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No, that was what was in front of, and behind the radiators! I shudder to think what it looks like between the radiator and the condenser.
My oil and coolant temps dropped about 5-7 degrees after doing this. I have a lot of bent fins on the AC condensers (chassis has 83k on it), so methinks taking the front bumper cover off to do a deep clean of the radiator and condensers would help massively. Thinking about using some of this stuff.
I'll do so in the next few weeks, as I'm ordering a center radiator/coolant flush kit.
I never cleaned my 2000 Boxster S radiators until 194K miles. What do they look like? Not too bad actually. The first pic below is what was between the radiator and A/C condenser. Some of the crud was like cement and would not come off, but actually, that was only a few square inches. Sprayed on some simple green and got it all pretty clean.
Not as bad as one would think after 12 years of all year, all weather driving. Lotsa paranoia out there.
Man, that's a lot of debris! What were your coolant/oil temps like before and after the cleaning?
Rock solid fine. Needle barely ever moved. I did it because I had the time, there was a ton of miles on the car, and I was under the influence of internet paranoia. Not that this was a bad idea to do, I was glad I did it. But unless plan on keeping your car 12 years, run up 197K miles, and use it as and all year daily driver.... well you don't have to do this at all.
I use a 12" long blow gun with a curved tip, hooked to my air compressor. Worked great.
See my pics above...... my radiator/condensor space had stuff that would no way get blown out by compressed air. It had solidified and was rock solid. It did come off when softened with water and hit with a hose, but air would never move this. I chipped some away and left a few square inches of "cement".
Rock solid fine. Needle barely ever moved. I did it because I had the time, there was a ton of miles on the car, and I was under the influence of internet paranoia. Not that this was a bad idea to do, I was glad I did it. But unless plan on keeping your car 12 years, run up 197K miles, and use it as and all year daily driver.... well you don't have to do this at all.
Peace
Bruce in Philly
Were you getting your temp readings off the temp gauge in the instrument cluster, or were you reading it off the CAN, which is more accurate? If I recall, the water temp gauges in our cars are basically useless. Not so with the oil pressure and oil temp gauges, however.
Was this before you started datalogging stuff on Durametric?
Were you getting your temp readings off the temp gauge in the instrument cluster, or were you reading it off the CAN, which is more accurate? If I recall, the water temp gauges in our cars are basically useless. Not so with the oil pressure and oil temp gauges, however.
Was this before you started datalogging stuff on Durametric?
No Durametric back then. The temp gauge was solid and didn't move much but it did move slightly. Then, one day on a hot July day, I blew the infamous, crappy, constantly failing, coolant tank and my temps shot up. The gauge was definitely working that day. I had the car flat bedded.
So.... should I be so wild as to speculate (hey, it is the internet and I am an engineerexpertdesingermechanic) the temp gauges work just fine. The cooling systems in our cars just work. Why is this so unbelievable?
[QUOTE=Bruce In Philly;12194460]I never cleaned my 2000 Boxster S radiators until 194K miles. What do they look like? Not too bad actually. The first pic below is what was between the radiator and A/C condenser. Some of the crud was like cement and would not come off, but actually, that was only a few square inches. Sprayed on some simple green and got it all pretty clean.
Not as bad as one would think after 12 years of all year, all weather driving. Lotsa paranoia out there.
I echo Bruce in Philly's comments … I removed the bumper to clean my MY05 997.1 last month and was surprised how little trash/ leaf litter came out. I almost wanted more to make the whole exercise seem worthwhile - link:
In any case, peace of mind knowing the rads are clear. However, as I discovered, it's a good idea to inspect the lower parts of the radiator brackets for surface rust while the bumper is off, so these can be treated if necessary.
I pull a massive amount of debris out from in front of the radiators whenever I clean them. I probably do it three or four times a year. The close proximity to the ground means we get leaves and other trash, as well as a good dousing with water, which on my car, helps form a solid layer of crud at the bottom of the radiator that gets awfully hard to clean because it packs in between the vanes of the radiators.
I use a small-diameter flexible hose on a shop vac. It' gets it pretty clean.
In addition to leaves, I've pulled cigarette butts, rocks, nails, screws, bits of paper, cardboard and plastic grocery bags out of mine. The weirdest thing I ever pulled out of there was half of a squirrel's tail.
I have removed a fair amount of debris when vacuuming out the radiators on my 2008. Actually, I found that most of the debris was at the outside vertical edges of each radiator area It might be my imagination but it seems the oil temp is a bit cooler on those hot days. I am also wondering now if it is the outside edge where the material can get between the heat exchangers.
04-10-2015, 03:10 PM
