Has anyone ever experienced ferrous material in the top of their radiator? My SBF will be fine on the way to a car show but overheats on the way home due to this ferrous material getting caught in the ripples at the top of the radiator. I've used the thermo cool in the past and have flushed the engine and radiator as well but this stuff keeps coming back. Guessing it is a water jacket breaking down and close to time for a rebuild but curious if anyone else has experienced this. Magnet before: Magnet after:
Yes. I’ve found those bits on a couple of old engines are accumulated from years of poor use at the bottom of the water jacket and they are now find their way out, in both cases it needed a screw driver and jet wash at the bottom of the water jacket to break it up and get it out. This is the back of a core plug from a block that was previously flushed and looked clean from the top.
put a nylon stocking between the upper radiator hose, and the radiator inlet tube. This will catch the material before it can enter the radiator
Do as Squirrel suggests but also take 100% vinegar ( yes 100%) and run it in your coolant system for 100 miles. Drain and repeat until it all clears out. You will have to change Squirrels wife’s stocking every flush.
Regular white vinegar or distilled vinegar? The radiator is aluminum so I will be flushing after 15 min or so after the engine heats up
Some of the big trucks run their coolant through a filtration system like an oil filter. There used to be kits available for filtering the coolant. They would simply replace the spin on filter on a regular basis. Would be like Jim's nylon except you don't have to remove the radiator hose to change it.
Distilled vinegar. Not the white cleaning vinegar. I personally would not be too concerned about running that through your radiator just for flushing. It isn’t like it sets in your system for days or weeks. The heated vinegar is what really makes it effective. I repeated this process 5 times on one engine with no issues.
Thanks for the advice. I wound up buying an inline filter and started by draining the cooling system and adding 2 gal of distilled vinegar and douching the system 3 times (heat it to temp and then cool) before draining. This is what the system looked like after the first run. I then drained the system and neutralized using baking soda. Final step was a few cycles with Cascade dishwasher pods in the top of the radiator before disconnecting all hoses and back flushing the engine until clear. Here is where I am currently. Still getting particles in the filter but the water is clear. I'm getting close.
That’s a great in line filter. Where did you buy it? Yes some improvement. But you would still get it cleaner by running 100% for a few days. It will clean your water jackets. Don’t be shy about vinegar. It’s not like it’s strong acid. Percent acid is defined as the number of grams of acetic acid per 100 mL of vinegar. So the 4% vinegar you buy in the store has 4 g of acetic acid per 100 mL
Good to know. I'll get it another go with the vinegar and hopefully get the last of this crude out. The filter was from that auction site. I found a vendor that sold them without a large company name stamped on them. They come in the standard hose sizes and are actually well made. The ends are anodized metal and the clear tube is glass.
Looks like the one I just googled, Summit or JEGS. Don’t recall which. Good to know, never knew those were made. Assume you have to trim back the upper hose, then replace when done with the filter? Or can the filter be left in until it’s time to go with another hose? Thanks.
I had to cut a section of hose out and my plan is to replace the hose once I have a level of confidence thar there is no more crude in the block.
Another plus is that it is cool to be able to see that the thermostat and temp gauge are in agreement with each other.
I somehow managed to put a chip in the edge of the glass tube and can no longer get the filter to seal without a substantial leak. The seller has agreed to ship a replacement to me but of course it has to come from China so it will be 2 weeks. Luckily the engine is full of vinegar at the moment so hopefully the extra time will get all the crude broken down.
Resteration supply sells a gano filter similar to the one your using They offer it in brass, aluminum and clear plastic I run one in all my older engines and pull them once a year to clean
I saw the Gano filters but couldn't figure out how the hose attached or if you would still be able to view the filter once the hose attached. I liked the design of the one I'm using because it has the hose barbs on the ends for the hose clamps. Do you have any pictures of your setup?
Maybe a local glass shop can dress down that surface on their belt sander and restore the sealing surface?
Might be worth a shot although I suspect the tube will then be too short. The ends of the filter actually screw onto the central part of the filter and press the tube into rubber seals in the ends.
I installed the plastic one in my model A, I left about an inch or a little more exposed, they fit into the hose with worm clamps like the glass one. The plastic appears to be very durable I put the brass one into my other cars without a viewing space
Bringing this thread up to date (and hopefully close). I recently left the engine full of vinegar for a week while I went on vacation and waited for the replacement glass to arrive. Upon my return, I dropped the lower radiator hose and back flushed the engine numerous times until the water coming out was as clean as what was going in. I'm currently only running 100% distilled water in the cooling system and checking the filter a few more times before I'll switch back to a full hose and add coolant back to the system. Thanks all for the advice!
The Jalopy Journal
