5VZ-FE (petrol 3.4litre V6) draining the block

[AdventureWagon]

I've got an upcoming job to replace my knock sensors in my 90 series's 5VZ engine. This involves removing the plenum, intake manifold, and the fuel injection system which are located in the middle of the 'V'. Coolant also traverses through the intake manifold, therefore to remove this I'll have to drain the block somehow. Removing the upper radiator hose will get rid of some, and removing the lower radiator hose will get rid of the radiator's contents, but I don't know how to drain the rest of the block - surely with the thermostat closed the block won't drain through the lower radiator outlet?

There are supposed to be drains on the block but I've read they only drain one side of the block. On Timmy the Toolman's video on this subject he just let the coolant drain into the V (and therefore gravity would just drain this out the bottom) however I'm a bit scared of doing it and getting into the intake of one of the cylinders. I guess it'll just drain into the oil and get boiled away but I don't like the sound of that.

Attached shows the sideways view into the 'V' after you remove the manifold - red are cylinder intakes, blue are coolant passages. This picture is from google images, it's not my exact engine!

Any ideas on draining the block at least below the manifold level?

 

[AdventureWagon]

Think I'm just going to pull the lower radiator hose and let it drain overnight, see what happens, maybe some will drain through the jiggler on the thermostat. I'll have a wet vac on standby for when I remove the manifold just in case the 'V' or a cylinder passage does get coolant in it.

 

[MODVRS]

You could try putting the wet vac on blow on the top hose when you've removed it from the radiator and blow the coolant out of the block through the bottom hose.

 

[AdventureWagon]

Yeah that's an idea I'll try that if I can.

 

[AdventureWagon]

OK so I have a mega tip on how to do this now. If you remove the upper radiator hose from the manifold and then remove the heater hose that connects to driver side (RHD) of the heater tap, then blow through this hose a few times, it will push all the coolant out of the manifold and heads out through the upper radiator hose boss.

After blowing a few times the manifold can be removed with no coolant getting into the cylinder intakes or the middle of the V.