FLushing

[johnnygo]

I was wondering of something to use to flush out the block and radiator more efficiently to kill the rust . My dad was a mechanic for around 30 years working on mostly older american cars .As these cars all mostly had Iron blocks as ours do he said he would use baking soda and lemon juice alot of it, and top it off with water, to neutralize the corrosion and would run the engine for about fifteen minutes and then do a couple more fill and drains to remove the excess baking soda . He told me that any remaining baking soda would not be enough to affect anything that it would actually help deter rust.

I don't know about this. Im thinking about it since Im installing a koyo in soon and want to do a clean flush.

I was thinking CLR IT!LOL just pour a bottle of that stuff in the radiator . I have one in my bathroom .

I know there is stuff on the market for the flush but I just want some opinions on if these ghetto flush methods would work???

[DBMaster]

I wouldn't use anything except plain water. Others may recommend various things, but my philosophy agrees with a local radiator shop I used for years. If there is anything in the system that CAN be knocked loose it's just going to get caught somewhere else, like in one of the tubes of your new radiator. A certain amount of corrosion is going to happen inside the engine no matter what you do, but if the coolant was maintained it will not be a major problem. My recommendation that has been verified by 28 years of experience working on cars is if you want to do anything, just drain the system, refill with distilled or reverse osmosis (drinking) water, run the engine until it's warmed up, drain again, and refill the system with 50/50 coolant and distilled or R/O water. You will need a total of about three gallons of purified water. It's been easy for me since I have an R/O system under the kitchen sink.

Feel free to disagree. Backflushing is the WORST thing you could do. If you know the system has been maintained well throughout it's life then all you really need to do is drain and refill with 50/50.

[VIPER1988]

ive always used straight freezetone. it doesnt cause corrosion like antifreeze and doesnt rust like water. unfortunately it doesnt prevent freezing, luckily it doesnt get that cold in florida.