Hi all,

This might be interesting to some of you.

I'm still cleaning out that engine.It runs fine but the coolant turns into dark rust quickly. I made a homemade engine flush system from a pool pump, a bucket, and some hoses.

I used vinegar and the amount of rust that came out of there was frightening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjcXP35 ... e=youtu.be

Darian

I am amazed, man. Truly a DIY'er and great job, BTW.

Saw it on FB, that's a BIG pump to use for that job (I'm a pool guy), but it got the job done!

Thanks, guys.

I had to restrict the hose to reduce the pressure, but it definitely worked. I'm waiting for a new temp gauge and then I'll take it for some high RPM tests on some roads in the Hill Country - for science, of course.

I left the vinegar in there for several days. When I drained it it was very dark reddish brown. I noticed that the top fin in the radiator has some very minor surface rust now. I don't know if the vinegar did this or if it was basically media blasted by chunks of rust hitting the fin at high pressure when the vinegar was recirculating.

It was totally clean when I flushed it again. We'll see if more chunks break loose later, but I think I'm winning the war.

I drained the vinegar and neutralized the cooling system with baking soda and water. Baking soda + vinegar = foam. That was fun to watch come out of the top of my radiator.

I thought I'd give a postmortem about how this went. I'm writing this mainly in case someone does a search.

It knocked a lot of stuff loose. I couldn't figure out why fresh water would get rusty right away. So I removed the plug from the side of the engine and flushed it from the top of the engine through that hole into a bucket for a while.

This is how much rust I was able to capture. Keep in mind that this is after a Preston 150-mile chemical flush and after 10 hours of vinegar being flushed through by that pump and after the vinegar sat in the engine for 3 days:



That's not even all of it. A lot went onto the floor.

150 miles later and my coolant is slightly discolored, but before it was pure rust colored after 20 minutes.

So the moral to the story is, chemicals knock rust loose, but that stuff turns into sediment. Make sure you get all of that sediment out of the bottom of the block. You can't do this by just draining the radiator.