Flushing coolant recovery tank.

[gathermewool]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: DrDusty86
I have taken the recovery tank off the car every year and throw some change in it and shake it a good bit. This breaks up the crusty sand. I do this when I do a radiator drain and refill. I figure the more sand I can remove from circulation the better because that junk can be pulled into the radiator and circulated.
Am I nuts?
Dusty


Do you leave the change in when done? Do you do a rich cleaning with quarters or a cheap one with pennies?

I remove it and empty it, add Joy and hot water and shake. Maybe let it sit for awhile also. If it would fit it would go in the dishwasher.

 

[DrDusty86]

The 4 year old coolant was on an 08' 5.4 expidition.
I run 80% coolant and 20% distilled water.. Have for 8 years.

 

[HTSS_TR]

80% coolant is too high, you should use 50%.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
80% coolant is too high, you should use 50%.


Correct. 80% coolant is gaining you nothing, except a lighter wallet.

 

[DoubleWasp]

The coolant overflow on my van was literally pasted with rusty gunk, or maybe gunky rust. Who knows. I poured one quarter of a box of automatic dishwasher powder into a gallon of hot water, and shook it up to dilute it. After doing a backflush using the Prestone kit, I put the gallon into the cooling system, and then mixed another 1/4 of the box of powder with hot water in the overflow tank. After a week of driving with this mixture in, I backflushed the system again. The rusty gunk was loose enough that I was able to just shove a toilet brush into the coolant overflow and sweep the stuff off of the sides of the tank. The overflow is now squeaky clean inside and out, and the cooling system is almost there as well. There is still rust scale present inside of the hoses, so I added more detergent today, mixed with Ajax liquid dishwashing soap. I am expecting good results again.

 

[PhillyJoe]

I have a similar gunk problem with my daughter's '02 Grand Am which I will tackle this weekend. Going to drain and flush the coolant and add somewhere between a 1/2 and a cup of Cascade dish powder (with Dawn). Run the car for the day and flush again. With a pressurized coolant overflow, I can't see the radiator fins but I can imagine the gunk they have. I was also thinking of using a small toilet brush to clean the overflow tank with Cascade as well.Last flush and fill was 3 years ago and I used one of the chemical flushes. The Cascade tip is something I learned here recently. Safe for dishes and glassware but scrubs off baked on food, right?