~ To my surprise all the nuts and bolts came off easily and none were
~ sheered. I drained the water from the radiator and the block but
~ water only dribbled out of the block. On removing the head I found
~ lots of bits of rust and a small brass bolt in the water passages in
~ the block. I guess it doesn't help the cooling! Can anyone recommend
~ a way to get rid of all this crap?
If you're planning to have any machine work done, have the shop
either hot-tank or jet-wash your block. Hot-tanking consists of
dunking the block in a hot caustic solution that strips grease,
old paint, and non-ferrous metals off the block. It should also
remove the crud from inside the cooling-system passages.
Many shops now choose to use jet-washing rather than hot-tanking.
Jet-washing consists of using a similar hot, caustic solution at
high pressure, directed into the cooling and oil system passages.
The pressure actually helps get everything out even better than
dipping, or so I've been told. It has produced good results for
me on a couple of occasions.
If you have something like a Karcher pressure washer, a full-face
shield, and somewhere to drain the resulting toxic sludge, you
can probably do this at home. One alternative for that might be
to mix a cooling-system flush with very hot water, put it in a
Hudson sprayer, and then use compressed air to blow it all the
way through and out. Wear eye protection if you do this! Also,
I've heard that gun-cleaning brushes are excellent for clearing
out engine passages, as they're small, stiff, and made to go down
long, thin holes in metal.
BTW, more kudos for Castrol's Super Clean (aka "That Purple Stuff")
as a general-purpose engine/suspension/driveway degreaser. I took
some 30 years of baked-on sludge off Kim's 122S yesterday as part
of my preface to suspension rebuild. The car's had a bad creak and
groan from the front end when you transfer weight on or off, such as
while parallel parking. I cleaned about 10 pounds of character from
the lower A-arms, then lubricated all five grease nipples. To my
amazement, the groans were gone when next we test-drove that car.
I still need bushings for the rear, but that car has its own list...
--Scott
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