Rusty Water

[Bonnewagon]

the rust water won't stop

That's why you need to use a serious rust remover. There is probably a couple of inches of rusty mud at the bottom of your block and radiator. You keep stirring it up without getting all of it. A good power back flush would help too. That is where you use a compressed air flushing gun to force the muck backwards and out. Prestone used to sell a terrific 2-part cleaner. One side was the acid and the other was the neutralizer. Boy did that stuff work! There are others that work too. If you end up keeping the car, consider an acid flush and expect components to fail.

 

[64nailhead]

Yikes, that's a mess. That radiator and heater core need to be professionally flushed out of chassis or replaced. The amount of sediment in it is going to require many flushes to get most, repeat most, of it removed. Then comes the engine. You should pull the block plugs (SBC on each side, one just in front of starter and other just in front of oil filter) and run it with a hose stuffed in the radiator with the thermostat removed and heater core bypassed. This will create a hell of a mess as that gunk will be gushing from the block for the better part of an hour of run time. You need to keep track of the coolant temp during this process so as to not overheat the motor and make sure you're maintaining water in the radiator via hose flow volume.

This a heck of a process, but you have a heck of a mess there. Once you feel that what is coming out of the block drains is clean enough, then use the 2 part cleaner as Bonnewagon described. Once the flushing is complete fill it with an extended life coolant and expect to drain and flush it with new fluid at least one more time after some drive time.

Of course you'll need new thermostat and gasket, but all flushing needs to be done with the t-stat removed because it acts as a giant restrictor in the coolant system (which it's supposed to do during normal operation.)

 

[motorheadmike]

Are you low on transmission fluid?

 

[RustBucket]

Sounds like a headache! I been planning on selling the car to focus more on the elky. I flushed it 3 times with just water and once with a prestone flush (all without the t-stat) I then put in a new t-stat and 50/50 coolant. Gonna leave it like that and let the buyer know what it all needs. Thanks guys. I'll show yal what the coolant looks like now after I get out of work. I drove it 20 miles to work.