Coolant contamination issue

So I successfully (almost) replaced my water pump and thermostat this weekend. BTW, the old pump (82K miles on a '99 996) was original and seems to be in perfect working condition, sounds great. I drained a good 2.5 gallons of coolant out of the drain plug, filtered it as it came out and stored it in a big plastic oil container which was brand new. At the end of the job, as I went to re-fill the system with the filtered coolant, I started pouring and almost immediately, I noticed something solid go into the overflow tank. It took me a second to figure it out, but I think that there must have been some plastic shavings or maybe a small piece of paper in the container. Probably something left over from the manufacturing of the container. I would guess that i had poured maybe only an ounce or so of coolant and I stopped immediately. So the system is pretty much empty ( that part of it anyway) except for an ounce or so of coolant and most likely some plastic. Any ideas on how to best get the plastic out? I'm not sure I really understand the routing of the coolant hoses from the overflow tank to the pump. Also, is there a filter in the overflow tank somewhere? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I don't have a compressor but I suppose I could buy one if I really had to. Oh, yes, I know, I should have used a filter on the coolant as it went into the overflow tank. Lesson learned.

Hopefully it's still in the tank. I'd start by removing that though the foreign matter may flow out when you remove it.

Hi Steve, when you pour coolant into the tank, it goes to the bottom outlet of the tank, which connects to the LOWEST part of the engine next to the thermostat (thermostat is closed so coolant will not go into the big hose on the left). You can disconnect the hoses pointed by the yellow arrows and the remove the drain plug. They are all connected at the very bottom of the engine case and the oil pump console. Assuming your plastic flakes are small enough to be drained out of the drain plug, you can just flush water into the flanges of the two hoses you connected (or flush water into the coolant tank) and collect the water from the drain plug and check for the plastic debris. Another way is to remove the flange pointed by the left yellow arrow and peak in from there to see if there's any debris.

Thanks Ahsai. I guess I will disconnect the hose on the left (in your pic) and flush the coolant tank with water. I suspect that the plastic could be at the bottom of the coolant tank (not sure it went in with enough coolant to propel it all the way to the bottom of the engine). Hopefully it will come out. If I don't see it, would it make sense to then re-install the hose on the left and take off the hose on the right and flush it again via the coolant tank? Would the water then drain out of the outlet at the right yellow arrow (and hopefully flush it out if it is caught between the left and right yellow arrows)? I'm not sure of the size of the plastic, but it may be bigger than just flakes.

How big are the flakes? If you can't find anything after you disconnect the left hose, just leave that hose disconnected and flush water into the tank and everything at the bottom of the tank will be flushed out from that hose. Remember, the coolant tank only has ONE outlet at its bottom when you fill in INITIALLY and that outlet is directly connected to the left hose. You can test it by adding water into the coolant. The water should come out of that left hose.

Btw, the uview airlift tool has a mesh filter at the coolant pick up. Very well thought out and fool proof.

Thanks. Yes, I want to get a uview but I understand that I will need a compressor to use it. I'll let you know how the flush goes.

So I flushed the coolant out as Ahsai suggested and of course it worked perfectly. A small coil of plastic came out of the lower hose along with the flush water. I just drove it with the new water pump in it and the engine does seem quieter. Maybe I did need to change the pump after all.

Quotes source post: 13418050

Glad to hear you got it sorted! Good that you caught it in time before you filled it up all the way to the second outlet of the tank, which connects to the radiators. Could have been a lot worse

Glad you got it out! I've changed two water pumps in the last few months. One had a hitch in the bearings, one seemed find. But both are now good for another 3 years of worry free use until they come back up on the maintenance schedule.