How to Clean Out the Water Jacket?

[colbystephens]

So the motor i'm rebuilding has some corrosion in the water jacket. the machine shop told me that hot tanking the motor will not improve this issue. does anyone else have any solutions? I had this preliminary idea that maybe i would fit a very fine screen over the intake port on the radiator and just run that screen for a while after i get the motor back together, cleaning it every so often. i don't think that will accomplish much tho. maybe i should just try doing a very thorough flush of the cooling system after I get the truck up and running again. any ideas?

 

[afroman006]

Use the cooling system flush stuff they sell at parts stores. There's several different brands and I particulary like the Prestone version, cause it comes in a little mini-antifreeze bottle

 

[diesel4me]

Dupont...

Dupont used to make a 2 part "cooling system cleaner" that came in a paper can--it was powder,nasty stuff,I think it had lots of LYE in it..if that stuff is still available,there is nothing more potent for removing rust and scale!--it had a "neutralizer" on the bottom half of the can you had to run for a day or two after flushing the "cleaner" stuff out with lots of water--otherwise it would eat right thru the radiator..but nothing cleaned a rusty block or radiator better!..

There might be some other brands that work as well,but Dupont was the best when I was selling auto parts for the really rusty and scaley cooling systems..mopars seem to be the worst offenders for rust and scale...

Might be some similar stuff used in boilers too..but be careful,some will eat steel shim head gaskets!..someone else probably has used some good cleaners lately on here..I haven't had to flush any radiators or blocks out for many moons...I just keep a 50/50 mix of anti-freeze up to snuff..running plain water is responsible for most rust and scale problems..

 

[colbystephens]

appreciate the leads. yeah - i'm wishing that the dude who owned this truck before me did a little better job owning it. the corrosion is such an easy thing to avoid, i wish i didn't have to deal with it. i'm a little pissed because he rebuilt this motor, but bored it out to a size where the proper size piston is not readily available, so in addition to buying new pistons, i'm having to have the bore increased slightly to accomodate a piston so that there is the proper amount of clearance. kind of a bummer.