I have always installed a Prestone "backflushing tee" in the upper
heater hose on all of my previous engines (made by an american, owned by an american, and driven (hard) by an american). Now that I have this 2003 Maxima rice burner, I would like to backflush as I always have with my Amercian made V8's. So where are the heater hoses. The inlet and outlet? There appears to be the one I am aiming for which enters above the thermostat housing. Is this it? I wouldn't want to
cut into an A/C freon line by mistake. Thanks for your help. BTW, this
3.5 engine is one bad MF.

 

there is really no need to install a flush Tee in the cooling system, just change out the coolant every 30,000 miles and it will be fine.I recommend using only genuine Nissan OEM coolant, it is only a couple bucks more but is is recommended by Nissan for you car.

 

I went a purchased a gallon of the precious fluid today for $18.31.
Nice stuff, I hope. So by simply draining the radiator removes enough of the old? There usually is some that remains in the block. I suppose not enough to worry about. Anyone know how many quarts the cooling system holds total (radiator and block)?

 

I called the dealer and he said Prestone or any antifreeze that was "safe for aluminum engines" would be ok to use. I bought a gallon of Prestone and a gallon of distilled water. I mixed them together in a bucket to obtain a 50/50 mix. I used about a gallon on my drain and refill. They don't recommend using tap water because of all the minerals it has.

 

There is a maintenance TSB that states the nissan will only empty and fill the radiator. No more flushing at the dealer.

I would just empty and fill the radiator (and overflow) once every other year with 50/50 mix of a quality antifreeze (prestone) and distilled water.