Radiator flush vinegar / clr or other?

[neoneddy]

Been struggling with heat more and more as my radiators deteriorate. Trying to get a season or two more out of them.

Wondering about doing a flush and clean on the entire system. I heard from a few people about using Vinegar on these systems. Any thoughts from the group?

Method I heard was fill it up with vinegar (yes 20 some gallons) run it, let it sit for a day, drain it, should be lots of gunk. Do it again, then neutralize/ rinse a few times and then fill with coolant.

I figured I’d check my thermostats as well at the same time.

[oltrunt]

Just a personal opinion but I'd say spend the 2 grand now for radiators rather than $25,000 shortly down the road for a new engine.  I could see flushing the engine after new radiators but not before especially as you seem to be having bouts of over heating.  My advice assumes that you have the proper antifreeze and working thermostats etc.  Jack

[rancher]

Just a personal opinion but I'd say spend the 2 grand now for radiators rather than $25,000 shortly down the road for a new engine.  I could see flushing the engine after new radiators but not before especially as you seem to be having bouts of over heating.  My advice assumes that you have the proper antifreeze and working thermostats etc.  Jack

These are my thoughts also. If you have bad radiators? Replace or repair as needed before you have bigger problems. The time I have flush a radiator was to get oil out of it after a oil cooler failed.

[luvrbus]

Agree buy the radiators you can spend $30 grand now on a out of frame re-con on the 6v92TA with the prices of today. Even if one shuts down from heat, they keep on cooking till the engine is well done 50% of the time 

[Iceni John]

Last year I had my engine totally rebuilt, and I was surprised when we hot-tanked the block how much scale and yuk there was on the inside of the block and inside all the fluids' passageways.   This scale is an insulator that reduces heat transfer from the engine to the coolant.   Some years ago I also completely rebuilt the entire cooling system to address some overheating issues, and it helped somewhat, but not as much as last year's rebuild.   I now have a cooler-running engine than ever before in the fifteen years I've had the bus.

John

[luvrbus]

I had a 8v92 in the shop some body left a shop towel inside the cooling system that destroyed the engine it came apart in small pieces and stuck everywhere.I don't do many inframes I want the block tanked like John's

[buswarrior]

There used to be a two-part cleaner from Detroit.

One powder was the acid, the other the neutralizer.

Wear eye protection and old clothes, the powder mixes well with hotter water.

Collecting the acid drain-off, and then adding the neutralizer drain off, dampens down the enviro issue, sort-of...

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[dtcerrato]

When we were trying to get all the oil residue out of the cooling system after a blower disintegration some bus nuts on a couple forums suggested a mix of dishwashing powder Cascade diluted in hot water. We followed that suggestion and worked excellent the 1st time around.

[luvrbus]

Vinegar is good at removing rust but very caustic ,it takes a lot of flushing to remove from a system,I would not use it on a wet liner 92 series engine myself. the liner seals are a little iffy on the 92 to begin with,and you really don't want to be changing those

[Jim Blackwood]

A little correction is in order, vinegar is an acid. Acids are not very effective against oils but caustics like lye are. (sodium..something or other). Oven cleaner. Some drain cleaners. The acid probably does work against the scale but you might have to leave the vinegar in there a long time. Some acids eat rust scale better than others. Check with a chemistry teacher for what acid and what concentration would work the best and how long to leave it in at what temperature.

Then there are the gaskets. Prolonged exposure can compromise them.

We've used this trick on tractor engines, once the scale is gone more rust will form extremely fast without good rust protection.

Jim

[Van]

I use 1 part Simple Green to 15 parts of water.
Proper
Prior
Prevention
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance.

[neoneddy]

A little update on how it went / is going.

I ended up putting in 12-14 gallons of Vinegar.. I cut off the heating system from this adventure.

Let it work for a day, ran the engine a few times a day.  Took a sample and it was very white.. I figured that was a lot of the calcium / scale .. why is it in there?  Who knows.... maybe some idiot put in 10 gallons of water into it on the side of the road in Wyoming one summer and forgot about that until November that year.

Next day it all turned red / brown... my friend who suggested this said that was what happen to his as well.   I let it sit another day like this and weather was turning on me, so I had to start flushing.... and flushing... and flushing.   Took 12 flushes to get to run clear... clear enough anyway.

I hope to road test it some soon, the real test will be in Texas here in a month.  We usually get warm coming down to Corpus Christi from Austin / San Antonio area, while pulling the van.

[luvrbus]

Good luck but  the I 37,281 and the 181 toll roads are fairly flat from Austin to Corpus, heating shouldn't be a problem for that 100 milse