bs

i'm going to make yet another attempt to fix my oil/coolant mixing problem tomorrow...

i know this has come up before but i didn't hear it resoved to my memory. is there anything that can be done to clean oil from the cooling system before it is refilled? any mild solvent that the system can be flushed with? i plan on running a lot of water through but i'd like to see some oil getting disolved from my radiator and turbo cooling passages. i know this problem isn't uncommon, so have any of you chemically inclined people found a solution?

IceShark

The Prestone radiator flush is supposed to take care of oil and such.

But if you got a lot of oil mixed in I might think about trying some dish washing soap first.

Dave in Chicago

My factory-trained P-car wrench used 'Shout' and water, flushed with this mixture twice, plus clear water once. Then fill with coolant mix. If the oil has been in there for a while, watch for hose swelling (which can lead to failure). Even after all that, I still saw the occasional little globule of oil in the overflow tank.

This was last summer. I plan to do one more drain, flush with water, and fill with phosphate-free antifreeze and distilled water when it gets above freezing in Chicago.

Keep the shiny side up,

booster

Put about 1/4 cup of dishwasher detergent(not dishwashing)in a gallon of warm water and dissolve, drain you system and put in the gallon of detergent and fill with water, run the engine for about 30 min. or so (a little longer is better)then drain and flush with water 2 times then fill with coolant. I did it this way and it cleaned it super clean.

triscadek

Make sure the heater temp.control is on full hot to clean the heater core also.

bs

in <a href="http://forums.rennlist.com/scripts/rennforums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=15&t=001692" target="_blank">this thread</a> it was recomended NOT to use dish soap as it isn't supposed to be kind to aluminum... any comments?

as for the status of the repair, it has turned out to be a lot more of a hassle since i'm doing it at home instead of my mechanic's shop.... but there'll be more posts from me today on those issues... needless to say the "flush the radiator" stage seems awfully far away and easy right now.

Tom R.

for the hoses we took them ran a rag through them, did an angioplasty on the narrow one, then flushed the system

judd944

I hope you checked the main bearing rods because i had oil and coolant mix in my 86na and bad things happened all over the place. I changed the oil cooler seals but i did not align it right. That turned into a 4 thousand dollar mistake! I will put up pics of my newly rebuit engine in a few weeks when it is done.

Judd

bs

another thought: one of my coworkers suggested taking my car to a radiator shop and getting it pressure flushed. does anyone know how much this is likely to cost or how effective it might be?

also, speaking of aligning things correctly, how many of you used the porsche alignment tool instead of just the pressure releif valve for putting the oil cooler cover back on?

and should the oil pressure sensor have a gasket or something? mine didn't when i took it off...

bs

is "shout" dishwasher detergent? i looked and couldn't find it so it must not be a west coast product... i'm thinking of using some other dishwasher detergent when i flush out my radiator tonight...

IceShark

No, Shout is a laundry cleaner you squirt on the heavy stains on clothes before you toss them in the washer. It is a national US wide product, used to have a commercial "Shout It Out".

Just make sure you back flush this crap out real good. I'd probably back flush for about 20 minutes.

Renntag

I have allways just run cooling system flush through, followed by water, allowing each stage to circulate for 15-20 minutes.

Before addign coolant, I run fresh water through, let it drain, then refill it 50/50.

Sometimes it needs to be flushed again in a few months.

bs

ahh... well like i said in that nascrap thread, i don't really watch tv and never have since it is just a govornment mind control plot to make us all dumb and complacent.

thanks for the heads up.

what do you mean by "back flush"? is that any different than "flushing" ie fill up with water, run for a few minutes, drain and repeat? or does it involve using some special fitting and trying to fill the radiator from the bottom??

IceShark

ben, back flushing is different. For the back yard mechanic with our cars, it involves putting a T in the water line coming off the back of the engine block to the heater core. Screw a garden hose into that. Then take off the reservior cap, stick in a snap in gizmo to direct the water out to the yard or drain.

Turn on the water tap and start the engine. Let the engine run for ~ 20 minutes while the water squirts out the reservoir for a real clean job. I don't think there will be a drop of soap left in the cooling system after that.

Prestone sells such a kit for about $3. You need to buy about $10 more worth of fittings and hose from the local hardware store to make this work right with our cars. When you are done, put everything back together the way it originally was and save the fittings for next time.

Follow above and Prestone instructions; this really works good.

bs

ahhh... now that you mention it i've heard of this before.

well if anyone knows what size of hose i'll be dealing with and can tell me what to get in advance, it would save me driving home, looking at my car, turning around and going back to the hardware store. this sounds like an invasive procedure that would leave a capped tee in one of my coolant lines. oh well, the reliability hit would be worth it to know that i'd get all the damn soap out.... WITHOUT having to try to get to that damn engine block coolant drain plug again.

thanks.