Thread: Flushing Radiator without rodding. Options?

I use a chemical flush, take it for a drive for about an hour drain that then use a flush gun and water, if the scales not too bad it works well, if it doesnt clean up (and I check with an endoscope) then get it rodded.

Why bother?,they are dead easy to take out and cost $60 to rod. Pat

Drain, toss in a kilo of washing soda, refill, leave it in for a few days whilst driving it around for a hundred k's or so. Drain, flush, and add whatever green,red, or yellow dye you fancy. We used to do this with our trucks in the fifties-sixties before anyone used inhibitors.

Originally Posted by PAT303

Why bother?,they are dead easy to take out and cost $60 to rod. Pat

Not so Pat.

The radiator I'm discussing is in an SIIb. They stick in between what would be the footwells on a regular series firewall. The fan shroud has the accelerator relay cross shaft going through it out of reach from the front, rear top and bottom and this prevents the radiator being pulled up or removed from the bottom. It's next to impossible to undo the self tappers to remove the shroud because it's immediately behind the firewall with the top of the radiator at instrument panel level and similarly the fan/drive shaft and bearing require all the floor panels to be removed. The easiest way to remove the radiator is to remove all the front body panels in front of the firewall.

I'd rather try to clean it out without removing first.

Diana

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Drain, toss in a kilo of washing soda, refill, leave it in for a few days whilst driving it around for a hundred k's or so. Drain, flush, and add whatever green,red, or yellow dye you fancy. We used to do this with our trucks in the fifties-sixties before anyone used inhibitors.

I think washing soda reacts with aluminium, assume it isn't an issue.

Originally Posted by PAT303

Why bother?,they are dead easy to take out and cost $60 to rod. Pat

Who do you know who is silly enough to unsolder the tanks, rod out the core and then solder them back on for $60? Commercial labour rates are $90 per hour upwards. You might get a reverse flush done for this.

Originally Posted by abaddonxi

I think washing soda reacts with aluminium, assume it isn't an issue.

It could be an issue with the aluminium head!

This is what I do to get a few more miles from a sick radiator .....

Undo bottom and top rad hose from the motor (leave it connected to rad)
Jamb a water garden hose + an open end of a air compressor hose, into the bottom rad hose ... Stuff liberal amounts of rag to fill the gap up of the bottom hose ... Then use the rad clamp to hold it together (or a volunteer helper to hold it together)

Turn the top rad hose so that it will exit the water away from the car (outside) .... use a piece of PVC pipe to get extra length
Put a full length stocking over the end to catch, so you can inspect what your cleaning (scale & rust)

Start air compressor ..... when full ....
Start water tap ... when the water is running out the top, Just plug in the air hose to the compressor and allow a short burst of air to hit the rad ...

Wait for the water to start filling .... add air again

Couple of cycles of this will help remove some of the stuck scale






Another thing to do is,
..... Grab a new pair of Razzmataz stockings ... Cut 6" off the foot end .....This stuff stretches like crazy ... If you grab your cut length and give it a stretch, you will see how long it can be .... Make sure that it's stretch is shorter than the length of the rad hose


undo the top rad hose from the thermostat housing

Feed the stocking up the top rad hose and roll the open end around the rad hose .... now install the rad hose (and the open end of the stocking) over the thermo housing

Clamp it all up .... You now have a internal water filter .... Drive it like that around the block, then undo the hose and check how much debris it has caught .... Put it back in and keep driving it till the debris catching has cleared



There is a company in your neck of the woods that make Sock filters ... I use them on my rides ...

Cheers
Mike