anyone every hear of or try using baking soda as a rad flush? i just spent half an hour reading pros and cons of doing it but no actual testimonial from someone thats tried it.
baking soda for a rad flush??
- Thread starter cutlassguy
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Prestone used to make a terrific 2 part cleaner if you can find it. You poured the caustic side in and ran it a few days, then flushed it out. Then you poured the neutralizer side in and ran it a bit and then flushed that out. I removed the thermostat for this and it cleaned the motor like new.
never heard of baking soda, but i always used to flush the coolant, pour water in, let it warm up, flush then take the radiator out and pour vinegar and hot water into the radiator and shake it up. Since vinegar is acidic, it does a good job at getting the rust water and crap out of the radiator.
the reason i ask is i did 2 complete coolant system flushes, one right after another, with the stuff canadian tire sells as rad flush and i didnt really notice that much of a difference other than a little better flow. thing is i can see a bunch of scale and crap that plugging the little ports inside the rad and despite what i was able to knock lose wwith a little screwdiver, im sure theres ALOT more inside. i just bought a new heater core but i dont want to put it in until i get everything cleaned out good. id just buy a new rad and do them both at the same time but im assuming from what i can see in the rad that the rest of the system is probaly clogged up with this sh*t. im considering taking it to a rad shop and getting them to do they whole system for me, but i HATE paying someone else to do something i can easily do. i know someones probaly gonna tell me about how in piticular a rad shop would do it different from what i could do in my yard, but my question here is what are my options aside from going to a shop. i found one person that said they did a box of baking soda and the rest water, flushed it out and it was super clean, but on the other hand, ive read from "chemist's" all about the crazy chemical nature of what it would do so i dunno if i wanna try it lol
Grab some Water Wetter and use DISTILLED water in your radiator, you will definately have a noticeable difference in cooling.
it actually runs pretty cool. it used to run around 100 before i changed the thermostat and now its inbetween 40 and a 100 so its running considerably cooler. just wanna clean that gunk out for my own peace of mind.
The main problem with a really good cleaner is that it eats the water pump too. So you need a chemical that will dissolve rust and crud yet not harm aluminum and brass. I haven't found anything that fits that bill except the Prestone stuff. And once I get a clean system, ditto on the distilled water.
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