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I've done a muratic acid flush on a brass/copper radiator out of a rig- It will eat cement so be careful. I was a little sheepish and did dilute the acid a bit and I should have let it sit longer. but it did work. I don't know if I would try it on an aluminum radiator w/out testing. The alkali degreasers like superclean eat aluminum. I don't recall what acid does to it. Folks used to fix radiators, not just replace.. The muratic acid is kind of what a "hot tank" treatment is, w/out the heat I believe.
I might have a spare 62 radiator with a fan-dent/smack in it. I will look.
And BTW, next time you want to pawn a handgun hit one of us up first! My father in law let some good guns go to the pawn shop--- grrrr.
 
Cliff notes: Pull radiator, flush radiator, fill with 1/3 acid 2/3 water mix, let sit 5 minutes, drain and rinse radiator. (I would leave the cap on and lay it on the ground with the outlets up and fill till it's showing in both holes...

You can run the acid down your drain when you're done, it's also used as a drain cleaner...

You don't want to do the whole cooling system, as it is bad for the aluminum. I dropped an aluminum piston into some acid to try and free a stuck ring, it turned the aluminum into smoke.... Hehehe :D
 
Kief said:
I've done a muratic acid flush on a brass/copper radiator out of a rig- It will eat cement so be careful. I was a little sheepish and did dilute the acid a bit and I should have let it sit longer. but it did work. I don't know if I would try it on an aluminum radiator w/out testing. The alkali degreasers like superclean eat aluminum. I don't recall what acid does to it. Folks used to fix radiators, not just replace.. The muratic acid is kind of what a "hot tank" treatment is, w/out the heat I believe.
I might have a spare 62 radiator with a fan-dent/smack in it. I will look.
And BTW, next time you want to pawn a handgun hit one of us up first! My father in law let some good guns go to the pawn shop--- grrrr.
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Thanks Kief, I intend to get my Ruger back. They gave me 200 for my GP100 and it will cost me another 50 when I go pick it up but we are gonna take the kids on the dinner cruise out of GP on Sunday. :) Isn't there a place around here that can take my radiator and recore it?? That used to cost 50-60 bucks and was a pretty good solution. When this is all done and I get a chance I'm gonna get a set of backup mechanical gauges so that I won't be guessing next time whether or not I actually have a serious problem or not.
 
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I looked and didn't see one around- it was pretty rough and I think it got scrapped.
The downfall with a rod-out is if you have any pinholes then it gets too expensive to repair and then the replacement would be cheaper. With high miles the top tanks tend to fail anyways and its usually time to replace.
BTW have you checked to make sure your brakes aren't dragging? Easy to check, jack up a tire, put on the brake, release and see how hard it is to spin.. just a thought.
 
DnT out on table rock has a good reputation but I don't know if he still does that. I bought an A.M. radiatorfrom Medford radiator for an 80 and it was good quality- sold that one so don't know longterm results. Radiator Barn has good prices and a lifetime warranty if it gets to that. I have one of theirs in my 80. nice quality brass top but Slee says those fail.. Oh, well.
 
Stopped at the Grange and they had no muriatic acid but did have some industrial strength drain cleaner which comes in a bottle sealed in a bag. Says on the label it contains sulfuric acid and has a list of amounts to use depending on whether it's a sink, shower, grease trap etc. May give that radiator an acid douche tomorrow. Acidouche.....acidouche....acidouche! Anything else around here needing an acidouche, let me see..........:D
 
That was narly stuff. I can't believe they recommend it for stopped up plumbing. Flushed it 3 times for 5 minutes each. Used my plastic wheelbarrow as a catch basin for the runoff. You could see 4 little columns of bubbles rising up from the 4 bolts that were exposed. I have a very clean wheelbarrow and a radiator which is very shiny inside. Reassembly tomorrow. ;)
 
mobydick said:
That was narly stuff. I can't believe they recommend it for stopped up plumbing. Flushed it 3 times for 5 minutes each. Used my plastic wheelbarrow as a catch basin for the runoff. You could see 4 little columns of bubbles rising up from the 4 bolts that were exposed. I have a very clean wheelbarrow and a radiator which is very shiny inside. Reassembly tomorrow. ;)
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Hope it fix's ya!! :bounce::bounce2:
 
First flush was pretty disgusting, second and third were not so much. We'll see in a few days. How many water crossings along the way to Sourdough anyway? :D
 
mobydick said:
First flush was pretty disgusting, second and third were not so much. We'll see in a few days. How many water crossings along the way to Sourdough anyway? :D
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zero ;),,,, ok well there is a bridge.
 
So far so good. No leaky-no steamy- no funny noises. :) Gotta get your stuff back to you Ty. I would still like to get those other clutches rebuilt.
 
BTW, Ty, I forgot to mention that I shorted across the A/C line to power the clutch on the compressor and it works great. I got a new drier in the mail today so I should be able to get all that put back together and then try to get it recharged. Thanks for rewiring that magnet for me! :cheers:
 
Drained the water out last night and replaced with antifreeze & distilled H2o. Today on lunch break I went up the grade to the Mt. Ashland turnoff. Overheated just as I got to the turnoff!! Phuukking BS ! I'm gonna yank the thermostat tonight and run w/o it tomorrow to see if it changes things any. Tired of this.:frown:
 
Out of money and ideas!

Today, after pulling the T-stat and running with 50/50 coolant I ran up to Wilderville to visit and then back. Did a little hill climb in 2 wheel drive and climbed right up stuff I normally have trouble with before the locker. However, I ran HOT all day, especially when pulling off the freeway where my temps would shoot up to just below the red mark for quite awhile. With a new H2O pump and no T-stat it has to be either the radiator or the fan clutch right???(insert opinion here) I have been noticing that my radiator cap and my overflow tank are getting coated in some gnarly looking brown grunge. I have yanked my top radiator hose with engine running to see if I could see similar brown grunge circulating OUT of the engine and it always looks pretty clean. My thoughts are my radiator is still seriously clogged with crap and every time I run the engine that grunge is floating up to the top where it sticks to the cap and/or squirts out the overflow after shutdown. ?? Your thoughts?? I'm all ears(and no $$$) We'll be there at Nick's tomorrow and unless I resolve this cheaply I don't see me going with you guys next weekend.??:frown: Also out of time to do any more work on this. :frown: I hate being broke all the time.

Also, please see the "Sponsor" thread and chime in with your response to a question Daphne asked me to ask all of you!
 
grunge

You might be dealing with leftover flush gunk but if it is oily or rusty/oily then you might have head gasket issues. Does the overflow bottle over flow or bubble?

mobydick said:
Today, after pulling the T-stat and running with 50/50 coolant I ran up to Wilderville to visit and then back. Did a little hill climb in 2 wheel drive and climbed right up stuff I normally have trouble with before the locker. However, I ran HOT all day, especially when pulling off the freeway where my temps would shoot up to just below the red mark for quite awhile. With a new H2O pump and no T-stat it has to be either the radiator or the fan clutch right???(insert opinion here) I have been noticing that my radiator cap and my overflow tank are getting coated in some gnarly looking brown grunge. I have yanked my top radiator hose with engine running to see if I could see similar brown grunge circulating OUT of the engine and it always looks pretty clean. My thoughts are my radiator is still seriously clogged with crap and every time I run the engine that grunge is floating up to the top where it sticks to the cap and/or squirts out the overflow after shutdown. ?? Your thoughts?? I'm all ears(and no $$$) We'll be there at Nick's tomorrow and unless I resolve this cheaply I don't see me going with you guys next weekend.??:frown: Also out of time to do any more work on this. :frown: I hate being broke all the time.

Also, please see the "Sponsor" thread and chime in with your response to a question Daphne asked me to ask all of you!
Click to expand...
 
Kief said:
You might be dealing with leftover flush gunk but if it is oily or rusty/oily then you might have head gasket issues. Does the overflow bottle over flow or bubble?
Click to expand...

No Kief, it never overflows. Just some bubbly brown scum on the radiator cap and a little rusty brown water in the overflow tank. I dump the overflow out into a white bucket looking for oily sheen or oil bubbles on top of the water and can't see any. Also checking of the oil shows no sign of water getting into the oil. Tomorrow on my lunch I will go see the guys at D&T radiator for their opinions(something I probably should have started with but at least I can review with them what I've already tried and get some advice. :frown:
 
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