Back-flushing a radiator

I've just flushed the rad on the Rangie ( being as I had to take if off anyway ) the fins were nicely clogged with leaves and mud which came out nicely with a prolonged session of garden hose (tight nozzlepattern) until it ran clear, then injected water in thru the lower pipe allowing it to partially fill , drain turn over and do the same at the other end keep doing it till that also runs clear probably as much as you can do without specialist equipment at least it should remove the loose silt. or you can do this

Derek wrote: snip

I don't think that this will help the OP. It'll clear a basically clean system and wash out the old coolant. It's not going to clear a clogged radiator.

On or around Sun, 8 Jul 2007 20:58:28 +0100, "Julian Pollard" enlightened us thusly:

OK... I've done this several times. There are 3 possible scenarios:

1) rad fins have fallen off. cure: replace rad. 2) rad clogged internally. cure: replace rad. 3) rad clogged externally. cure: clean it carefully, and examine the fins.

Now, sometimes you can postpone the replace rad in case 2) by flushing it, but IME it never actually solves the problem, you spend a good deal of time and effort getting the rad out to try to clear it by flushing it, chances are you get soaked in the process and you end up replaceing it anyway when you've put it all back together amnd the sod still overheats. Then you do the whole rad-out-and-in thing again, although this time if you're lucky the bolts come undone more easily.