Flushing an engine through thoroughly

No experience, but some form of steam cleaner perhaps !

Andy Pandy To e-mail, address hopefully, self-explanatory !

Heh! Given that the bunged up bits are all internal, I doubt it!

Anyone know if there's any way of getting rid of all the crap by stripping it down? (though there's only so much you can physically strip down an engine block!).

Peter

In message , AstraVanMan writes

Compressed air might work. As the contaminant is oil based you might want to try a detergent based solution to loosen it a bit first. I would be tempted to get a replacement radiator in any case as the passages are fairly small and you might not get all the crap out.

What is the jelly like crap? Get abit out (somehow) and see what type of detergent will break it down..? I've used neat engine degreaser as a coolant / flush on a couple of occasions which worked really well to flush out heavy oil contamination from a HGF... 25litres is about £30 but it works!

Tim..

As an experiment try washing out an old mayonaisse bottle , what shifts it best , hot water and a detergent. We had a BX , head OK but the oil cooler had gone and had slowly filled up the cooling system with oil, until the water was like grey tooth paste. We used hot water and washing soda ( wear gloves) and kept on changing the coolant until it was clean , about 30 times in all. As your engines in bits a steam cleaner sounds ideal. Its not scrap they're just lazy/thick/un motivated to try anything. Steve the grease

I'd try a steam cleaner. Problem is that oil passages tend to be narrow, and your steam will end up condensing in the wrong places due to the block being cold so it will be slow going. If they pipes are blocked completely the steam may not even get down as far as the blockage.

I can't see any form of detergent shifting it, a hot water high pressure washer with the detergent might help although the problems with it being down little pipes will make this as difficult as the steam clean option.

A wire coat hanger and lots of parafin is my best suggestion, you'll just have to be careful about not damaging bearings with the wire while you are poking about.

-- James

What about Diesel?

I think I heard a guy saying something about this a few years back - but I have no idea what he was doing lol

Martin

Strong alkali (laundry detergent) or caustic soda? Not sure how caustic soda would react to an aluminium engine though - if yours has a cambelt, sounds like it's got an alloy head.

This should emulsify the oil and basically allow jelly like substance to dissolve.

I'd tip a load in the filler cap, run the engine stationary for about

Seconded, you can get the initial muck out with a couple of cups of persil & a hot engine.

I wouldn't let caustic soda near ally - you _will_ knacker it.

cheers, clive

Try sticking some in an aluminium pan. Even washing powder attacks it (slowly) but it will dissolve the gooey mes eventually . Gunk works well too. It does all come out eventually

I've got no problem with using diesel as long as it is the red variety (my red supply cost 13p/litre and no, I don't run my road car on it). The problem I have with any other type of diesel is that it's far too expensive...

-- James

If it were in one piece & running, I'd suggest running it with some sort of detergent for a while. (I had a BMW thoroughly blocked up by Radweld, & tried all sorts without any apparent ill effect on the engine - or on the Radweld) As it's in bits, I'd suggest an industrial steam cleaner, the sort with a high pressure lance not the low pressure domestic sort. DON'T do it yourself; any blowback would be very nasty. So long as anything gets through at all, just keep going until hot steam comes out the other end. You will probably have to replace all seals & plastic bits, though.

Dave

Yes, I'm confident it's not scrap - just that with their labour charges, and parts prices (I'll dig out the list when I have a tidy up, but 4 coolant hoses came to best part of £200 including the VAT!!!) it came to over £2k.

Personally I'd be fairly confident in using a second hand radiator and heater matrix (and provided they're not too old, big rubber coolant pipes) as long as the car they came from hadn't had a similar problem (or blown head gasket) and there were no obvious leaks or holes in them. Wouldn't take that chance on the oil cooler though.

Peter

What seals and plastic bits exactly? Sorry if that sounds like a stupid question, but I'm not completely sure where you're coming from there.

Peter

As the engines in bits, i'd get them to take the block out of the car, then send it off to an engineering firm that re-conditiones engines (as in can doo all the machining, and not just a place that fits new parts only) they should have a chemical tank to put the block in, that will clear it out, they do this after doing machining work on the block anyway, it was done to my engine when number 4 exhaust valve decided it wanted to see the outside world, and it almost got it's way, the turbo stopped most of it getting through, sacrifising it's turbine in the process, and before it got to the turbo it bounced about in the bore for a few hundered revolutions, taking out the head, liner, and piston in the process, before the stem managed to lock the engine solid.

So there was a fair bit of swarf from that little adventure in the oilways, and more added when the bottom end needed machining to rectify the oval crank bearing seats, that were a result of the engine doing about 3,000 rpm when the valve wanted to lock it solid (i was doing 70 mph at the time, managed to stop in about 20 yards i think, not sure which had the longer skid marks, the road or my grundies :)

Found out the oil cooler had been leaking slightly when it was in bits, so the water ways were contaminated already, but that was all apparantly sorted out by the chemical bath it had before re-assembly.

Fill the cooling system with biodiesel. Seriously - it's the best cheap degreaser I've come across, and will shift this crap like you wouldn't believe.

If you do this, I'd suggest you either replace all the hoses asap or fit some doggy old ones before you start, as biodiesel wrecks old rubber.

Mind you - that suggestion up there ^^^^^ on the other thread about the blocked rad was a good one - using liquid clothes washing stuff.

That's OK, as long as you own up when you resort to it !! ;-)

Andy Pandy To e-mail, address hopefully, self-explanatory !

If it's down to a bare casting, no problem. If not, any seals, plastic gaskets etc may well be damaged either by the heat or possibly pressure. (A steam lance has a lot of energy behind it; think of a high speed jet of steam at 150 deg. C & 100 psi.) Example: valve guide oil seals, 'O' seals around thermostat housings etc. The little bits you don't normally think about until they leak. They may be ok but personally I wouldn't take the chance. I'd rather spend out for a complete gasket set now than have to dismantle everything again later. Dave