Radiator clean revisited

[rrlund]

When I asked a month or so about commercial radiator cleaning products,somebody mentioned vinegar. I drained the radiator and block on the 2-135 a week ago today and put three gallons of vinegar in it and topped it off with clean water.
The antifreeze that I drained out looked like new from start to finish. I chopped with the tractor all week,then drained it out this morning. The stuff from the radiator was kind of black,more so at the start than the end,but the stuff from the drain plug in the block looked like thin used oil. I stuck a hose in the radiator and flushed it for 15 minutes or so until it looked fairly clear,then I filled it with water with some baking soda in it to neutralize the acid in the vinegar. I figure I'll run it for a day then drain it,flush it and put the anti freeze back in.
It was running cooler than it had been. Enough so that I'm not real concerned. It didn't cool it down as much as recoring the one in the 2-105 did for that one,but good enough for now.
My son said they run stuff in the race cars that keeps them cooler. Something like Water Wetter and some Purple something. He said it's best with distilled water. Said it'll bring them down 20 degrees. He said it's not as effective with a 50/50 antifreeze mix. Said about 10 degrees with that.

Gonna be interesting to see what the water looks like when I drain it again after running it a day though. I was expecting dirty water,but not black like that.

 

[Bob Bancroft]

I don't know if it's really what it says it is, but I get distilled water at the grocery store, and mix a gallon with a gallon of anti freeze, before putting in anything. I shudder looking back at all the years we just used tap water, even when I worked in a farm equipment shop.

 

[Cameano]

I filled my 2001 Tahoe 5.3 with the Purple Ice coolant from Royal Purple. I had drained it from a firetruck I was overhauling, it had been put in there just a few months earlier. My biggest problem with it is the Tahoe runs too cold in the winter, and will usually throw a check engine light right around the time I need to get is smogged. The cure is to block off half the radiator with cardboard so the temp will come up. That stuff works real well in the summer out here in the desert though.

 

[Steve@Advance]

When you drain and flush, do you remove a heater hose, or the bypass hose, or take out the thermostat?

That's really the only way to get good turbulent circulation through the block. Otherwise there will be minimal turn over as the thermostat only cracks open with all that cold water to take in. I also like to set the RPM high, get the flush water really moving around!

 

[rrlund]

I took the heater hose off.

 

[Pair-a-dice farm]

I did the same thing to my backhoe last year. 3 gallons of venegar and topped it off with distilled water. I only ran it a few hours and drained it out. It was a dark milky mess. The guy that I bought it from and been using well water and it's high in lime. After flushing out the vinegar I refilled it with antifreeze and distilled water. It runs a good 15 degrees cooler now.

 

[CCer]

Being a farm kid, anytime I drain fluids, I run it thru a pair of milk filters. Nowadays I use a pair of coffee filters in the milk strainer. Coffee filters will even keep the oil out of antifreeze!

 

[glennster]

Purple ice is the coolant additive he was talking about. It is a wetting agent and helps with the heat transfer to the coolant. It works good.

 

[Hobo,NC]

I am not a pickle juice fan I have tried it and did not see it help one bit. Flush flush flush is the best medicine the more the better and all the pressure you can use to help move any junk out.

The last one I did I gave the juice a week it may have been ok but I had my doubts so I installed a new radiator. I took the old one apart it had 11 tubes that were restricted and 3 that were stopped up. It was running at a bout 60% efficiency.

I don't count that as a fix. This is the rad I pickled it has 60psi of water hooked to it even tho it just barely passes a flow test its junk.

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[rrlund]

My boy said he didn't know what it would hurt to take off the hoses,cap off the holes and put a bottle of CLR in it then fill it with water. He said let it soak over night then flush it out. He said they use it for the EDM machine.

 

[Texasmark1]

I just redid my 2011 Silverado 5 year coolant. Read the directions on the GM coolant and in there it said drinkable tap water, not distilled. I found that disappointing, but did it anyway. Water here is alkaline, not too far from center scale. Somewhere I read that the GM coolant will gell over time and that's the reason for requiring the change. Well the stuff I drained out was getting there. Was a lot thicker than than what I added. Used the Preston cleaner after draining and all.

 

[Hobo,NC]

This rad had the CLR treatment also. No I can not see were it will do any damage I have used it on other coolant issues like a stopped up heater core with no problems that I know of.

I have also used purple stuff cleaner (PS) and tide. PS does have a reaction to aluminum play safe...