What is this stuff in my block?

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nm9stheham

nm9stheham

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Soooo, as part of gogin throuhg the '62 Dart, engine flushign was on yesterdays agenda. Went to drain all the coolant and when I pulled the block pug in the rear, nothing coesm out....???? Poked my finger I the hole and hit something semi-solid. Kept poking and then a small stream starts, and finally I bust through something and the ususal torrent comes out.

Looking in the catch pan, I find some chunks of 'stuff'; it has the consistency of half dried plasticene, and has colors varied from a slightly rust tinged tan slate rock, to a greenish/brown. I am speculating that this is old antifreeze combined with rust but maybe some Bar's Leak was in there....?? Just wanting to see if others have even seen anything link this or have opinions.

In looking into the thermostat opening into the head, there is a nice slimy layer of pure rusty stuff coating the inside. The water pump comes off next! Am on the 4th flush (1 commerical flush, 2 with vinegar, and the 4th with auto dishwasher detrergent). It is getting cleaner but what a mess! This car has been driven a total of 3k miles in the last 42 years, with a few bits of maintenance.....sooo low miles can be a blessing and a curse.
 
Could be any number of past mixes!! I've heard pepper, egg whites, bars leak, silver seal, anti freeze, undistilled water!! Any number of different substances can sludge it up! Ever thought of Drano? It'll clean it out quick, but you can't leave it in too long!!
 
Do you mix your coolant with distiller water. Normal tap water can cause some gunk build up.
 
Probably half the insides of the block rusted the hell out.
 
It wouldn't work in this situation but I've heard of guys filling the cooling system with EvapoRust. They run the car up to operating temp, shut it off and let it sit over night. Then drain it out and flush.
 
Get a good quality coolant flush and put in 2x what is recommended and then follow directions but run 2x as long as they call for. Flush cooling system with a "T" in the heater hose to get full flow and pressure then fill with clean water then drive 200-500 miles and then flush again with clean water. You will be amazed at what comes out.

I used to run into this all the time on older engines that were not maintained. It is corrosion from all the metals in the engine and cooling system. The newer coolant does a way better job than the old stuff
 
If you do any type of flushing where you need to run the engine with the solution in the cooling system, I would recommend that you bypass the heater core. You don't want all the crap clogging it up. I would also recommend that you back flush the radiator after to remove any deposits that may be blocking the little openings for the cooling tubes.
 
Well the 4th flush (with the auto dishwashing detergent) came out still somewhat rusty. Looking into the head through the t-stat opening, the amount of soft gunk on the walls came down considerably. So the repeated flushes are making progress. It looks like most of what it left is harder deposits. I may go back to the commerical flush for a 5th fluch cycle. I have taken many dozens of engines apart and never saw anything like this one.

Good points on the heater and rad; I was planning to do the rad upside down out of the car; just gotta hope that the heater core is not too plugged by now. I think I will go out now and reverse flush it.

Yep it is probbly just old coolant residue, rust, maybe some Bar's Leak or similar.

BTW car is new to me for the past 2 weeks; water would have been from Luray VA. Not sure how hard it is/isn't. (Water here is almost 100% pure, from a mountain well; no dissolved minerals.)
 
I replaced the freeze plugs in my 330 hemi years ago and had the same stuff in there. And it was full of it. Got a much out as I could with my fingers then flushed it.
Funny it never ran hot..ever..
AL
 
That crap probably insulates the coolant from the high heat areas. It was probably running hot, the heat just wasn't getting transferred to the coolant.
 
^^^ Good point.

On this one, after the 4th flush, the one with the auto dishwasher detergent, it is starting to clean up pretty decent, from views into the head and block via the t-stat and water pump openings. I did notice that the runoff from the auto DW flush ate at my drain pan where there was rust spots from old nicks and formed some whitish looking deposits; so I guess I had better make sure to get all of that out. One more commerical flush and then a fresh water flush today.

I reverse flushed and forward flushed the heater core several times and got a lot out of there. So, thanks to 71Scamepr for that thought. Rad is pretty clean after a long reverse flush and a lot of tapping all over to loosen a lot of little bits of deposits.
 
I flushed my 273 years ago shortly after buying it after replacing a rusted out core plug. I unscrewed the small drain plugs and prodded with a pocket screwdriver to get the gunk to flow and finally got a steady stream. After repeated flushing I thought I had it pretty clean until I took the engine apart for rebuilding. The coolant passages were filled to the bottom of the core plug holes with core sand and sludge. It took me an hour or so with a hose and a coat hanger to get it all out. tmm
 

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toolmanmike said:
I flushed my 273 years ago shortly after buying it after replacing a rusted out core plug. I unscrewed the small drain plugs and prodded with a pocket screwdriver to get the gunk to flow and finally got a steady stream. After repeated flushing I thought I had it pretty clean until I took the engine apart for rebuilding. The coolant passages were filled to the bottom of the core plug holes with core sand and sludge. It took me an hour or so with a hose and a coat hanger to get it all out. tmm
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Yes, you don't know if your block will be a good one or one with a bunch of "crap" in it like TMM's.

The best way to make sure is to clean it like Mike. Pull the plugs and make sure that the water jacket is not plugged. If it's plugged, then scrape it out with long screwdrivers/coat hangers.

You have to check each block. I've had good clean ones, and some gunked up like Mike mentioned.
 
Sediment of any origin will settle where it can, usually at the lowest point.
Previous owner of my 67 had installed a low pressure radiator cap ( 7 lbs. ) and poured a little BarsLeak in the system every year. Reasons being, the radiator had a tiny bit of seepage. When a freeze plug started leaking I found the same thing you found.
I used a long thin screw driver and high pressure garden hose to flush chunks of crap out ( 273 block ). New plugs, a new radiator, new lower hose, and a coolant recovery bottle installed. No related problems since.
 
Use Evans coolant from now on and you'll never have that problem again.
 
toolmanmike said:
I flushed my 273 years ago shortly after buying it after replacing a rusted out core plug. I unscrewed the small drain plugs and prodded with a pocket screwdriver to get the gunk to flow and finally got a steady stream. After repeated flushing I thought I had it pretty clean until I took the engine apart for rebuilding. The coolant passages were filled to the bottom of the core plug holes with core sand and sludge. It took me an hour or so with a hose and a coat hanger to get it all out. tmm
Click to expand...

I agree. 40 years of sediment, rust flake build up, core sand from day 1, etc...

You have to go in there and physically and methodically scrape and pick out whats in there. Even modern hot tanking will not get that stuff out. Most machine shops will not do this for you because the customer would complain, argue, whine about the extra $200 of block prep. This should take a good 2 hours to clean right.

The time and effort you put into block cleaning and prep will last you all the way until you next rebuild. And it will keep you from cooling issues that will drive you crazy for years and year to come.

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The cylinder walls are sand casted rough to start with. So don't pick too hard or you can knock a deeper crater out like you can see around the 8pm region of this picture. Thats low in the cylinder wall so not a big deal and I don't have any issues. But want to avoid it.

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cosgig said:
Could be any number of past mixes!! I've heard pepper, egg whites, bars leak, silver seal, anti freeze, undistilled water!! Any number of different substances can sludge it up! Ever thought of Drano? It'll clean it out quick, but you can't leave it in too long!!
Click to expand...

Flush it out with a couple boxes of baking soda afterwards to neutralize the drano.
If any freeze plugs are marginal they won't be after this. But you'll be amazed by what comes out!
 
Well the last flush with commerical flush came out with a bit of rust coloration but at least it is a transparent rusty color for at least 4" deep in the catch pan; not as cloudy. So the stuff is working out. Had to button up everything to be able to move the car and get the 16' enclosed trailer hooked to the Ram for this coming weeks work in KY. So some clean water flushes and new pump, hoses, antifreeze in the car, for now, and I'll drive it some more to see if it keeps working out.

The car comes up to temp more quickly now (partly due to the old t-stat that did not fully close) and when it gets to temp, the gauge does not wander up and down very much now, like it did before. So, much better. Never saw anything this level of gunkiness; not wonder the reasonably green A/F in the system when we got the car turned brown in <100 miles of driving. But all in a day's work, I suppose for a 52 year old buggy. Come to think of it, I have nver pulled apart a car/truck this old; even my '60 F300 was only 27 years old when I got it.

A good lesson for all older cars......everything can be gunked/dried/corroded.
 
nm9stheham said:
^^^ Good point.

On this one, after the 4th flush, the one with the auto dishwasher detergent, it is starting to clean up pretty decent, from views into the head and block via the t-stat and water pump openings. I did notice that the runoff from the auto DW flush ate at my drain pan where there was rust spots from old nicks and formed some whitish looking deposits; so I guess I had better make sure to get all of that out. One more commerical flush and then a fresh water flush today.

I reverse flushed and forward flushed the heater core several times and got a lot out of there. So, thanks to 71Scamepr for that thought. Rad is pretty clean after a long reverse flush and a lot of tapping all over to loosen a lot of little bits of deposits.
Click to expand...

No problem bud. Just wanted to make sure you covered all your bases. Cheers!
 
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