Todays coolant flush. Warning, lots of pics.

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Did an interesting rad flush today, looks like the coolant had never been changed before. It was pitch black. We ran a chemical through his system for about 10 minuites and flushed out his system with 15 litres of green coolant. The hookups were in a tight spot, so I removed the air filter housing. The whole set up resulted in countless burns. Anyways, enjoy.









The supposed to be green coolant.


The coolant res.



The setup

the connections
 
I'm surprised the flush isn't done with a non-toxic fluid and then refilled with anti-freeze. Probally getting a correct concentration afterwards is a liability.
 
Originally Posted By: Dr_No
Did an interesting rad flush today, looks like the coolant had never been changed before. It was pitch black.


That makes me sad.
frown.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
I'm surprised the flush isn't done with a non-toxic fluid and then refilled with anti-freeze. Probally getting a correct concentration afterwards is a liability.


We use a chemical that is recycled along with the coolant. we flush thoughh a 50-50 mix of glycol and water. The capacity of the van was like 12 lires and i flushed 15.
 
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Is it possible the owner dumped some radiator sealer in it and that is why the fluid so dark?. I know when I tried fixing a leaky radiator and used the pellet radiator sealer the fluid turn exactly like that.
If not, I have never seen fluid like that.
 
The car was an 02. The guy said he dosen't think he's ever changed it. It had around 172,000km's on it.
I asked him if he had added any additives into the rad before I flushed it.
The pH was around 4. Borderline acidic is about 7. Good coolant should be 10-11.
 
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Originally Posted By: Dr_No

The pH was around 4.


That's the same acidity as tomato juice. Considering tomato juice can clean the tarnish off a copper penny overnight, I wonder what it would do inside a cooling system over a few years?
 
There was a tsb from Ford related to discolored coolant. I was due to the anti-leak tablets used from the factory staining the very pale yellow color of the Motorcraft Gold coolant brown.

This only affected a few models, as they changed the formulation of their anti-leak tabs quickly. The coolant pictured seems to have suffored this fate....though its rather dark, so it may be a combination of various factors, one of which is most certainly cooling system neglect.
 
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