On a routine coolant change, I noticed that the radiator is spewing out a lot of rust. I filled and drained the coolant a couple of times, but there still seems to be a lot of it.
The rust wasn't there during the last coolant change. What could have caused it? Is it a bad sign?
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Now you know where your 10 mm combination wrench went missing :-)
Cheap coolant diluted with tap water sounds like the cause.
'Curly'
What kind of car are you talking about. A 67 Bug doesn't use coolant...
Earle
Very sharp, Earle :) But I was asking about a 94 Civic 1.5 liter.
Curly, yes indeed, it was filled with cheap "Whiz" coolant (and distilled water). But I was nervous because I read a post that said that rust is a classic sign of past overheating. AFAIK this car has never overheated on me, the temp needle never event went up halfway. So it's definitely the Whiz, and not overheating?
--------------------------------------- In some countries, it's considered impolite to even mention that you put Whiz in your cooling system . :-(
I'm repulsed ! !
'Curly'
snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:1161891164.082976.314170 @m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com:
If it is in fact rust you see and not simply discoloration, you have a giant problem with your engine. However...
If you switch colors of antifreeze and do not make certain every trace of the old stuff is flushed out, the new stuff will be contaminated and may look a rusty brown.
Did you remove the block drain and flush the entire system until the water ran clear before refilling?
Is the rusty fluid clear or cloudy?
rust? that's bizarre. the cylinder block is aluminum, the steel cylinder liners are cast into aluminum and have no direct contact with the coolant, the radiator and heater cores are not steel... the only things that are steel and in contact with the coolant are the drain plug, the expansion cores and the coolant pump impeller. and they're all plated. if those are rusting sufficiently to discolor the coolant, you may have a serious problem on your hands!
double check to see what this material is - a magnet should do it. /definitely/ use a quality antifreeze and distilled water.
jim beam wrote in news:boqdner8tZbX_tzYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:
I could have sworn the last Honda 4-cylinder I saw had the iron cylinders sitting bare-naked in the coolant. They were cast as a siamesed block of four, and were fully exposed all the way down until they got buried in the aluminum at the bottom.
nah, the actual steel liners are real thin - maybe 3mm - and the rest of the siamese quintuplets are the alloy casting they sit in. it's an unusual arrangement for sure. if you're doing a gasket scrape, it's easy enough to test what's where because the soft alloy bit can be scratched by the blade, the steel bit not. i'll see if i can take a pic next time i'm in a junk yard.
I don't know where you read this, but there isn't that much iron in a Civic engine, not where the coolant can get to it. Maybe the cylinder walls, but if they are rusted up you have serious problems.
I would flush the system. Use the owner's manual instructions, if you still have it. Fill it with Honda Genuine Coolant. It only takes a gallon of pre-mix, and there are too many different types of coolant out there, to take chances.
Earle
Are new sleeves readily available?
JT
Earle Hort>
No, and they're not water jacket sleeves either. That's why the "rust in the radiator from overheating" story doesn't make sense.
Earle
jim beam wrote in news:_I6dnWpAN_IwlN_YnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:
This is interesting. Guess the example I saw was dirty engough I couldn't tell there were two different metals in there. This explains the factory- specified max bore-out tolerance being a micro-thin .010".
"Earle Horton" wrote in news:45425ecb$0$12054$ snipped-for-privacy@free.teranews.com:
I don't think it's rust. I think it's discolored coolant.
I am sure it is. Use Honda Genuine Coolant, every time the owner's manual calls for it, and you won't be sorry. It used to be you could leave the coolant in there for the life of the car, but those days are long gone. More and more non-ferrous metals are being used every year, and the coolant formulation changes all the time to make the tree-huggers happy. Some of them, according to a chemist I know, are downright incompatible.
Earle
"Earle Horton" wrote in news:4542728c$0$12192$ snipped-for-privacy@free.teranews.com:
Ab-so-lootely! OEM all the way, baby. I like OEM (can you tell?).
Earle, you never could do that. In fact, newer antifreeze formulations offer longer life than ever before.
The change interval used to be two years. Now you can go as long as five years (under the right conditions!).
The myth of permanent antifreeze was the source of many a corroded block in the old days.
"Earle Horton" wrote in news:45428014$0$12050 $ snipped-for-privacy@free.teranews.com:
Ethylene glycol (and even the ancient propylene and alcohol mixes) turned corrosive in and of themselves far faster then than now, tap water or distilled.
I tend to think that it was indiscriminate use of tap water, but who can tell? One thing I am sure of, is that aluminum cannot take the sort of abuse that cast iron and brass can.
Earle
I met a body shop owner in 1976 who had the original coolant in his 1952 GMC wrecker. I have the original coolant in my eleven year old Jeep, which I drive every day. One of these days I will get around to changing it. The heater core is the first to go, if you wait too long. The Civic gets better treatment, because the engine block is aluminum and the cooling system takes less than a gallon to refill. I changed it after seven years. Funny thing, the original coolant was green, and the new stuff is blue.
If I believed what people in newsgroups tell me, I would be changing the oil at 3,000 miles without fail and the coolant every two years. There are more fun things to do.
Earle
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