Cleaning away really thick emulsified oil
Discussion
This one concerns a Rover K8 engine- yes head gasket problems again. My question is thus, does anyone have any suggestions as how to efficiently remove all the emulsified oil from the cooling system. I've briefly tried a hosepipe down the (removed) top radiator hose and this didn't work nearly well enough. The whole of the cooling system must be choked and I just don't know how to clean it without removing the block, radiator, hoses and heater matrix. Does someone know of a product, method or a service which would work?
I already spoke to a fellow mechanic at the local Ford dealership. It transpires he had the same thing a couple of months ago. He renewed the radiator and flushed the system (after cylinder head repair) for half a day and pretty much had to give up. The car was handed back to the owner with advice of a weekly flush until it was clean. Needless to say, the car was put to the market!
I already spoke to a fellow mechanic at the local Ford dealership. It transpires he had the same thing a couple of months ago. He renewed the radiator and flushed the system (after cylinder head repair) for half a day and pretty much had to give up. The car was handed back to the owner with advice of a weekly flush until it was clean. Needless to say, the car was put to the market!
I've not tried this before, but what about filling the cooling system with something like Jizer ( water soluable de-greaser ) and leaving it to soak for a few hours, probably wouldn't advise running the engine though!! Then just connect up the hose pipe and flush it out.
Got to be worth a try??
Got to be worth a try??
I'd be inclined to try automatic washing powder. It's great at "dissolving" oil and it doesn't attack rubber (otherwise there'd be a lot of floods 
) I would reckon it's probably safe to run the engine with it in, but if you're nervous about that, an alternative would be to remove the thermostat to allow free flow and then temporarily plumb a washing machine pump into one of the radiator hoses to circulate it. You could even blow a fan heater through the radiator to keep it warm.
) I would reckon it's probably safe to run the engine with it in, but if you're nervous about that, an alternative would be to remove the thermostat to allow free flow and then temporarily plumb a washing machine pump into one of the radiator hoses to circulate it. You could even blow a fan heater through the radiator to keep it warm. Sounds like you will need gallons and gallons of water and detergent to shift that much oil, and it will probably need something to agitate it to have any effect. If you take the stat out and remove the fan belt you could drive the water pump and circulate water through the cooling system for a few hours. As an alternative, I've got a couple of Davies Craig electric water pumps which could be used instead. Welcome to borrow one of you are willing to collect and return it?
I think there are products available for that type of thing, although dont know of any names.
If you are worried about them damaging the rubber.....well, the oil in the water could well be doing that anyway.
Engine de-greaser, that can be bought in gallon containers is excellent stuff, usually about £10, and is water soluable ( how ya spell that ?? ) Much better than any of that gunk crap.
Its not really designed for what you want, but Id say it would work very well.
If you are worried about them damaging the rubber.....well, the oil in the water could well be doing that anyway.
Engine de-greaser, that can be bought in gallon containers is excellent stuff, usually about £10, and is water soluable ( how ya spell that ?? ) Much better than any of that gunk crap.
Its not really designed for what you want, but Id say it would work very well.
stevieturbo said:
I think there are products available for that type of thing, although dont know of any names.
If you are worried about them damaging the rubber.....well, the oil in the water could well be doing that anyway.
Engine de-greaser, that can be bought in gallon containers is excellent stuff, usually about £10, and is water soluable ( how ya spell that ?? ) Much better than any of that gunk crap.
Its not really designed for what you want, but Id say it would work very well.
Err. GUNK is engine degreaser.
lanciachris said:
Err. GUNK is engine degreaser.
I mean a product that performs the task requested. ie cleans the internal coolant passages, by filling/adding it to the cooling system..
GUNK is not designed for that task. GUNK is also a ripp off anyway, when compared to Gallon drums of no-brand engine de-greaser, which in most cases, I have found to do a better job.
Ok, job done. I used Sealy engine degeaser from a 25 litre drum (just so happened to have one tucked away in the workshop). Ran engine to temperature with it until cooling fan kicked in. Drained this and then refilled with cooling system flush and hot water. Ran this at fast idle for 20 minutes and then drained and flushed with water. Drained and flushed again with water.
Result! Clean cooling system with virtually no traces at all. Water pump intact, as are the radiator and hoses. Ok, it took a fair amount of time, but I was refitting the cylinder head on Griffless's AXGT500 in between times. Anyway, no radiators, hoses or heater matrices need to be changed.
THANK YOU ALL!
Result! Clean cooling system with virtually no traces at all. Water pump intact, as are the radiator and hoses. Ok, it took a fair amount of time, but I was refitting the cylinder head on Griffless's AXGT500 in between times. Anyway, no radiators, hoses or heater matrices need to be changed.
THANK YOU ALL!
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