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radiator kinda crusty

V

vortec

1/2 ton status
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fort worth, texas
i'm finally about to stick my remanned 350 into my k5. as this is a budget project, and not my dd, i'm reusing everything i can. alt, distributor, etc. the radiator is in very good shape, but under the cap, it's a little crusty. i've seen much worse work fine. i'm not a magic-goo-in-a-can kind of guy. i'd rather just leave it as-is, since that scale is really stuck on, and i found almost no scale when i pulled the back plate off the water pump. but, i'm open to thoughts and suggestions. thanks.
 
it's not a "system" so much, at the moment. the engine is 50 feet away, so i couldn't really carry out the directions on most of the products i've seen. most say leave it in and drive for few days, or run for 10 minutes, etc. i'm sort of limited to fill it up, let it sit, flush it out with a hose. not ideal, i know.
 
muriatic acid solution for 10 minutes...

lay rad on ground with the cap on. mix a gallon of acid to a gallon or 2 of water, fill.. let sit, flush...
 
good point on the heater core. living in texas, i use it much less than you probably do (i have relatives not too far from gunnison, brrrrr), so what little fluid was in there probably sat and left plenty of scale.

it's been nearly a decade since i had college chemistry, but i think muriatic acid is a 30% hydrocloric acid (HCl) solution. pool cleaner, basically.

anyone tried vinegar or vinegar and salt? it's great for shining up pennies. yep, elementary school science class was good for something.
 
3 on the tree said:
Don't forget the heater core. They get just as much build up as the radiator.
Click to expand...

He said the rad was out of the truck.... :wink1:

It's a trip when we flush the boat raw-water systems... Blows so much cr*p out the exhaust it's comical...
 
ryoken said:
He said the rad was out of the truck.... :wink1:

It's a trip when we flush the boat raw-water systems... Blows so much cr*p out the exhaust it's comical...
Click to expand...
That's why I said don't forget the heater core.:rolleyes:
 
actually, no, the rad is in the truck. it's the engine that is sitting in the garage, waiting for me to get the time to plop it in.
 
If the radiator is bad, my experience is that nothing short of a re-core or maybe having it rodded out will work.

Tried the flush stuff, vinegar, etc., on a known bad radiator. New radiator solved the problem, the others didn't.

I can't emphasize enough that you can't see what the cores looks like, nor what it looks like at the bottom of the radiator. If you start a new motor up with a bad radiator, it will overheat quite fast. You can keep a hose handy in case you want a ready supply of cold coolant, but even that didn't work on my bad radiator. Last thing you want is to try and break in a new engine and have it overheat.
 
Plug lower hose fitting and remove radiator cap, then take a hose and put it into the top hose fitting and start filling the tank but not to fast. Using a flashlight watch down the radiator cap and see if you can see the water flowing through the radiator tubes. Both tanks should fill at the same rate. otherwise you need to have the it radded. If it's ok I would just have it boild out at a radiator shop, pressure test it, and repaint it...
 
Your post brings up a good point...some places can actually flow test a radiator. (place locally does it for free) Pretty cool piece of equipment, quick and seems to be accurate for good/bad determinations.
 
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