How to clean out the "milkshake?"

[2mAn]

Some of you may have seen the previous thread I made about the quality of Victor Reinz headgaskets. If not, do a search and you will find myself and many many others have NOT had good success with VR headgaskets. Good news is that I have a Goetze on now, the bad news is that I still have a lot of the milkshake in my cooling system. Its bad. So bad in fact that I am considering getting a new radiator (truth is, I just want a M42 radiator, and I have some bent fins so why not)

So heres where I need some advice.

Even if I install all new radiator hoses (which I will), and install a new Radiator (which I will), I know that I wont be able to completely eliminate the nasty shit.

I have read all sorts of crazy ideas, using detergents, Shout, dishwasher soap, etc but I want to to hear some firsthand remedies on how to eliminate the gunk from the block. I know theres a coolant drain on the block, but I dont think that alone ( or even with the addition of all the above parts) will completely remove the milkshake from the system.

thoughts?

[jlevie]

Here you go. Note that you must use both the block and radiator drains.

1) Get the front of the car 1-2' in the air on jack-stands.

2) Drain the coolant, remove the thermostat, and set the heater controls for
full hot. O-ring sealed thermostats require you to make up a temporary
gasket, which can be made out of pasteboard.

3) Add flush compound and fill with plain water. Then run the engine at normal
temperature as specified by the flush manufacturer (usually about 15
minutes at operating temperature). In cooler weather it may be necessary to
block off some of the air into the radiator to decrease the warmup time.

4) Allow the engine to cool until you can place your hand on the cylinder head
w/o discomfort. Drain the system and refill with plain water.

5) Run the engine for 10-15 minutes or until temp is close to normal.

6) Repeat (4) and (5) until the water drained from the system is clear and
free of debris.

7) Fill with coolant. It is best to dilute aiitfreeze with distilled water.
Tap water contains disolved oxygen and may contain minerals. Either of
which will reduce the lifetime of the coolant.

Notes:

You don't absolutely need to remove the thermostat, but doing so will allow
continuous flow through the radiator and will also make draining & filling
faster and easier.

Always allow the engine to cool to the point that you can hold your hand on
the cylinder head without discomfort. That will prevent scalds from hot
coolant and prevent thermally shocking the head when you dump the coolant.

Filling the system with hot water makes the process go faster and keeps from
having to run the engine a lot in a cold condition (rich mixture).

A rusty cooling system needs an oxalic acid flush. Kits for that (containing
oxalic acid and soda for neutralizing the acid) used to be available, but
aren't now. 8oz of oxalic acid and 4oz of soda will treat a 1-1/2 to 2 gallon
cooling system. The procedure is like the above with an extra step 4 where the
soda is added before the series of fill/drains are done. Since oxalic acid
attacks aluminum (which is why you don't find those kits anymore), only use
that on a badly rusted cooling system and replace the radiator and heater core
after the flush is done.

[TobyB]

Jeez-

I always just changed the gasket, fixed the head, changed the coolant, changed the oil, ran it a few miles, did fluids again,
and called it good.

Oil in the water is ugly, but not all that harmful IF it's not so bad as to impede cooling.

Coolant in the oil is very bad indeed.

Do what Jim says.

t

[2mAn]

mine was bad. really bad. theres a thread in this forum (m20) about it.