88 Diesel Cooling System

[88dieselboy]

I have a question about the cooling system on my Oliver 88 diesel. There is a port on the rear side of the engine block and a port coming out of the lower cast radiator elbow (SEE ATTACHED IMAGES). The previous owner was running a hose with an aftermarket coolant heater between them. The lower cast radiator elbow in the front of the engine was loaded with goopy tar that prevented the coolant from being drained when I opened it up.

I'm not planning to reinstall the coolant heater and want to avoid clogging the system in that elbow. Do I need to run a hose between these or can I delete all of this and just put plugs in both ports?

 

[scootergmc]

Delete. However if it has a bunch of goop in the front I can only imagine what is in the rear of that block. Other than tar what did the goo look like?

I'd flushing that block very well if it were mine.

 

[88dieselboy]

Delete. However if it has a bunch of goop in the front I can only imagine what is in the rear of that block. Other than tar what did the goo look like?

I'd flushing that block very well if it were mine.

Thanks for the response @scootergmc. Picked up some plugs from the hardware store, flushed and refilled.

Other than the tar in the elbow the coolant was mostly clean and green. I think that the tar was from the low quality hose that was installed in between the coolant heater and elbow. Hopefully it didn't make it too far because I couldn't even pressure wash the goo out of the elbow.