My brother and I simply purchased a 1979 El Camino that has been saved on the west coast for one thing like over 20 years. We acquired deal on it. It has a gentle small block 305 that somebody had put in a twin airplane aluminum consumption and Holley carburetor. We acquired the engine working after placing on a brand new gasoline pump and it ran midway respectable however after a brief check drive, it overheated fairly rapidly. We determined it most likely wanted a brand new thermostat so we pulled it off. What we discovered was this nasty white crud all contained in the water passage beneath the thermostat. We included a photograph. We put water within the radiator so half of these items is mushy however different components are like onerous as concrete What’s these items and the way can we do away with it? Thanks,
N.D.
This can be a nice query.
We’ve run into this one earlier than a very long time in the past serving to a pal with a Camaro that he had discovered. It too had been saved for a very long time and we discovered the identical stuff contained in the radiator. We requested our pal Jay Ross what that is and he mentioned it’s mainly a gel that’s fashioned when ethylene glycol anti-freeze—the unique “inexperienced” coloured anti-freeze—is allowed to sit down within the cooling system for an extended time frame.
When this happens, the anti-freeze silicates are inclined to harden to kind this gel. If you’re fortunate, the gel, as you talked about, is comfortable and mushy and may be considerably simply eliminated by draining the block and radiator and flushing the system. In our case with the Camaro, that stuff had hardened contained in the cylinder head within the coolant passage subsequent to the consumption manifold. We eliminated the consumption and managed to chisel that stuff out of the water passage within the head and vacuum it out on each side.
Sadly, even when you take away all this corrosion, there’s no assure that it’s not fashioned elsewhere within the engine or the radiator. In our case, as soon as we thought we had the engine cleaned out, the engine nonetheless overheated. With the engine working, we took a handheld infrared temp gun and pointed it at varied components of the radiator. That’s after we found that the underside third of the radiator was plugged with this identical corrosion and never circulating water by means of that portion of the radiator. The gun confirmed the entire backside third remained cool in comparison with the remainder of the radiator.
Quite than try to wash the radiator, we elected to simply buy a brand new one. However earlier than we did that, we ran some critical acid-based cooling system flush by means of the engine to wash out the engine. That prompted extra points because the flush then additionally affected a number of metal freeze plugs that had critically corroded and as soon as they have been clear, they leaked.
This required changing all of the freeze plugs with brass variations, together with the 2 within the rear of the engine within the bellhousing space. This can be a lot of labor. This isn’t actually troublesome, however it’s time-consuming. The excellent news is that with the previous freeze plugs out, we may look within the block which appeared in respectable form with no blockage from this silicate gel.
The web consequence was we then had a comparatively new cooling system. The important thing then is to guard his new system to verify this corrosion doesn’t occur once more. The primary factor is to make use of a 50/50 mixture of conventional ethylene glycol anti-freeze. Chances are you’ll discover that the majority anti-freeze corporations now promote anti-freeze in pre-mixed, 50/50 jugs. However when you examine fastidiously, you’ll discover that this pre-mix is barely barely cheaper than the identical, full energy anti-freeze. So meaning you might be paying virtually the identical value for anti-freeze that’s 50 p.c water! So the important thing right here is to solely buy the concentrated anti-freeze and blend it your self.
Chances are you’ll take pleasure in this text too: Find out how to Clear Your Cooling System with an Simple Chemical Flush
One other tip that Jay Ross supplied us is to not use distilled water. When water is distilled, it removes electrons from the water. This makes the water “electron hungry” and can pull free electrons from comfortable metals like aluminum or magnesium. Ross suggests utilizing comfortable water as a substitute. This course of removes the solids from faucet water that may contribute to lowering the anti-corrosion components within the anti-freeze. We all know that anti-freeze corporations usually let you know to make use of distilled water, but it surely actually isn’t the most effective. For those who care about your engine, it’s significantly better to make use of comfortable water. Exhausting faucet water is the worst so don’t use that except you don’t have any different different.
For those who dwell in an space the place freezing isn’t a problem, you may run comfortable water together with a bottle of anti-corrosion additive like No-Rosion or Hyper-Kuhl or different anti-corrosion components to your cooling system. This may defend your cooling system for roughly a yr or so after which will must be re-fortified. This may maintain the system contemporary and reduce corrosion and permit the system to do its job of holding your engine working at its optimum temperature.
