I've actually thought of that. The item that prevents that is that I would have to break it down a second time, since my motor has a water tube that will be replaced. But I won't operate the motor with whatever cleaning solution I use and a new water tube. So it will be soak and flush with the head off, fish out the old water tube (the cleaning solution should help free it), flush with bicarb and then ****on her up.
Maybe then that is what I need? I want to nuke the scale that is in there. I want it to go away. Disappear. I can do my acid flush outside, if that helps. Maybe, say, a half gallon of acid and a couple of gallons of hot water? If the deck, bores, piston tops and valves are greased, that should protect them from flash rusting.
My Detroit Diesel Engines service manual recommends a de-scaling mix of 1/3 muriatic acid and 2/3 water with 1/2 pound oxalic acid powder added. Based on this, about five years ago I mixed up a batch of 1/2 gallon muriatic acid / 1 gallon water / 10 oz. oxalic acid powder and used it to de-scale some diesel coolant system stuff. It worked great. The acid mix will dissolve lime and scale in about a minute, then the parts should be flushed thoroughly with clean hot water. I saved the brew in a 5 gallon white fuel jug and use it for de-scaling other parts once in a while, even plumbing fittings. But everything must be flushed with water after the acid.
There ya go. Either stripping it down, dunkin' it in mol***es or mixing up a brew... you have some choices and we have more info too. Gotta love the HAMB.
This sounds like the witches brew I need, and I have all the ingredients on hand. Thanks!!! Just one thing I would like to clarify. When you say 'scale', you do not only mean the rusty crust that adheres to the inside of the engine, but also the stuff that collects in the bottom of water p***ages that just kind of lays there, not really connected to anything. Yes? Last question - chemistry reminder time - is it add the acid to the water, or add the water to the acid?
Go phosphoric...I've heard Oxalic is good too, but never used it. Phosphoric does little damage after eating the actual rust and seems to be neutralized by a simple flushing with water. Muriatic and even vinegar leave a nasty grainy surface, probably from eating the base metal, and are hard to completely neutralize. If not neutralized, the surfaces immediately rust again...plus, muriatic will surface rust everything you own if open to the air in your garage. Too nasty to use, IMHO.
I cleaned mine out while the engine was out of the car. Pull the heads, intake manifold and remove the water pumps. Then with different length screwdrivers and brushes and a flexible light s****e and loosen up as much **** as possible. At various times during the procedure connect a piece of vacuum hose or fuel line to a shop vac. and **** out as much debris as possible followed by blowing out with an air hose. I was really amazed how much gunk had ac***ulated inside. I've been told that DRAINO would be good to follow up with, which I think I will give a try.
Are you talking about the normal evaporust, or the special cooling system stuff? I bought some of the regular stuff a while back, and today I just realized they make a special type for cooling sytems. http://www.evaporust.com/evaporustcsc.html
Chemical derusting is fine for the surface inside the engine but what if it can't get past the built up hard packed sediment in the bottom. When I popped out the freeze plugs on the 58 Stude motor, you still could not see inside. There must have been 4" of packed sediment that I had to chip out with screwdrivers. I had a hell of a pile of scale and rust at my feet when I got this far. A shop vac in one hole and a blow gun with a piece of 3/16" brake line in the others got a lot of it. I'm not rebuilding this engine so I did not want to use water. It would have had to soak for months to get down through the sediment and probably would take many multiple applications. I plan to do the old vinigar trick when it's back on the road to take care of the surface rust inside. I did get it better looking than this picture before I replaced the freeze plugs. One interesting remedy that I read about was to take the flexible inner shaft out of a speedo. cable, cut it about 14" long and fray one end of it to get a long flexible wire brush. Inserted into an electric drill it can be fished through some of the thin p***ages while spinning in the drill to get to parts of the engine that are not accessable with any other tool.
Can I use regular evaporust in my cooling system? what do i need to do to neutralize the evaporust residue left in the block after I drain the cooling system?
We can't get the type for the cooling system around here. No neutralization needed.. a GREAT advantage. Frayed speedo cable? Interesting idea.
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