Radiator flush ?

[Dom]

Has anyone ever used permeated heavy duty radiator cleaner before ? If so what was your review on it ...

[bobstad]

Has anyone ever used permeated heavy duty radiator cleaner before ? If so what was your review on it ...

?

[Aaronbrook37]

I've only ever used Prestone Super Flush... just a basic and affordable radiator flush product. I've heard of DIY options like baking soda, dish soap, and so on... but never wanted to deal with having to flush out all the suds and gunk. Do you have a particular need to flush your radiator? What colour is your coolant right now? Plugged heater core perhaps?

[bobstad]

I've only ever used Prestone Super Flush... just a basic and affordable radiator flush product. I've heard of DIY options like baking soda, dish soap, and so on... but never wanted to deal with having to flush out all the suds and gunk. Do you have a particular need to flush your radiator? What colour is your coolant right now? Plugged heater core perhaps?

Always wondered if an oatmeal remedy worked on later model cars; though haven't wanted to experiment, thinking even the better flushes may not work well with some good mush.

[DON SVO]

Original Cascade powder dish soap is awesome, if you can find the good version.

[caprisecca]

i have to flush mine about every month or so. ive tried all the over the counter flush treatments none seem to ged rid of the rust. ive wondered about CLR but didnt know if that would be too harsh on the internals. any thoughts?

[XFSE71]

Original Cascade powder dish soap is awesome, if you can find the good version.

I buy the cheapest dishwasher soap powder I can find at WalMart. Then mix about 1/4 cup powder in water to dissolve it, add it to a just drained radiator/cooling system and run it until it comes clean during rinse cycle. Be careful not to run the engine too long. We dont want to hurt your water pump since there is no water pump lubrication, don't drive and flush thoroughly within an hour or so. I always pop the top hose off during rinse with a garden hose stuffed into the radiator so only clean water is added to the system, and I can see the dirt coming out. Works great, just don't over do it.

[bravekozak]

capri, are you running straight water? If you had a 60:40 mix of propylene glycol to water, you wouldn't get much rust and have to change it every month. CLR is a chelating solution of EDTA (ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid). It works great on bonding rust and is easily rinsed out with water. I would research it for engines and rad cleaning, but I don't think there should be any problem with it.


From the net:

Well, just to report back, I did the CLR flush Saturday, after checking w/ my radiator guy, he said 2 bottles the first time and one bottle the second time, then a clear flush TWO TIMES then fill w/ 50/50 prestone. So that is what I did, running her for 15 minutes @ each fill.
Results are, lots of crap the first time consisting of rust flakes and really nasty stuff. Not so much the second time, but a good stream out the drain Grampa showed me in his picture. Thanks so much to him. The clear h2o flush ran full stream and clear, and on the 50/50 fill, the temp, after a 20 minute idle, with towels over the grille, never exceeded 190f.
This proceedure DID fill up my afternoon though.
Best Regards,
Mike in Colorado

[caprisecca]

capri, are you running straight water

no i run 50/50 mix. i didnt have this problem till i did my aspire engine swap last summer.

Well, just to report back, I did the CLR flush Saturday, after checking w/ my radiator guy, he said 2 bottles the first time and one bottle the second time, then a clear flush TWO TIMES then fill w/ 50/50 prestone. So that is what I did, running her for 15 minutes @ each fill.
Results are, lots of crap the first time consisting of rust flakes and really nasty stuff. Not so much the second time, but a good stream out the drain Grampa showed me in his picture. Thanks so much to him. The clear h2o flush ran full stream and clear, and on the 50/50 fill, the temp, after a 20 minute idle, with towels over the grille, never exceeded 190f

thx for the info. ive tried researching this on the net before but didnt come up with a whole lot. how big a bottle i wonder did he use? ive often thought of just running a whole gallon through my system.

[bravekozak]

He didn't say what size. It was a nice old car. Here's the link.
http://forums.aaca.org/f165/c-l-r-cooling-system-flush-290741.html

I don't think a gallon would hurt. It will flush out with running water anyway.
There are a lot more aggressive chelating agents, but EDTA has six points of attachment to the iron atom. It will surround it and bond to it with the lone pairs of electrons hanging off the nitrogen atoms and the hydroxyl groups from the tentacles of the acetic acid (vinegar). The picture shows a great representation of what happens to the iron from the rust. The sodium salt is soluble in water and is flushed out. CLR is like an octopus surrounding the rust.

It's quite easy to make your own EDTA. Just mix the right amount of vinegar and ethylenediamine in a plastic pail. Mix and let it sit overnight.

[Dom]

After all the different brands i just went with peak super cleaner and flush, it was real dirty i also cleaned out the heater core very good. Heat is working great, The stuff i was originally looking for i spelled wrong way off lol it was called Permatex 80030 Heavy Duty Radiator Cleaner.

[goaliefergy53]

I'm new here, I don't own a Festiva BUT I recently bought a 1997 Go-4 Interceptor (3 wheeled parking enforcement ie: Meter Maid vehicle). It has the same motor/transaxle and front suspension as Festivas.

One of the things on my to-do maintenance list is to flush the cooling system. I've had great success with using GM Heavy Duty Cooling System Cleaner, which can be bought at any Chevy/GM dealer parts counter. It was originally for removing Dex-Cool sludging, but I've used it in many other vehicles to just clean the system (most had old green coolant) and convert them to Zerex G-05. I plan to flush with that and distilled water and fill the system 50/50 with distilled and G-05.

[Movin]

Good info, wish I had seen it earlier!

[Chobobulous]

I used clr on my rad. No problems For me at all, I used the smaller sized bottle and topped it off with water. I flushed it out 3 times after and filled it with a50/50 mix.

[bobstad]

Always wondered if an oatmeal remedy worked on later model cars; though haven't wanted to experiment, thinking even the better flushes may not work well with some good mush.

Sorry, that's nearly unintelligible. Radiator leaks used to be adequately sealed by adding oatmeal to the cooling system: Circa 1920. I was being entirely facetious; except perhaps in some highly subtle romantic sense?

Even in that way, I'm still trying to figure out what the oatmeal might be best for. Maybe for the horse, to carry us to our trysting place once the car breaks down: Fuel, never far from anyone's worries. That's real old school; carrying emergency horse feed, in case of a breakdown.