Technical Stude Pickup Warehouse Find

Not sure about the oxidation, but citric acid mix is safe on brass. I googled it about using it in a block with brass core plugs.
But, I suspect you stop leak stopped up some marginal tubes.

 

Maybe there is an interchange. My Olds 455 had a drippy rear rope main, it happened to be the same size as a rubber 460 ford main seal, so I installed one. It still drips a little but it has been pretty damn dry down there for 15 years. NASA and penguins, always looking for a tighter seal.

 

I wondered about that, I have a bag of citric acid. I might do a test with that too, just for kicks. I’ve got plenty of dirty brass fittings.

 

The results are in.
I picked three brass fittings from my stash, one dark with oxidation, one a little lighter oxidation and one very light. I washed them with carb cleaner to make sure that there was no oil or grease keeping the vinegar from the surface. Washed and dried.

I put them in the measuring cup and covered them with white vinegar. 5:24 pm

I agitated it several times. Three hours later, little progress. 8:16 pm

And finally, 24 hours later.

Once again, vinegar is a disappointment. The fittings turned a coppery color but they don’t look like bare brass. I didn’t scrub anything because I won’t be able to scrub the inside of my radiator.
I’ll try citric acid and maybe some Drano.

 

Tks for showing us your brass cleaning test. Interesting

 

Sure. I thought it was worth giving it a try. After the 24 hours I rinsed the parts thoroughly with water and rubbed them with a shop rag to dry them thinking that maybe they would be bare yellow brass but they weren’t. The parts are clean but the oxides were still present.
If I get into town today I’ll pick up some oxalic to try.

 

Hey, Bob;
Draino is lye, iirc. Used to be stronger concentration.

Propylene-glycol will clean out the cooling system, helps to have a filter, at least for awhile. Just takes awhile. Is a good antifreeze, won't hurt critters unlike ethelene-glycol, if it matters.

Thick blue toilet-cleaner will quickly remove oxidation from brass, etc. Some of them contain Hydrocloric Acid. I use it to clean carbs & their parts(got the tip from a Kawasaki dealer since they quit using Berrymans' - which doesn't work since the formula has been changed & was very health-hazardous anyways). Just don't leave it in too long, you can watch the oxidation being removed, brass comes out sorta satiny-finish. Wash/rinse real well. Never tried it in a cooling system, but I'm guessing it'll work well, but foams. Don't know what amount to put in, guess I'd start w/~ half a bottle. ??? Just make sure system is flushed very well before reinstalling antifreeze. This one could get interesting.

Marcus...

 

I’ve got some of that thick blue bathroom cleaner, I do a test. Thanks

 

Anything acidic will work. Depends on strength of course. Vinegar is quite weak, active ingredient is acetic acid. The other options are just different acids, but results are same. The H+ ions that make an acid combine with the oxide of the metal, making water H2O, and reducing the amount of oxide. The metal part of the oxide goes into the solution. That's why it may change color. Reaction is the same regardless of the acid type. Reaction rates are strength dependent.

 

Hey, 38chev454;
True, just that some acid-forms are easier to acquire & handle. I forgot to mention, I'd also use a base-something like (baking soda maybe) to neutralize the acid, after the 1st flush. & for grins, use test-trips to verify acid is out. Interesting experiment.
Marcus...

 

I gathered up a couple more brass fittings, pipe Tees from the bilge of an old boat. I wiped them with carb cleaner and stuck them in two different solutions. One in Zep acidic toilet bowl cleaner (hydrocloric acid) mixed 50/50 with water. One in citric acid, mixed 2oz to 24 oz with water.
The victim….2 each

Into the Zep bath at 1:51 pm


And into the citric acid bath at 2:31 pm.

Let the games begin.

 

Agitate, agitate, agitate….
A little while later, there’s noticeable color change in both solutions. But the citric acid is in the lead. The Zep has darkened and clouded a little, the Citric is obviously yellow.

 

While conducting the acid test I decided to attack the useless headlights on the Stude.
I took it to the store the other day and returned home after dark. The headlight did a piss-poor job of lighting the way home. They seemed to be pointing 3 feet ahead of the missing front bumper.
The outer rings came off with no drama. One bucket had a shock absorber bushing as a tensioner, it fell apart. I had a fresh shock bushing. It turned out that both bulbs on the passenger side were bad. I had replacement T3s that I had salvaged from the ‘65 Corvair that I got my wife’s Corvair engine from. I couldn’t resist cleaning the rings and painting the rusty screws that hold them on.
All back together and all working with a little better alignment. I’ll know more tonight after dark. The perfect little task to do while testing cleaners. Turn signals are next.

 

Looking at the above pictures, does anyone have a bent up grille that has the two pieces that they cut out of mine. I’m going to cut off the big ugly frame horns when I get working on a front bumper. I’d like to patch the bottom of the grille while I’m at it.

 

Hey, Bob;
I've only used the *thick* blue toilet cleaners straight/100%. Diluted would be quite abit weaker. But I think, safer for an unknown situation/use. I forgot to mention, I wouldn't mix it w/antifreeze. I do believe there's also a big difference in various tbc acid concentrations.
Marcus...

 

I decided on 50/50 with water for economic reasons as well as concern for a very old radiator not knowing anything about hydrochloride acid.
At 3:40 there was a noticeable change in the color of the solutions.

As of 7:15 tonight, the Zep is doing what I hoped. The fitting has the nice yellow brass look with just a little of the copper. I expect it will be perfect when I check it tomorrow morning.
The citric acid is now lagging way behind. In spite of the color of the solution, the fitting is still showing lots of oxidation.

 

Back to the rear main seal leak for a minute.
This is what it leaked in a little over 24 hours with a few spots from the steering box and the transmission dipstick tube. Waay better than the wet 8”+ puddles it was leaving in a matter of minutes before I added the sealer. It may still improve, if not, I can live with that.
(worn out size 11 shoe shown for scale)

 

I would think you would be more worried about removing the scale than the tarnish. The tarnish is nothing more than a protective layer for the metal to slow down corrosion.

 

I was hoping that the right process would remove both. Not a big deal, but this particular radiator has had about 50 years to build up oxidation. I figured that bare brass would transfer heat slightly better than brass with a 50 year coating. I may be wrong, but I wanted to try.
All this would be totally unnecessary if we had a good old fashioned radiator shop nearby. And eventually I’ll be installing a bigger copper/brass radiator. So basically, I’m just screwing around and learning more DIY tricks.

 

Hey, Bob;
I get it. Good testing. Was just mentioning what I've done. Used full strength, tarnish/carb-crap/gas-varnish gone in ~30 secs->1min or so. "Cleaned while you wait n watch..." . Wouldn't run full strength in a rad/cooling system, but I'd try to use a temporarily-connected full-flow filter to catch all the rust n crap, so's most hopefully won't settle in crevices. FWIW.
Marcus...

 

I’ll pull the radiator to do the rinse. I don’t want to take a chance that the cleaner attacks my 60+ year old head gaskets (that seem to be holding, so far). Easier to agitate a little, neutralize and rinse too.
I need to do some other stuff and it might be helpful to have the radiator out. I need to add a fan spacer and/or trim the fan blades a little so I can get it closer to the radiator. Also replace the hoses on the water elbows on the front of the heads.
I ordered some additional 2G jets today. I swapped out the factory 63 jets for 55s when it was running way rich. Since I isolated that to a bad power valve I haven’t put the original jets back in so it’s running pretty lean. I’m going up to 59s and see how it looks.
Another round of under the hood activities.

 

Sounds like that'll work well... .
Marcus...

 

There's a guy in the "antiquated" section of the HAMB that was cleaning his uncle's collection of Studebaker stuff off of a property that had been sold and he had a couple of those grilles, might check in with him.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...s-cars-worth-salvaging.1300860/#post-14988749

 

Back to the acid test. I bought some crystal drain cleaner, it wasn’t Drano but rather a commercial brand of crystal lye. I made up a solution 1 tsp to 6 oz of water and soaked a couple fittings, agitating whenever I thought of it. It was pretty disappointing. I guess lye does better eating organic matter, it barely changed the surface of the brass.



A miserable failure, and they even had an extra day in the bath because I forgot to rinse them before going to the drags yesterday. Hmmm.

 

So there you have it, “believe the science” (LOL)
Four different common solutions and the results of a 24 hour or longer soak with occasional agitation but no scrubbing. Obviously I don’t know the exact metallurgical makeup but they are common brass automotive fittings.


Upper left - white vinegar
Upper right - citric acid (powder)
Lower left - Zep acidic toilet bowl cleaner (hydrochloric acid)
Lower right - Instant Power crystal drain opener - 100% lye.
Looks to me like the Zep gave me the surface I was looking for with white vinegar 2nd and citric acid 3rd.
As NRGwizard said, I probably could have used a stronger solution, maybe 70/30 Zep to water for faster results. And maybe more time would produce the desired results with the vinegar. So I’ll have to choose between those two when I pull out the radiator.
I didn’t neutralize any of the test victims so we’ll see next time I go into the fitting drawer if any have disappeared or turned to dust.

 

Hey, Bob;
Just for giggles - take the worst brass carb piece you can find, & dunk it in pure blue potty cleaner. Watch the corrosion dissolve. Just rinse well after. It's almost amusing to watch. .
I know you won't do the rad this way, but since you're experimenting, try it. I was *very* skeptical when told of this by the Kwak service mgr, but I had little to lose. Hot damn by gummies - it worked. Almost too well. My now go-to. . Biggest problem is getting the sticky stuff off everything properly to stop it's action. Carb parts are easy to dunk, flush, & spray out, radiators not so easy. For some reason the "thin" blue toilet cleaner doesn't work as well.
Marcus...

 

I'm going to install another grille over the winter, so the one on my avatar will be available...

 

My wondering would be if the toilet bowl cleaner mixture would harm the solder joints or at the very least make then weaker?. I had my radiator dipped/flushed out at the radiator shop and about a 1year later (low mileage) I have a seam leak....caustic dip, 16 lb cap or coincidence ?????

 

I wondered the same thing, but I think I have a sacrificial radiator out back that I can try it on.
In an attempt to make the truck reliable I will be replacing this radiator with a slightly larger one in the future. I’m just hoping to use this radiator until I swap in the new engine. In the meantime I’m going to optimize the rest of the cooling system. I added a better fan and a recovery tank. I need to get the fan closer to the radiator but the fan diameter is just a little too big and it will hit the front crossmember when it’s close enough to the radiator. So I either raise the front of the engine slightly (a real pain with the engine in) or I trim the fan blades slightly. It’s during all this monkeying around that I wanted to soak this old radiator.

 

What about the stuff that was on TV some 40/50 years ago? The would take a penny, dip it in, other 1/2 looked brand new. Was touted for silverware, etc as well. Just can’t recall the name of it.