We just rodded this out.

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quote=doitmyself]Chris,

Isn't there a chemical or "boiling" method to clean radiators without taking the tanks off?

[/quote]


Originally Posted By: dsmith41
Would you recommend flushing a radiator with CLR to get rid of deposits or would that harm the cooling system?


Ca law.
Where we are in SoCal were not allowed to have a hot tank, but we can have Kerosene based solvent in our solvent tank. Drive a few miles south of Hwy 138 and they can have a hot tank but must use water based solvent in their solvent tanks! Thats how it was explained to me.

My boss got rid of his hot tank 20 years ago due to the extreemly high disposal costs of the contaminated fluid. It was costing us more in disposal fees than we made when we used it so it had to go.

I don't know what CLR would to to a cooling system, I've never tried it.
 
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I don't even know how you get that kind of deposits. Maybe running straight hard well water with a bad pressure cap and thermostat.
our water is that contaminated! Have you ever seen snow white ice cubes?
lol.gif
No leaks in this bus and they have not been adding water. This mess is from the initial fill they did about 8 mths ago with tap water and fresh antifreeze.It gets hot going up hill so they pulled the radiator out and brought it back to us.
 
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I see. The water around here and most places are softened and treated well, and never cause deposits in cooling systems. I wonder how you guys keep your water pipes, hot water heater etc from clogging up?
 
As said, penny wise and pound foolish.

I don't understand the logic of not using distilled in the initial fill with the coolant. I suppose since it's a bus it would have taken a good amount of distilled water but still, it is so inexpensive at Wally. Fwiw, the distilled water does seem to move off the shelves, and they have difficulty keeping it in large supply.

And, I can believe that very hard water, like you say you have, could cause such a condition so quickly. I hope they've have learned their lesson.
33.gif


Just curious. Where do you get your purified water from? BTW, interesting information about the radiator shop biz. If you could use it, I bet boiling out would be a simpler process.
 
We have a reverse osmossis (SP?)system. The boss's daughter married a guy that sells them and he gave us the hook up.

I don't think that boiling out a radiator thats this bad will do much. I really had to get rough with the rod to get through the plugged tubes. Back in the old days the hot tank was just to remove paint and bugs. We still had to take em apart.

BTW once the chemical in a hot tank has been in contact with lead solder then it becomes a hazardous waste. Having it hauled off costs in the $10,000 range and were responsible for it even after it leaves our hands so it's just not worth it any more.

If the hauler flips over and it leaks onto the dirt we get the cleanup bill......Figure that out.
 
Originally Posted By: ls1mike
It is 88 cents a gallon at wally world. I don't understand that.


I'm running a flush on my bus right now and I bought 20 gallons of distilled water (running a flush with GM Heavy Duty Cooling System Cleaner and then 2-3 distilled water only flushes) for 68¢ at my local Wally World.
 
Well some people don't use distilled for flushing or in the mix either because the quickest and easiest way to flush some vehicles is with a T-flush. And their water is not hard and never leaves deposits. If you were using a hard water source, then definitely would have to use distilled water. But not everyone needs it. Actually if I had water bad like that to my porperty I owned, I would treat it since I wouldn't want that going through my building's plumbing, water heater, etc.
 
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Originally Posted By: ls1mike
Holy cow! That is horrid! How do people let that happen.

Ignorance, lol.

Honestly I have no idea why people simply won't use distilled water. It's cheap and it's cheap insurance.

Municipal drinking water for the most part contains barium, chlorine, chromium, fluoride, haloacetic acids, nitrate, selenium, sodium, and trihalomethanes. Well water is even worse. All of those can be avoided by using distilled water.
 
I was wondering what anti-freeze they are using, and if the some of the radiators are soldered with brass/copper?
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Our city water comes right out of the limestone under ground ,right into a tank then is pumped directly to the houses. No treatment of any kind.

It must be treated as I see chlorine is added. Here is the water quality report for Apple Valley...

http://avrwater.com/pdf/AVR_WaterQualityEnglish.pdf

You guys do appear to have excellent drinking water though. I see a lot of NONES, lol.

I would still stick with distilled water though for automotive cooling systems.
 
OK I wwas just wondering if maybe in the last case that some of the corrosion might be from the lead solder and an anti-freeze that doesn't protect it well. Distilled water is still a good idea regardless if you have bad water quality.
 
Originally Posted By: Coolant_Man
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Our city water comes right out of the limestone under ground ,right into a tank then is pumped directly to the houses. No treatment of any kind.

It must be treated as I see chlorine is added. Here is the water quality report for Apple Valley...

http://avrwater.com/pdf/AVR_WaterQualityEnglish.pdf

You guys do appear to have excellent drinking water though. I see a lot of NONES, lol.

I would still stick with distilled water though for automotive cooling systems.
Interesting! What does it say about Hesperia where my shop is? Barstow? Which has terrible water Phelan and Lucerne valley?

Many houses around here are on there own well with nothing done between the ground and the sink. Mine included.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: Coolant_Man
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Our city water comes right out of the limestone under ground ,right into a tank then is pumped directly to the houses. No treatment of any kind.

It must be treated as I see chlorine is added. Here is the water quality report for Apple Valley...

http://avrwater.com/pdf/AVR_WaterQualityEnglish.pdf

You guys do appear to have excellent drinking water though. I see a lot of NONES, lol.

I would still stick with distilled water though for automotive cooling systems.
Interesting! What does it say about Hesperia where my shop is? Barstow? Which has terrible water Phelan and Lucerne valley?

Many houses around here are on there own well with nothing done between the ground and the sink. Mine included.

Some reports are more detailed than others...

Hesperia, CA
Barstow, CA
Lucerne Valley
North Apple Valley
South Apple Valley
Desert View

I can't find much info on Phelan. Here is San Bernardino County...

http://www.specialdistricts.org/2/water/services/ccr/ccr.htm
 
I would love to analyze the composition of the deposits. That would give a clue to the contaminant species.

I wonder if it's softened water, which should load the water with sodium-based chemicals.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
They must lose a lot to evaporation! That's like a jar of Tums worth worth of calcium.


That's a commonly misunderstood thing. Calcium becomes LESS soluble in water when the solution is made hotter. You don't have to evaporate water with calcium in it to make the calcium precipitate out, you just have to get it hot.

Its counter-intuitive because most things we're used to dealing with) salt, sugar, etc. dissolve better in hot water than cold.
 
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