Back flushing the radiator

[700rpm]

Can you back flush a radiator without removing from the car? If so, how?

[Milton]

By disconnecting the top and bottom hoses and applying water pressure to the bottom radiator hose neck. The catch is you are fighting gravity, a baffle, etc. You can do the block at the same time though.

[ford3]

you can, but to do it right you need a back flush tool, like the ones radiator shop use, its cone shaped so it can be wedged in the bottom radiator outlet, water and air hooked to it, the air creates turbulence to loosen crud, and the water to flow it out, check at your local parts store to see what it looks like, they may even have one to loan

[johnbuckley]

Can some sone post a picture of this gizmo///

Originally Posted by ford3

...a back flush tool, like the ones radiator shop use.....

nevre seeen sucha thing overhere- I just use a water hosepipe and an airline ( nice job on a summers day)

[Tom Wesenberg]

As mentioned, you can somewhat do it, but I'd remove the radiator and turn it upside down to see if any rust flakes come out.

Have you tried Cascade to remove any grease, and 30 days of vinegar to remove rust and hard water deposits?

[700rpm]

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Originally Posted by Tom Wesenberg

As mentioned, you can somewhat do it, but I'd remove the radiator and turn it upside down to see if any rust flakes come out.

Have you tried Cascade to remove any grease, and 30 days of vinegar to remove rust and hard water deposits?

Hi Tom. I just put the vinegar in two days ago, after my question to you about it. As you suggested, I'll leave it in about 30 days and then drain it.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Ray, be sure to drive it several times during the 30 days, so it gets heated and circulated. Had mine not worked after 30 days, I would have tried an additional 30 days. After that I would have unsoldered the bottom tank and rodded it out.
Sure glad it worked out after 30 days of vinegar and removing the radiator to flush it upside down, as I didn't want to disturb an original radiator unless absolutely neccessary..

[roccaas]

I built the two (2) PVC adapters shown in "The Restorer", September/October, 2012; pages 9 and 10.

One back-flushes the block, the other the radiator.

I took the magazine to my plumbing supply store and let a master plumber pull the necessary parts. He thought it was a great use of PVC Schedule 40.

After completing a month of Tom's Vinegar Spa treatment, I back flushed everything and watched the brown water flow!

My underdash Rexaco is showing a decidedly cooler system, even in the muggy and hot conditions in the South for the month of June!

I'd highly recommend building a pair of backflushers for the times when you don't want to demount the radiator.

[700rpm]

Originally Posted by roccaas

I built the two (2) PVC adapters shown in "The Restorer", September/October, 2012; pages 9 and 10.

One back-flushes the block, the other the radiator.

I took the magazine to my plumbing supply store and let a master plumber pull the necessary parts. He thought it was a great use of PVC Schedule 40.

After completing a month of Tom's Vinegar Spa treatment, I back flushed everything and watched the brown water flow!

My underdash Rexaco is showing a decidedly cooler system, even in the muggy and hot conditions in the South for the month of June!

I'd highly recommend building a pair of backflushers for the times when you don't want to demount the radiator.

Thanks! Somehow I had missed that article. I'll get the parts tomorrow!

[roccaas]

Tip: when back flushing the radiator, hook up the block flusher to the water pump side of the upper radiator hose. This way you can direct the gradoo from the radiator down under the frame rather than splashing all over the engine etc.

[700rpm]

Gradoo?

[roccaas]

It's a Southern thing for any icky stuff nobody wants on their clothes or driveway. In Louisiana I believe it is Gra-deaux.

[700rpm]

I wondered if it was a Jawja term; I hear those occasionally from my wife's family (Meansville, Barnesville, Marietta), but I hadn't heard that one.

[[email protected]]

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showth...ght=back+flush

Old thread covering this topic.

[roccaas]

Originally Posted by 700rpm

I wondered if it was a Jawja term; I hear those occasionally from my wife's family (Meansville, Barnesville, Marietta), but I hadn't heard that one.

Do they ever bring up; "rise up outta the grave and snatch 'ya bald headed", or "that's some slap 'yo Momma (sweet tea, fried chicken, peach pie, corn likker, etc)

We're all "dumb like a fox" down here, so watch out!

[700rpm]

Originally Posted by roccaas

Do they ever bring up; "rise up outta the grave and snatch 'ya bald headed", or "that's some slap 'yo Momma (sweet tea, fried chicken, peach pie, corn likker, etc)

We're all "dumb like a fox" down here, so watch out!

Yeah, sometimes I feel like I'm in another country when I'm there.. I love to drive the back roads and small towns in GA. Beautiful state.

[bluesman31]

The darn Vinegar treatment sure works well to loosen all the junk in the system so that it can be caught by the filter (The small tubes in the radiator). Ask me how I know. Doing the vinegar treatment without installing an in-line coolant filter (like a gano) in the top hose is a total recipe for disaster, that will result in having to rod out or replace the radiator and no amount of backflushing will solve it typically.

[spinelll]

Gano?

[bluesman31]

I put a gano filter inline in my top radiator hose after I installed my rodded-out radiator, and blasted out my block. It is well mad brass construction but the mesh screens are to open so I added a piece of nylon hose and I am catching a teaspoon of fine sand like material and larger chunks every 20 miles or so.


http://www.ganofilters.com/

I plan on posting pictures soon

[sethkestenbaum]

Out of curiosity, why place the filter on the top hose (where grit will fall back into the motor and gravity will work against the filter) as opposed to on the bottom hose (to keep grit from entering the motor and where gravity will keep sediment in the metal tube?

[bluesman31]

You need to protect the radiator because it has the smallest orifices in the entire cooling system and acts just like a filter. In order to protect the radiator from clogging you have to filter the fluid before it enters the radiator top and clogs the tubes. The design of the gano is like a lobster trap that doesn't allow the grit to fall backwards out of the trap. I put the nylon hose on the side next to the radiator at the final stage of the filter as the fine mesh traps all the small stuff and then is trapped by the funnel shaped gano mesh from falling backwards. It works amazing. It is a pain to remove and a pain to clean because it doesn't come apart (takes about 15 minutes total), but works like a champ and I anticipate only having to use this setup for the first few hundred miles after the flush and clean. I have also added a temp gauge to watch in case I clog up the filter, but so far I am running at around 175-185 degrees measured at the head and top water inlet on an 80 degree day.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I agree that a coolant filter should be used. See #16 in my "Radiator Cleaning and Mess"
This is a cheap and easy filter to make.

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showth...+cleaning+mess

[1931 flamingo]

Seth: You want to keep the "crap" from getting into the radiator. JMO
Paul in CT

[Pinstripe]

Originally Posted by bluesman31

I put a gano filter inline in my top radiator hose after I installed my rodded-out radiator, and blasted out my block. It is well mad brass construction but the mesh screens are to open so I added a piece of nylon hose and I am catching a teaspoon of fine sand like material and larger chunks every 20 miles or so.


http://www.ganofilters.com/

I plan on posting pictures soon

What's one of these filters cost? They look real interesting.

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Pinstripe

What's one of these filters cost? They look real interesting.

An online search shows them to be about 60 bucks

[sethkestenbaum]

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I would love to see some more "home made" filter options. The GANO design, as it's lobster trap design keeps things from falling back into the engine, sounds like it would catch more stuff than the nylon home made filter.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by sethkestenbaum

I would love to see some more "home made" filter options. The GANO design, as it's lobster trap design keeps things from falling back into the engine, sounds like it would catch more stuff than the nylon home made filter.

The nylon drier sock ends in the upper tank the way I have it installed, so it will trap everything before it can plug the tubes, and it will hold any junk in the last few inches without it falling back.

[pat in Santa Cruz]

I have seen cars over heat and boil because a Gano screen was fouled with fines that could not be seen by looking at it from inside the engine compartment. I think a nylon sock inside the radiator is a better bet because it is a filter with more surface area, hence less likely to plug up as fast as a small filter screen.

[bluesman31]

Originally Posted by pat in Santa Cruz

I have seen cars over heat and boil because a Gano screen was fouled with fines that could not be seen by looking at it from inside the engine compartment. I think a nylon sock inside the radiator is a better bet because it is a filter with more surface area, hence less likely to plug up as fast as a small filter screen.

Any filter has to be checked periodically or it may clog and cause an overheat. If the filter wasn't there eventually the car would overheat anyway due to the radiator clogging. At least with a filter in place you don't have to remove and rod out or replace the radiator. Either way if you have a cooling system full of crap it is going to clog something. I choose the filter.

I was surprised how huge the mesh is on the Gano. If I didn't add the nylon sock I din;t think it would have trapped squat