Help!....engine crud

[HI^C]

anyone know what a radiator shop uses to "boil" out a radiator with? think its a caustic solution.

Any kind of brand name on the septic stuff? tried looking for it online through HD and lowes no luck.

12lbs is a little more then i think i want to play with right now. gaskets eater, nice. Well maybe i can pull the radiator and seal it up and soak a bit. THis radiator is nasty inside.

here is the other use for caustic solution i was talking about
http://www.vintagecarclub.com.au/CausticSoda.htm

 

[largenfirm]

WRT the vintage car club procedure, one can use caustic soda for that, but "washing soda" (sodium carbonate) works just as well, and is a lot less dangerous. Baking soda works, too, less well.

I use that procedure (with washing soda) for restoring antique woodworking tools - the active red rust is converted by electrolysis to black rust, which can then be left as-is, or buffed off.

I think the gasket-eating properties of caustic soda are not a concern for the original run-and-flush procedure, but I wouldn't let it sit overnight in my engine...

Kirk


Kirk

 

[Dave E]

so far....

I went to the hardware store, bought some sodium bicarb , red devil lye(its the closest they had) , a steel bristled bottle brush and some 2.5 ft spring steel rods. I tried the rods first, and no luck there, I made it a bit further into the block, but maybe an inch. I tried the bottle brush on the drill. That was a mistake. Bristles everwhere. I will wait on the lye though, as I'm a bit worried on the gasket thing. I'm gonna try the caustic soda rust removal.

I'll let you know how its goes.

Dave

 

[Torskin]

Guys the idea is to do a repeat flush so that each time you get the crap out and so on and so forth, until it's clean. Simply leaving it sitting isn't enough, u must run the engine so that the hot water, detergent and soda can do it's job of removing the rust/dirt/crud etc. The flushing after 20 mins is to remove the stuff found so that it's removed from the system completely. Continue doing it as i have ritten until you no longer have rusty/dirty water, but nice clean water which will indicate that most/if not all of the crap in the cooling system is gone.

There is no ratio of acid to soda, simply add half a cup of acid to water which is poured into the radiator (after it has been diluted in a bucket of water first), pumped around until the engine get hot and then dumped. This will remove any soda that has attached itself to any part of the cooling system. Simply follow the instructions and you should have no problems. Just remember to take care when removing the watrer from the cooling system because it will be very hot and has some chemicals that you don't want to get onto skin/eyes/dog etc.

the caustic soda i am talking about is obtained as flakes. U must add the flakes to a bucket of water then pour the water from the bucket into the radiator and don't forget the detergent. top up and run the engine. the same applies with the acid. first put water into a bucket, add the half cup of acid into it, pour into the radiator and add additional water and run the engine. When getting the caustic flakes use gloves and pick up 1 hand full only, that is all you require. DON'T place flakes or acid into the radiator first or you will damage it meaning most likely a new radiator. Also caustic soda reacts to water and will bubble up very quickly, so u must add the soda to water not water to soda.

Remember read the safety instructions before opening chemicals and using.

 

[Torskin]

I have fixed up my first post with the initial instructions.

 

[Landpimp]

I am pretty sure what you all are looking for whats in the 2 part Prestone cooling system cleaner, the top of the can has one powder, the bottom as the nutralizer powder, oddly I can't find it on the Prestone page but my parts store has it. Can looks like an old school oil can, but taller.