Radiator flush

[fixerupper]

I need to flush an F20 radiator. It is off the tractor and I don't plan on putting it back on for a year, maybe two so I have plenty of time. The engine out of this tractor had a good amount of rust in the water jacket and the sleeves were pitted fairly bad so I have an idea the water wasn't so good on the farm this tractor came from. I expect the radiator core is fairly well rusted up too.

I want to put some kind of rust dissolver/cleaner in this radiator and let it sit for awhile. When I read the archives, vinegar or a commercial cleaner were mentioned. What do you guys prefer? One poster mentioned finding 10% vinegar instead of the 5% vinegar we find in the grocery store. What do you guys recommend for this? I know this is like an oil preference question but I thought I would ask nonetheless.

 

[rbhuntn]

(quoted from post at 12:44:06 02/29/16) I need to flush an F20 radiator. It is off the tractor and I don't plan on putting it back on for a year, maybe two so I have plenty of time. The engine out of this tractor had a good amount of rust in the water jacket and the sleeves were pitted fairly bad so I have an idea the water wasn't so good on the farm this tractor came from. I expect the radiator core is fairly well rusted up too.

I want to put some kind of rust dissolver/cleaner in this radiator and let it sit for awhile. When I read the archives, vinegar or a commercial cleaner were mentioned. What do you guys prefer? One poster mentioned finding 10% vinegar instead of the 5% vinegar we find in the grocery store. What do you guys recommend for this? I know this is like an oil preference question but I thought I would ask nonetheless.

I have used a straight white vinegar solution to flush radiators with when they are slightly clogged up. We put it in ran the tractor until warm then drained and flushed the rad and block.

When we drained the rad we got a lot of flaky looking stuff out. The we filled the rad and it drained in about 3-5 seconds.

You can try this just not sure how well it will work on rust. The problem we had was lime build up. I would not let it sit in the rad more than about an hour at most as the acid can do nasty things to cooper over a longer period of time. After you drain the vinegar flush several times with water or water with a baking soda mix.

Just a thought or two. Last time I mentioned using vinegar on here I got flamed.

 

[Northeast Puller]

I have heard of some people using CLR. But I have never tried it
myself. It can be bought in most grocery stores or Hardware
store.
NorthEast puller

 

[fixerupper]

I do have a jug of CLR, I didn't know if it was too harsh or not.

 

[Steve@Advance]

Just about any of the various acidic chemicals will do the same thing, dissolve some of the lime deposits. But it's a real gamble if it will start a leak. I would prepare myself for the worst, be ready to spend some money or not flush it.

Turning it upside down and flushing it with water from the bottom would be safer.

 

[fixerupper]

The way I figure if cleaning out the rust and lime is going to make it leak then the core is too thin to use anyway. I don't want whatever I use to eat too much away if the core is still good. If this is the original core it is 78 years old.