Sidewinded_idi
Full Access Member
i wanted to share my experience with a severely plugged coolant system in my 92 f350. I just purchased the truck and it would heat up instantly at speed and couldn't use the ac at all or it would overheat, I knew that meant a plugged radiator. I tried all the fancy flushes and nothing worked. I'll explain what did.
-Go to Home Depot and buy a 2 inch and 1 1/2 pipe plug, the kind with a rubber oring sandwiched between two plastic halves that expand with a wingnut. Next buy two gallons of muratic acid but not from Home Depot, Go to a quality hardware or pool store, the Home Depot stuff is only 14. % and doesn't do anything you need the strongest you can get make sure it says 34.5%
- once you have these items plug both the upper and lower radiator ports so it's isolated. Also make sure to disconnect and plug the heater hose coming off the radiator so no acid gets in. The engine.
-depending on severity will dictate your treatment time, once you fill the radiator with the muratic acid straight undiluted make sure to wear a respirator and eyewear as without the fumes were very unpleasant.
- after 3 hours it was improved but still not perfect, I drained and re filled it for another soak this Time for 4 hours straight. After the 7 hrs total of the 100% acid soak my core looked new inside, all the tube scale was removed and it looked great.
- once you drain all the acid make sure to mix up two gallons of water and baking soda and fill the radiator with his solution to neautralize the acid.
-after this was completed I hooked the radiator back online and went to the rust issue. I used a heavy treatment of Two bottles of thermo cure evapo rust treatment,
I drove with the two bottles and the rest tap water for two days and drained. It smells aweful but does it's job, I was able to flush the mixture out and witching a few cycles of straight water everything was crystal clear.
This is a very severe procedure but afterwards inside my heater hoses, radiator everything looked like new. I re filled with fleet pre charged coolant and it stays right in the middle of the temperature range now. Before I couldn't even make it up our local town blvd because it would start to peg the gauge. Now it cools good as new and I saved the cost of what I sure was going to need a new radiator. If yourself is aluminum do not attempt this it only works with the brass cores. And FYI a lot of people said online don't leave the acid in more than 15-30 minutes. For as bad as my system was I had a total of 7 hrs of it plugged and filled with zero side effects.
-Go to Home Depot and buy a 2 inch and 1 1/2 pipe plug, the kind with a rubber oring sandwiched between two plastic halves that expand with a wingnut. Next buy two gallons of muratic acid but not from Home Depot, Go to a quality hardware or pool store, the Home Depot stuff is only 14. % and doesn't do anything you need the strongest you can get make sure it says 34.5%
- once you have these items plug both the upper and lower radiator ports so it's isolated. Also make sure to disconnect and plug the heater hose coming off the radiator so no acid gets in. The engine.
-depending on severity will dictate your treatment time, once you fill the radiator with the muratic acid straight undiluted make sure to wear a respirator and eyewear as without the fumes were very unpleasant.
- after 3 hours it was improved but still not perfect, I drained and re filled it for another soak this Time for 4 hours straight. After the 7 hrs total of the 100% acid soak my core looked new inside, all the tube scale was removed and it looked great.
- once you drain all the acid make sure to mix up two gallons of water and baking soda and fill the radiator with his solution to neautralize the acid.
-after this was completed I hooked the radiator back online and went to the rust issue. I used a heavy treatment of Two bottles of thermo cure evapo rust treatment,
I drove with the two bottles and the rest tap water for two days and drained. It smells aweful but does it's job, I was able to flush the mixture out and witching a few cycles of straight water everything was crystal clear.
This is a very severe procedure but afterwards inside my heater hoses, radiator everything looked like new. I re filled with fleet pre charged coolant and it stays right in the middle of the temperature range now. Before I couldn't even make it up our local town blvd because it would start to peg the gauge. Now it cools good as new and I saved the cost of what I sure was going to need a new radiator. If yourself is aluminum do not attempt this it only works with the brass cores. And FYI a lot of people said online don't leave the acid in more than 15-30 minutes. For as bad as my system was I had a total of 7 hrs of it plugged and filled with zero side effects.