Hey all, new to posting here but been reading up for a while, found out about this place on clubcav. I have a 2004 Chevy Cavalier 2.2L Ecotec with about 49k on it. Anyway, was wondering if anyone knew a surefire way to get all the old coolant out of the system when doing a flush? I am using the Peak Coolant Flush Kit and I have the tee installed on the heater inlet hose on the driver side. I connect the garden hose, take off the lower radiator hose (NOT messing with that damn plastic drain), turn the water on, and start the car. It flushes everything out but the question is, after the flush is complete, I want to fill it with distilled water only and not the tap from the garden hose... how do I make sure the system is completely devoid of any liquid?

I tried turning off the hose, disconnecting it, and leaving the lower radiator hose disconnected to let it all drain out with the car running, in hopes that when the engine got hot enough, the thermostat would open and let the rest of the tap water out of the engine block... When I go to fill it back out, I feel like that did not happen, because it takes less than the specified 10 quarts to fill it back up. I know the thermostat opens at 180F in my car, and I was watching the temperature gauge, it went to around 198 and held steady there for a bit before I turned the engine off... I'm not sure if this is because all the water did drain and the temperature sensor doesn't register the temperature increasing without a liquid coming in contact with it, or if the system has some sort of failsafe that doesn't allow the thermostat to open when it detects low levels of coolant in the pressure tank... Any ideas? Am I over-thinking all this? I tend to do that...

Thanks in advanced .