Maciek

I had a brand new overflow tank, then I had the oil cooler seals go, now I can't get the gunk out of there. I have searched multiple times.

I've tried simple green with cold and hot water
I've tried gas
I've scrubbed everywhere I can get to, but the baffles block a ton of it.

How can I get this thing clean? It is still really gunked up.

Here is a picture after 2 full hours of flushing it with various chemicals.

Vjgtrybno1

That is as bad as I've seen it. Did you try reinstalling and filling the system with water and some Shout or Spray-n-Wash? Run that for a few days soo the system can get hot and cook out the remaining oil in the engine and the tank. Then flush it out while the temp is still high enough to leave the oil in suspension but not so hot as to burn you.

Tom R.

dawn cuts grease. fill it up with water and dawn, shake vigorously. allow dawn to get grease to rise to top, drain. repeat. repeat.

the key is to let the chemicals do their job. dont forget to add a bit of laundry detergent to your cooling system to cut the grease in there so it goes back to the overflow tank. it smells pretty too for a day or two. then flush and fill with anti freeze.

BTDT hated it!

Maciek

Tom,

I forgot to mention, I've done the dawn. I will continue to try it.

Vjgtrybno, I flushed with hot water. So hot I had steam coming out of the hose holes and it hurt to cover it with my fingers. I don't know if I can cook this thing off.

Tom R.

let it sit for a while. in theory the oil is lighter than water so it should rise to the top. plug the bottom hole for the night and come back. it is a **** of a job.

gregeast

I used OxyClean in mine. Mine was twenty years old and brown, now it's 20 years old and Porsche gold, LOL. In all seriousness, it made a large improvement.

OT: Post # 944 for me !

ibkevin

it's been covered multiple times...

Why is it that the old timers have to be the aholes and say "Oh, I found that back in a 2004 post"?

The post for my coolant tank cleaning went for a few pages, and the tank looked like ***!

ZEP Ind Purple Degreaser, that stuff eats through gloves and kicks aluminum back to the 17th century.

JET951

kerosene works well.

mwc951

Why not just buy a new one? $75 from Paragon.
Calculate what your time is worth and you
quite possibly have $75 in attempting to
clean your old one. My 2 cents.....

Maciek

After sitting filled with dawn overnight, its better, still not anywhere close to good. Right now its soaking in simple green.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Kevin, believe it or not, I read your post and many others. I have tried nearly all the things suggested in those posts without much success. Occasionally it takes a post to truely understand a method (i.e. I flushed with dawn 4 times, but then letting it sit overnight per Tom's suggestion helped much more).

MCW, the 951 tank is $140, and this one was nearly brand new when it happened so part of it is the point of the matter.

75ohm

Get the simple green industrial strength and have at it... it is phenomenal stuff!

gregeast

Turbo tanks are more like $140, unfortunately.

Headhunter

The problem is you need something agitate the oil scum with. Small pebbles from a fishtank worked well for me.

Peckster

Forget detergents. Use anything that's a solvent for oil. Kerosene, as someone else suggested, or varsol should do it. If that fails try lacquer thinner.

billthe3

Won't some of these more intense chemicals (lacquer thinner) start eating into the plastic?