What can I clean out a radiator with?? (Acid?)

[Mystery Machine]

I've just removed the rad from my Daimler and a fair bit of brown silty water has come out after flushing/back flushing it through a few times.

While it's out and led flat it seems the ideal time to treat it with something if I can? In the ideal world I'd get the rad re-cored but at £250 + vat I just can't afford that right now. While I try and make it run as cool as possible in the meantime, are there any suggestions of what I could use?

Someone mentioned caustic soda and someone else the acid from an old battery topped up with clean water. Both said to leave overnight.

Any suggestions that you have for what to put in the rad would be great, I'll then leave it overnight on the bench and let the 'magic happen' hopefully having a clearer rad when I flush it through tomorrow.

It's not 100% that the rad is clogged but I just figured whilst its out I might as well do something with it.

Many thanks,

Bruce.

[VIP]

Sterident

[Dez]

I wouldn't put caustic in there bruce, the rad may well be brass but with all the ally on that engine its asking for trouble as caustic totally curse word ally- we used to use it for dissolving siezed in ally searposts on steel bike frames.

Ive seen vinegar used in the past and that seemed to work, i guess coke would too.

[Steve]

^^ WHS

Did you try Advanced Autocooling over in Keynsham for the re-core? They have done a few for me in the past for pretty reasonable money(Thunderbird re-core was £145+vat)

Just a thought........

[tubbs]

Biological washing powder is good, but its better done on the car, chuck a persil tablet in the header and drive it about for a couple of days, drain and re fill with water. Check out the water is staying reasonably clean. If not bang another persil tab in and repeat. Its always worked a treat for me, biological washing powder though, none of your airy fairy non bio ecover business

[hairymel]

would citric acid work?

it would certainly dissolve the rusty gunk, but what about everything else?

[Mystery Machine]

Thanks guys.

Dez, as said the rad is led flat on the bench (i.e. off the car and well away from the engine) so no worries about any issues with the ally.

Steve, Advanced Autocooling did a top notch job on my Rascal rad last week (£90 all in) and they were the ones who quoted me £250 +vat based on a Mk2 Jag rad they did a few weeks ago.

Realising what the time was, I popped over to the big catering wholesalers over the road and bought a couple of bottles of kettle de-scaler. It mixes anything 3:1 > 6:1 with warm water (3-6 parts water obviously) and I've filled it up on a ratio of pretty much 3:1, given it a good shake/swill, topped up, repeated the process a few times and I don't think I can get any more in.

I'll just leave it overnight and see what happens.

Thanks again for the help guys. Fingers crossed I don't need a new rad??

[willowandmikey]

My mechanic recently used dishwasher tablets into the header tank when the engine was hot letting them run round the system. I know the rad is disconnected but I am sure you could find a way of making it run through

[damageandy]

cheapest cola you can find.

[mdh]

Caustic soda.

The stuff in rads is hard to shift, I doubt anything else will shift it. In the past I've had to remove the top tank and rod the tubes to move the accumulated cack. This goes double if someone's used that rad seal stuff previously.

I've used dishwasher tablets to clean out an inter cooler though.

[composimmonite]

I had an A35 rad that was completly blocked so not even a dribble came out the bottom. Someone suggested wine making citric acid so a packet was bought from Boots. The rad was put into a large bowl with teh citric acid solution. A 12v small pump (I used an old caravan item but something like washer pump might work just as well) was run on 6v via a battery charger so the solution was pumped from the bowl into the top of the rad. At first obviously it simply flowed out of the top but after a few days being left alone in the shed it was compeltley clear. 10+ years later the rad was still working great and no sign of leaks or overheating in the car.

Paul h

[bortaf]

Mar 8, 2013 18:31:36 GMT damageandy said:

cheapest cola you can find.

/\ this /\
cleared a clio heater rad out last week, has to be cheap though, coke or pepsi wont do it

[will930]

i was told from a dude about using anti limescaler dishwasher tablets do a few miles then rinse through

[stealthstylz]

Yup super cheaps cola has done the job for me before. I think what Dez is saying with caustic is you might not manage to flush it all out so the first time you put it on the car it might flush some through into the engine.

[hkr91]

Is baking soda caustic? My dad used to use that on all the radiators he used to flush - still has some on the shelf for the next one but he used to remove the rad off.

I've heard people using dish washer tablets, vinegar but not the non bio. If it works and you can drive with it in, why not.

[ChasR]

As another suggestion, some of the Stag guys (who suffer with silted radiators) ask some rad shops to rod their radiators out by taking off a tank so that the core can be accessible.

Abroad it works out cheaper than buying or recoring a radiator. I avoided doing this since I sourced a new radiator relatively cheaply.

Another thing to bear in mind is that during this time of year you could probably get away with driving on a silted radiator until Spring arrives. My Stag ran relatively cool during this time of year. It was only when we hit the summer that it started to run hot (It never overheated, but it was a little too close for comfort for me). When it was running hot the lower part of the rad was cool enough to put your hand on. It seemed that me attempting to back flush it many a time (around 7-8 times from memory until the water ran clear) really did not do the job.

[Roy Royson]

Fill it with vinegar and leave it for a few days then wash with water and baking soda
Worked perfectly on my fuel tank

[Russ]

I've used Oxalic acid to clean out a rusty petrol tank and it worked very well.

[Mark]

Citric Acid brought up our old kettle like new! It was so scaled up it simply stopped working but an hour soaking with 2 tea spoons of citric acid sorted it out. It's less aggressive than Caustic Soda too.