Radiator flush

[1974vette]

I had seen some earlier posts on using vinegar to flush a radiator. My questioN is do YOU use the vinegar straight or dulute 50:50?
Also is it just to do in the radiator or can u flush the block and entire cooling system?
Thanks
Joel

 

[Janicholson]

Full strength is fine. It is acidic, and not terribly strong. So using it diluted wold make it ineffective. Running the engine for two hours or more will give it a chance to work. It is freezing where i am, so care must be taken to drain and flush the vinegar out of the vehicle and fill it with coolant. Jim

 

[Red Dave]

The vinegar you can buy in the grocery store is only about 5 or 10% acetic acid. I used it straight out of the jug when I've done it.

Check the label, it should tell you the acetic acid percentage.

 

[old]

Vinegar only then run it a couple times till good and warm and if you can then rig up a hose hook up in the block drain and back flush the block and radiator with a garden hose.

 

[rustred]

far as i am concerned it is a waste of time when the cores are plugged. vinegar comes in 5 and 7 percent. that is no where strong enough to clean a rad. it needs to be soaked in a hot caustic solution as the rad shops use. even then there is times when they have to remove the tanks and rod the cores. but if your talking about flushing when the engine is not heating you are probably ok.

 

[Redturbo]

The only thing I use vinegar is for is putting onto French fries. Did try it in the cooling system on my Dad's H that came from the Iowa area. What a waste of time that was. Like Rusted said, have the rad cleaned by a rad shop. I used muriatic acid to clean the rust out of the block.

 

[fixerupper]

A few days ago I poured vinegar in the radiator of a B Deere and let it soak for two days hanging from the chain hoist. When I drained the vinegar it came out green and smelled a little like battery acid. Then I flushed it well. After I went trough all this soaking I still had to pull the tanks off to solder a leak. What I found upon disassembly was a clean core but it wasn't plugged in the first place. In the end I don't think the vinegar did much good. If the radiator has mild corrosion the vinegar might shine it up but I doubt if it will do much good for a dirty radiator.

 

[fixerupper]

A few days ago I poured vinegar in the radiator of a B Deere and let it soak for two days hanging from the chain hoist. When I drained the vinegar it came out green and smelled a little like battery acid. Then I flushed it well. After I went trough all this soaking I still had to pull the tanks off to solder a leak. What I found upon disassembly was a clean core but it wasn't plugged in the first place. In the end I don't think the vinegar did much good. If the radiator has mild corrosion the vinegar might shine it up but I doubt if it will do much good for a dirty radiator.

 

[Brian Schmidt]

Some say its a waste of time, but to each his own. I have found it very effective on a number of cases. Some mention that for a dirty radiator, you need to take it to a rad shop so they can soak it in a hot caustic solution. Well, that hasn't been done for a number of years thanks to the EPA. Lead based solder is also not a friend of the EPA and thus these radiator shops. Most in my area won't touch the old radiators in tractors. They are much happier to sell you a new one. Now that may not be the norm in some parts, but is definitely here.

That all being said, to flush properly with vinegar, you will fill the system with straight vinegar. It is cheap at WalMart and I like to flush it once I drain out the coolant with plenty of water prior to filling with vinegar to remove much of the loose stuff as possible. I then top them off with vinegar and run them for three or four days if possible. The longer in there, the more you will remove. But it has to be hot and moving for it to work the best. So if a tube is plugged and it won't flow, there isn't much capability of anything liquid to remove it.

Now some will tell you that a flush will ruin your radiator or cooling system as they had several leaks following a flush. Well, they had these leaks prior to the flush, but the holes were stopped up with solder bloom or other debris. All that happened was they cleaned the debris out and there was nothing left to stop the leaks.

I did take a Cub radiator this summer and soak it cold for three weeks. The vinegar turned very green and it ate most of the paint from the outside of the radiator. The inside looked very nice and flowed water well when I was flushing with the garden hose. Prior to that, water flowed through much slower.

All this being said, I am a believer in vinegar as a flush solution. I use it on every system I am working on.

 

[fixerupper]

Oh, I will say the leak I found was a stress crack in the top of a flue. I have a suspicion the leak resulted from a combination of cleaning the crud off the outside and the vinegar possibly cleaning it from the inside.

 

[1974vette]

The tractor had a bad head gasket. Grey oil in everthing. I want to clean out the block and radiator. The radiator does not leak but needs the oily goo out of it.

 

[rustred]

ooh, now we get the rest of the story...you need to fill it with diesel or kerosene and run it and drain warm. the hoses wont like that, also help what tractor this is. depending on the situation, can try degreaser and soap also. best is to remove a lower hose when draining so the slop runs out fast.

 

[Jim Naden]

(quoted from post at 05:33:41 12/27/16) The tractor had a bad head gasket. Grey oil in everthing. I want to clean out the block and radiator. The radiator does not leak but needs the oily goo out of it.

We have good results using Cascade dish washer soap to clean oily cooling systems.

 

[old]

Oil in the cooling system is bad news at best but to clean it out fill it with water and run it till good and hot drain and do it again 2 or 3 times and by having the water get hot it will mix well with the oil and then the oil if you drain while still hot go out with the water. Using diesel or Kero will just add another type of oil to the cooling system so it too would need to be cleaned out and drained out

 

[jeffcat]

If you go to a good old fashioned hardware place that handles canning and wine supplies. They sometimes have pickling vinegar. That stuff can be 11 percent and some is as high as 15 percent. One time I got hold of the 15 % stuff and had to dilute it down. WOW does it make a difference! Best pickles ever. They had a very distinct Snap in the flavor.

 

[rhtx55]

I worked quite a few years as a diesel mechanic. Oil cooler leaks were an issue. We used an entire box of Cascade dish washer soap, the powder. Drained the coolant, back flushed with water, refilled the radiator to the top, poured in the cascade. Fired it up, backed it out & let it run at high idle for n hour or more. After cooling down, drained the cooling system, back flushed again with water, once the water ran clean. Poured in the antifreeze & topped it off with water. Backed it out, let it run at fast idle for another hour. Let it cool, remove the radiator cap and run your finger around the neck. NO OIL !!! Diesel oil is quite black so any residue would show up immediately.
No bigger than the cooling system is on these tractors, I would say 1/4 to 1/2 a box would be plenty.