Radiator flush

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Princess Valiant

Princess Valiant

A.K.A. Rainy Day Auto
Joined
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I have a car that is having a redish color in the coolant .....

no matter how many times I flush it out ....I will come back to find the problem again .....I am on a replacement radiator and that didn't help ....

what can I do or use to get rid the of the really gross redish color in the cooling system
 
You probably have a bunch of sludge in the block and some in the heater core also. You would have to pull them and clean them out real good to get rid of the red stuff....

A good flush may help.... :pottytra:
 
You're going to have to hot tank the block to remove the rust, flush the radiator, replace or flush heater core, replace all hoses plus thermostat, and finally stop using a water based coolant.
You'll need to switch to Evans coolant. That stuff is awesome!
 
I went through this with mine, sludge-o-rama. Even clogged up my first radiator. Try the Prestone radiator flush, it works ok. I personally used 2 bottles (water only no antifreeze), drove the car around for an hour, then let it sit overnight before hooking the hose up to it and letting it run for an hour. I also disconnected the lower radiator hose so the crud wouldn't get pushed into the core when running the hose.

It still discolors though, but not near as bad as in the beginning. Luckily the water in my engine gets changed regularly since I use antifreeze in the winter and straight water in the summer (to meet nhra rules).
 
I read once in hot rod magazine that they used a 50/50 mix of water and vineger left the cap off and ran the car at operating temp for maybe 10 minutes? Look into it before you do it obviously.
 
Agree with UOP, but used Peak flush.

Did it twice in a year and it's noticeably better but not totally gone.

This is in my 140,000 mile 2000 Dakota 5.9.
 
SirDan said:
I read once in hot rod magazine that they used a 50/50 mix of water and vineger left the cap off and ran the car at operating temp for maybe 10 minutes? Look into it before you do it obviously.
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And when you are done, you can color easter eggs with the old antifreeze/vinegar solution.... :D
 
EEESSSSSSHHHHH I flushed it out today and its nassssssty ......when I loosened the drain plug ....nothing came out .....I had to disconnect the radiator hoses and stuck the garden hose for a few minutes through each end ........at first it was deep red and now its still redish but diluted ......this is a nasty job to clean out this system.
 
greymouser7 said:
Respectfully Request methods of collecting the flush. The water table is very close where I live and I don't want put that stuff into the ground. -thank you!
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Jack said vehicle up in the air, pull the wheels, and slide a very large tub/pan under it. Flush to your hearts content.


Rani, if you can't or don't want to tear down the motor to hot tank it (understandable if it runs great). The next best thing would be to remove the exhaust, starter and accessories, punch out the freeze plugs and blast the coolant passages with a pressure washer (or a garden hose with a concentrated stream on the nozzle if you don't have a pressure washer). It's also handy to have some scrapers and such to worm into the passages to dislodged the heavy sludge.

Install new freeze plugs, and run some flush through the system to get the whatever may have settled to the bottom of the block.
 
greymouser7 said:
Respectfully Request methods of collecting the flush. The water table is very close where I live and I don't want put that stuff into the ground. -thank you!
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i agree, i use an old pig trough and have a procedure in place to handle it once there......i live in a rural area and the ground out here is clean, pure ground , and to throw garbage into it, is not how we roll around here.

thanks for mentioning it, as car people we also have an unsaid responisiblilty to give back through simple consideration. its bad enough by nature of the automobile, we are already seen as "polluters" so we dont have to make it worse.
 
RaniDart70 said:
I have a car that is having a redish color in the coolant .....

no matter how many times I flush it out ....I will come back to find the problem again .....I am on a replacement radiator and that didn't help ....

what can I do or use to get rid the of the really gross redish color in the cooling system
Click to expand...

Good luck!!! You're probably just going to be able to slowly dilute it until it eventually gets to be just orange-tinted water coming outta there. I had the same problem with my Dart when I bought it, so I was flushing it once a week. Then after about a month of doing that, I added fresh coolant. Even then, it became a little bit orange over time, but at least I could live with it.

When a cooling system goes rusty.....it's a sad sad day!! My sister had a Jeep Cherokee that had a leaky water pump that she just added water to on a daily basis, then drove it to work. She eventually fried the motor, but the whole engine compartment was orange. Auuggghhhh......FAIL!!
 
Sorry for any thread jacking.
Are there consequences to the vinegar?
>>>>Where do you guys put the flush afterwards?<<<<

After having to get-rid-of a few chocolate-milk-mix oil & antifreeze mix from blown gaskets, I was dumping old anitfreeze in the parts stores' oil bin. That's not a good idea, but I need an alternative. We recycle paper, plastic, metal, and all batteries at work - how about antifreeze?
I got 4 cars in the driveway with combined 3/4 million miles on them and I need to flush.
 
greymouser7 said:
Sorry for any thread jacking.
Are there consequences to the vinegar?
>>>>Where do you guys put the flush afterwards?<<<<

After having to get-rid-of a few chocolate-milk-mix oil & antifreeze mix from blown gaskets, I was dumping old anitfreeze in the parts stores' oil bin. That's not a good idea, but I need an alternative. We recycle paper, plastic, metal, and all batteries at work - how about antifreeze?
I got 4 cars in the driveway with combined 3/4 million miles on them and I need to flush.
Click to expand...


do you have a safety Kleen near you? my adoptive family was in the salvage business so they know everyone in town in the salvage busness and a lot repair shops, so on the sludgy stuff i let most of the water evaporate in the pig trough and then collect the green and heavy stuff and pour it into a plastic sealable barrel and then we take it to a friend's repair shop and safety Kleen picks it up from there and brings back the empty barrel.
 
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