Rad flush, water still brown (2 Viewers)

[Todomevale]

Good morning & merry early Christmas everyone. Have a 1994 Land Cruiser. Started overheating on inclines. Was fine at stoplights/city driving/ freeway but would get warm on inclines. Drained coolant, filled with Blue Devil radiator flush & distilled water. Have flushed about 5 times now but water still coming out brown. Is this typical? I was hoping to see some clear water at 3 flushes. Water is still as brown as the first time I drained it. Have a new denso radiator & thermostat but want clear water before i install. Should I just keep at it?

 

[Broski]

Yup

 

[dansawyer]

Ditto.
There is a chemical baths that will help remove the scale from the block, I would search for one you are comfortable with. Those must be flushed with clear water before adding antifreeze.
I replaced the original radiator and have not had an overheating problem since.

 

[Fj80oregon]

Are you draining out the block plug or the radiator pitcock.

 

[Todomevale]

Are you draining out the block plug or the radiator pitcock.

Both, comes out pretty brown from both

 

[Fj80oregon]

Keep flushing! Preston sells a cheap kit you hook up to a garden hose. Just make sure you don’t keep the system closed with the hose hooked up.

 

[TheBussman]

there are different flushing products out there, some are designed to clean oil out after the coolant has been contaminated with oil, this is the most common product on the market and its basic (soap). the kind of flush product that you need for rust is acidic the Mercedes cooling system cleaner works great or you can just get citric acid from your local beer brewing store I'm 90 percent sure it's the same thing. I've heard alot of great things about ford vc9 but I've never used it myself.

 

[jpoole]

CRC Thermocure is a good cleaning option, particularly if you are seeing rust sediment continue to contaminate the coolant.

If you want to expedite things pull the thermostat, turn the heaters on high, stick a waterhose into the rad fill and then let it idle while blowing water out of the block drain. You can also pull the lower radiator hose and push water through the radiator and block, etc. Flushing with the water hose to get the chunks/sediment/etc. out before you use other cleaners can help get things clean more quickly. The hard water (and boiler scale/corrosion) isn't an issue if it's only in there temporarily and if a cleaner flush follows/etc.

After I've flushed with tap water I'll typically blow the system out with a shop vac that has the hose on the outlet. Be sure the shop vac and it's hose are clean before doing this so that you don't blow debris into the engine. The low pressure and high volume air flow is safe and does a good job of moving the water through and out of the system. If you've warmed the engine up before doing this it will get dry that much quicker. I usually pull the upper rad hose loose on the rad. end only and then stick the shop vac into that hose, then I'll pull rearward end of the longer, lower rad hose and let the water run out of that low point followed by the air/etc. You can also stick the vac. hose on other inlets/outlets to reverse air flow and get things pretty dry before a refill.

Don't forget to remove the overflow and clean it out really well also. It likes to collect sediment/etc.

 

[tmxmotorsports]

As everyone else has said just keep flushing and don't put your new radiator in until it's all good.

 

[77mustard40]

X2 on the Thermocure. I drained then filled with distilled & Thermocure, ran it for a day then flushed until clear. Make sure heaters are open so you are getting that stuff everywhere. Filled with distilled and ran it again, drained clear so I filled with coolant and distilled. Flush it until you know it’s clean.

 

[TXMeatball]

Took like 25-30 gallons of flushing after running thermacure to get my block running clear.

 

[SpenserAK]

Whenever I hear someone utter a phrase such as "going to brown-town," this is what I think of. But I keep it to myself, because they don't want to hear about flushing a cooling system in that moment.

 

[LongDuck]

GO, CLEVELAND...!?!?

 

[Todomevale]

Great thanks guys, gonna drain it again tomorrow & hook up a garden hose & give it hell. I'll let you guys know what happens. Many thanks for the replies. Merry Christmas

 

[Njck22]

I think my PO dumped about 15 bottles of that stop leak crap in the cooling system of my truck. This was not rust. this was whatever polymer that bottled stuff uses. Basically every surface of the cooling system was caked with this stuff. heater core was a lost cause. No amount of flushing would get it to run clear. Called it quits and filled it with anti-freeze. No issues in 2 years.

 

[Timpanogos Slim]

When i did mine 5 years ago i used l think a liqui-moly product that was mostly like a blend of sodium citrate and dishwasher detergent?

Wasn't that bad.

 

[Devils Paw 80]

With my 1990 4Runner a couple years ago, the coolant didn’t clear up until I replaced the original radiator.
It was apparently the source of all the rust.

 

[lp2k]

+1 Thermocure. I had to run about 40 gallons of water (draining from the block and the radiator) do not let it sit over night, you have to drain and fill it in one shot or else it will rust again.

 

[flintknapper]

It can take awhile to thoroughly flush the system. You'd be surprised how much sediment can collect behind the Oil Cooler.