VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Mud Flats

What happens to your radiator when the engine isn't properly flushed after being hot tanked. What you see below isn't the top of the coolant because the coolant has been drained. There isn't even a petcock in the radiator. It's a wonder the engine wasn't running hotter than it was. The radiator is coming out next week to be tanked and leak checked.

What kind of radiator doesn't have a petcock...? Never have seen such a thing...! Did you disconnect the lower radiator hose to drain the radiator...?

This is what I would imagine it would look like, if the car sat for a couple years with just plain 'ol water...

One that's had it's petcock removed.

Wow, it is a wonder that radiator worked at all! Good luck Tiny, I bet it will run nice and cool once it is all cleaned out.

Regretably, there has to be a lot of that stuff still in the block.

It is a shame. You deserved better for the money you spent on the engine.

I suspect that as well so I also drained the block in preparation of flushing it as well. By comparing the coolant that came out of the radiator to that coming out of the block I think that most of the crud is in the radiator now. Even at that I'll be pushing the car into the driveway, pulling the thermostat and doing a good flush of the block as well.

I know a bunch of drag racing guys that use this stuff. They swear by it. I have no idea if it's a great product or just snake oil.Maybe someone will chime in.

It's just a surfactant. It does what soap does without the bubbles. Surfactant

So..does this help anything or just a scam?

It would likely make for better heat transfer but I don't know that for a fact. My "common sense" tells me it's not snake oil but again I don't know that for sure.

I know nothing!

You might want to fill the system to keep that sediment wet to prevent it from drying and caking til you're ready to pull the radiator. Surely a lot of it would flush out through the block drain with the engine at a healthy idle (if it ain't too cold outside). If it drys it will be more difficult to clean out.

Ain't ol' cars fun!!!

As Spock would say..that sounds logical...

Having spent years among the Drag Racing community, it is a product that has proven itself to be extremely reliable in helping water in it's ability to lower engine coolant temps.
But you must take into consideration that the engines I'm familiar with have been hot tanked and inspected for cleanliness before the expansion plugs have been installed.
I'm not sure how well it will work in a contaminated engine block. So if you feel that the cooling system has been thoroughly cleaned then it should work as advertised.

I seen that additive used and it does help. I know when I was involved in dirt track late models we ran straight water as did 99% of the cars. If antifreeze would have been used along with water I don't think it would have been as effective. My opinion anyway. Don

After my research and experiments with flushing my radiator ( I did try this on my Toyota fork lift radiator ) with Muriatic Acid...I found it believable that you should flush again with plenty of water and even add a neutralizer ( like baking soda ) to insure you get rid of the "flushing" agent or traces left behind will continue to "etch" and probably leaving you with the situation you have now...

I wonder if the flushing of your block was satisfactory but they simply forgot to rinse it...(?) Or didn't rinse well enough...(?) Just a passing thought...

I don't have an answer for that but I CAN tell you it WILL be thoroughly flushed when it's again on the road.