I have a 496HO in a 2002 Baja 25 outlaw. I'm trying to change the impeller and it's tight. there's a large coolant hose that I want to remove to help me see what I'm doing. I started to remove it and coolant started shooting out. I quickly connected it back and thought I better ask here first. If I remove it, will it drain all the coolant? if so, is there anything special I need to do to replace it. Or just add new coolant back to the system. I know this sounds stupid, but I just want to make sure there's nothing I need to be aware of when adding coolant to the system before continuing.

It will drain the engine down to the low point on the water pump mounted on the engine. It will be about 1/2 the coolant. If you have a tstat with no holes drilled in it you'll need to be careful to keep it topped off next time you run it. It might not want to refill the same amount that drains out and this will be due to an air pocket under the tsat.

Have you ever changed your coolant?

If not, just drain it all out anyway. It's only good for 5-6 years, else it sediments up.

Was able to get it out with out removing the hose, but now that I getting it ready for the summer, I'm going to go ahead and change the coolant also. It's an 02, and I'm sure the coolant has never been changed...by the way, I was changing the impeller as preventive maintenance, and the old one looks perfectly good. I guess better save then sorry.