Cooling System Flush - Hardcore!

The engine that I'm going to be using has been sitting for awhile so I found this while tearing it down:


Now my plan is to hook an electric motor I have lying around up to the water pump with a V belt and run the water pump to flush the block using a bucket for the water inlet/outlet. My question is this, what do I use to flush? I'd like to run something that will get rid of as much of that crud as possible.

I will be running this with the engine not running (in fact the head gasket will not even be in - that way the bottleneck there can be cleaned out as well) and no radiator / heater core hooked up. I intend to use a radiator filter (inline at the hose) or two on the inlet hose to filter out large particles.

I also intend to do this multiple times.

Thanks,
Sequoia

PS - Anybody in the L.A. area (preferably South Bay) know of places that will take used coolant?

Not sure, but liquid dish detergent comes to mind.

chris

White Vinegar. LOTS of it. IT WORKS WONDERS!

Yeah, it's amazing what crud you can cut with vinegar!

As far as taking used coolant, ask any shop that does - or better, specialises in - cooling system work. They probably won't even charge you, since that stuff is usually recycled on-site and therefore keeps them ahead of the game on stock (the recycler shows up, flushes the stuff thru a heavy-duty filter, and refreshes the additive package. The coolant usually doesn't need to leave the shop for that.)

5-90

You could spend a $100 or so and have a machine shop/engine shop boil the block out and check it for cracks. I'd do that anyway before I sunk the money in to rebuild it...

RichP said:

You could spend a $100 or so and have a machine shop/engine shop boil the block out and check it for cracks. I'd do that anyway before I sunk the money in to rebuild it...

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i was sort of thinking the same thing....

i know if i was going to "start fresh" witha rebuild, i would definitely want to know that i am actually "starting fresh"

I don't have the time nor money for a total rebuild - the engine was known good at pull time with +/- 30,000 on a complete rebuild - I trust it.

I just want to flush the junk that collects in the water passages when an engine sits

About how much vinegar would you use in terms of percent vs. water?

Use 100% vinegar. Let it sit for days. The motor will smell like a salad, so beware of that. Use a few gallons. As you flush out the old, add new.
As a shampoo bottle says.....rinse and repeat.

Dang!! I thought mine was bad.. =-)

George Trilikis
00XJ

bustednutz said:

Use 100% vinegar. Let it sit for days. The motor will smell like a salad, so beware of that. Use a few gallons. As you flush out the old, add new.
As a shampoo bottle says.....rinse and repeat.

Click to expand...

Do you need to use conditioner afterwards?

If you are going to be able to circulate the fluid thru the block - try a small box of Spic & Span cleaner. The longer it circulates the more it cleans.

geonicol said:

If you are going to be able to circulate the fluid thru the block - try a small box of Spic & Span cleaner. The longer it circulates the more it cleans.

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Living where Sequoia lives...

He should have no problem finding a truckload of spics and spans to do the cleaning for real cheap...