OK, here goes. Spoke to someone about flushing out my '59 Chevy 6 cyl coolant system and he claims to know guys who have used DRANO. I know these old sixes are pretty bulletproof but DRANO!? I bought the flush kit from Advanced Auto and a jug of the "Super" solvent but I must admit his claim intrigues me. Anybody else ever hear of this or something similar?
when I was working on heavy and medium duty trucks, we always used Cascade Dishwasing detergent in powder form. pour it in the radiator, go drive it around for a while, then come back and flush it with water. you wouldn't believe how much nasty **** came out when we did it this way.
I second the dishwashing detergent. Model A guys in Dallas are doing that to their stockers with good results.
if you use drano after a good water flush use baking soda to nutrellise and flush again. and maybe use the baking soda several times.the trouble with using a heavy detergent {like draino}it will attact the head gaskets, the frost or freeze plugs and anything aluminum. The stuff in drano is the same as a old machine shop uses in a cleaning vat.. ... Bobby.
Draino????????? Its a stove bolt--------- Not a sink bowl/drain pipe lol lol I'd stay with the dishwashing detergent. Or just use the Parts house stuff It would be much safer on yur motor. I have used draino to clean Carbs When I didn't have anything else. BUT like K9racer said It Will eat at ALUM and just about everything else. I had a Old Trash carb i did a mix test on before ever useing it on a good carb. And trust me if leave it sit over night all you will have left is the liquid. But if it is mixed right It does make for a good cleaner in a pinch..
Most folks use Red Devil Lye,prolly the same as Drano.You can also use CLR,calcium.lime,and rust remover.They are all caustic.
If you have any aluminum components like an intake, thermostat housing, water pump, or an aluminum radiator, that would be a very bad idea to use Draino. It's caustic, and it'll eat up the aluminum and fizz up like crazy. Draino is a base. Baking soda is a base too. To neutralize Draino, you'd need an acid. Finishing up with an acid sounds bad too. Sounds like a bad idea overall to use Draino, but it might work on an all steel engine with a super long rinse afterwards. With aluminum in Draino, the gas produced is flammable hydrogen, so you could even wind up with an explosion if there's any aluminum components in your engine.
Cascade is chlorinated, i.e. basic. It will also be hard on aluminum. I don't doubt that it work and if well diluted with water it is probably not too bad.
Drano is basically bleach.....! I heard of using vinegar, but never about bleach to flush a cooling system....? What's wrong with regular cheap coolant flush ? LIQUID DRANO PROFESSIONAL STRENGTH-RETAIL Ingredient: HYPOCHLOROUS ACID, SODIUM SALT; (SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE) Hypochlorous acid is a weak acid with the chemical formula HClO. It forms when chlorine dissolves in water. Sodium hypochlorite is a chemical compound with the formula NaClO. Sodium hypochlorite solution, commonly known as bleach, is frequently used as a disinfectant and as a bleaching agent.
That's news to me. Maybe the stuff you're talking about is the liquid version. In the old days the Drano crystals in the little steel can were just plain old sodium hydroxide with little flecks of aluminum to make it fizz so it'll seem like it's doing something, when usually you wind up using a snake to clean out the drain anyway. Maybe somebody decided the old fashioned Drano crystals were too dangerous to let consumers mess with.
Drano crystals ingredients are 10% SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE (bleach) and 2% LYE (Sodium hydroxide) and 88% WATER. Probably not enough lye concentration to damage softer metals in the short term. Any designated coolant flush should do a lot better job, I imagine. I always thought Red Neck Coolant Flush is piss after a whole jug of moonshine.....
I did it once. I flushed it afterwards with enough water to equal flow of the river Nile at flood times. It did clean things up well. But not long afterwards I was buying a waterpump, and a radiator. I woundn't do it again.
The Jalopy Journal
