drop.

 

G05 or G48 are the optimal coolant's for these volvos. the Volvo brand coolant is (or at least used to be) green, but was a G05 style coolant.

 

The brand is Zerex, G05 is the "model"

 

G05 and G48 are actually specs for antifreeze, Zerex just happens to be the only commonly available brand in the US that sells G05

 

Thanks for the reply. Just the fact that I only got about 6 L back in scares me little bit. My biggest concern was there are water left in somewhere in the system which might affect my coolant:water ratio. Drove it few days now everything looks normal tho.

 

Thanks for the info. I thought the VOLVO coolant was blue? maybe that's the newer one. I looked at the coolant I drained and it appears to be dark green compare with the usual neon green coolant I seen before, maybe that's the old VOLVO coolant?