Some should-be-simple engine work ends up being a royal pain in the neck. You pull off a cylinder head and coolant runs out of the engine and onto the garage floor where it starts out slippery, then becomes sticky. These messy events made us mad until we got a LiquidVac from Starting Line Products. Its hose feeds into a coolant bottle or engine water jacket.
A few pulls on the tool’s hand pump draws the coolant into its 2-gallon tank. We used it to help swap a head on one of our sleds last year and were impressed how such a simple and inexpensive product can make repairs so much easier. The negative pressure can be used to suck oil or other liquids out, too.
Users just insert the hose, lock the hose clamp, pressurize the tank with the hand pump as necessary and release the clamp. The cavity must be ventilated so air can flow through.
Folks who do engine repairs owe it to themselves to get one of these.