Thanks Klaus. That was awesome advice. I opted to reuse, coolant was very clean looking, was pretty viscous, and I own a micro strainer form having had kidney stones years ago. (long unpleasant story). Only a small amount of junk was yielded. There's about a near empty to halfway reservoir amount of distilled water added (pint ?) after running to temp, burping it, and repeating a few times -still might be a burp in there left (?) So that can at least have me rolling for a little while, I think still in the good range of near 50/50 mix, and I can change out coolant sometime sooner rather than later. Much much better to have not made the coolant brand switch.
New hoses & clamps, Had to get clamps from Pep Boys, but stainless and seem OK, tried not to over tighten anything.
I had thought about the thermostat, but forgot all about it -too late now
One odd thing, there was a oily, sludgy, road dirty spot about the size of a soup can lid in the lower right (viewed from front -driver side) which could be leak from trans cool line?? I hope. There was also similar mess on ac condenser. -leak from that? Ugh. I had never shined a blacklight anywhere, but an auto that old had certainly been charged, indicator dye etc, but the prob was never bad enough until the compressor seized this past summer. Maybe indicator still around? Could trans fluid move forward toward the grill into condenser?
So all OK so far with coolant system rehab, but get to worry if ac leaks.
Took about four hours bc I take my time, did hoses, and am in the street not in a garage
Thanks very much