Block cleaning

[ronn]

PS I just noticed that the vinegar I bought at Costco is only 5% acid. Its not working very well.


5% is normal for vinegar

I left it for 6 weeks in my 12 Buick radiator and it did a marvelous job! cleaned it out good.

Patience is a virtue.

[harleytoprock]

Chris, Muriatic will remove rust much better and quicker than vinegar. I'd try the muriatic again. For your baking soda neutralizing solution, add some liquid clothes detergent to it. The phosphates help to neutralize. I use 2oz of soda plus 2 oz of detergent per gallon of water. Leave the solution in there for about 15 minutes before rinsing.

[Chris Haynes]

Originally Posted by harleytoprock

Chris, Muriatic will remove rust much better and quicker than vinegar. I'd try the muriatic again. For your baking soda neutralizing solution, add some liquid clothes detergent to it. The phosphates help to neutralize. I use 2oz of soda plus 2 oz of detergent per gallon of water. Leave the solution in there for about 15 minutes before rinsing.

The Muriatic acid did a great job on the engine. I was concerned about putting it in the radiator.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by Chris Haynes

The Muriatic acid did a great job on the engine. I was concerned about putting it in the radiator.

My uncle's swather was overheating, so I put some muriatic acid in his radiator to clean it out. It cleaned it out so well it opened about 20 pin holes in the old radiator. I had to adapt a 62 Chevy radiator to fit it.

[Bruce of MN]

How necessary is the baking soda flush after using vinegar?

Here is the bucket after my first vinegar flush; pretty nasty! To make draining easier, I jacked up the front until the 5 gal bucket fit under the engine pan.

[BoysToys1928A]

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I have heard that raw milk is a great neutralizer of things that are acid or to alkaline. For a chemical burn the fastest way to cool it and safest way is raw milk. Not a chemist but would the milk stop any acid from continue to eat away at the metal? Larry

[Dollar Bill]

Vinegar is acidic and must be neutralized to stop the chemical process you started with the vinegar.

Baking soda will be cheaper than milk.

[Kevin in NJ]

In my reading, muriatic acid is never a good thing for rust removal. The damage can continue long after you think it looks pretty.

I did find that electrolytic rust removal will remove the left overs from the acid in my reading.

I have found the good old wires and manual removal of the rust to be a great way to get rid of all the stuff in the block. Keep in mind not all what you find is rust. I was removing some casting sand too. Plus not all the flaky stuff, what you really need to remove, will come out with chemicals alone.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I agree with Kevin, and would never use muriatic acid as a rust remover. Just the fumes from the acid will rust all the metal in the room where it's stored. I now store it outside.

[1928Pickuppain]

Im currently doing a "cleaning" just finishing up after two weeks. I first filled my system with degreaser and ran that until hot and let cool and repeated about 5 times a day for 2 days. i drained it into a bucket and it came out black black black and slightly thick.

Then i filled the system with gasoline ran for 5 min until it started to get hot, boil (vapor lock) and let it cool for 35 min then repeat two more times. i drained it into clean white bucket it came out black black black and settled into some awfull stuff at the bottom. I repeated this one more time and got alot less black results but still dark grey. I then flushed the system back and forth and got large rust chunks and sandy bits out of both radiator and motor. Then i fulled with evapo-rusted leaving it overnight Starting it just to make sure it really pumped through the system. Again it came out black as night. flushed again with water till clear then ran gas again. Once again the gas came out black as all hell and then flushed with water until clear. I then ran Dawn Dish soap in there for about two hours as it ran in the drive. I flushed and got dark brown and small rust chunk. I then ran vinegar 2 quarts worth mixed with water as i drove the car around everywhere for two days. When i flushed it came out dark almost blackish crimson and with a slight viciousness to it. I flushed with water getting only small sandy flecks out and repeated the vinegar and driving for another 3 days. Today it flushed out still a crimson but a lighter brownish crimson. I flushed again. filled with gas, ran till hot, and left over night, in the AM i will drain and flush before filling it with a gallon of ammonia, a quart of hopps powder cleaner and a top it off with a gallon of water with about half a cup of dawn dish soap. I will let is sit for 20-30 min and this will strip the brass radiator of any scale, hard water residue or really ANYTHING, left on the brass radiator itself. (I use this method to clean clock movements after disassembly) it will strip them down even heavy oxidation to the point of pitting and after rinsing it will leave you with bright shiny almost polished looking brass. Then i will flush with water and fill with a 65/35 coolent mix.

I dont necessarily recommend the gas and ammonia all this if you have any nabors as they may kill you. I had my neighbor Jerry come over a few times to make sure i wasent going to blow up the neighborhood (and he puts up with alot of crap from his white house turning back every year form the soot from my stove pipe burning waist oil to compressors and small explosions going off at all hours of the night! Poor bastard but i know the ammonia and hopps will just about drive him from his house tomorrow HaHaHa

[Chris Haynes]

I found that RUST 911 does a remarkable job of cleaning water passages.

[Purdy Swoft]

Has anyone tried red devil lye ?

[Pete]

As most people know, model A guys will go to almost no ends to save a couple of dollars, no matter how much it costs.
Aside from spending the $75 dollars to have a block commercially stripped, there is available a cheap, simple test to tell if there is any acidic residue left in the block. It is a litmus test kit. It will test for both acid and alkaline residue and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to use it.