vinegar solution for cleaning coolant passages
 

I searched but can't find anything.

About a year ago I was looking through a muscle car magazine and they had a bunch of tips and tricks in there for different things, and one of them was a way to clean your coolant passages. You mix a solution of vinegar and water, fill the coolant system, run the engine to operating temp and then drain it and fill with regular coolant again.

My question is, does anyone know if this would be a problem for the coolant seals? I don't want to do this if it's going to kill the seals, but I guess that's obvious haha.

I know that vinigar will work for this, but I don't know if it will kill the seals. Best thing to do, if possible, would be to soak a seal in the solution and check it first hand. Please let us know the results if you do try this. :)

Good luck....






.

If I can find an old seal I'll try it and post results haha. Thanks.

This sounds like a half decent idea to remove block sealer residue from the water jacket of some irons waiting to go into an engine.

I don't mind doing this to my 20b because I pull my engine apart all the time for testing purposes. Only problem is, I don't have factory inner coolant seals so I won't know the effect on them. I do however still have the factory outers though. If the outers hold up, then the factory inners should be fine since they are designed with a more resistant material. Anyone know the mixing ratios? I haven't been able to fully get my coolant passages clean the way I want so I would like to see if it works. I'm planning on opening the engine up again next month. I guess I could also mix up a solution and boil my plates in it during rebuilds.



Edit:

A quick Google sear shows to use baking soda to neutralize the effect after the cleaning.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=353511

Looks like they have mixing ratios as well.

Edit again:

More searching revealed NOT to do this on aluminum engines and use "electrasol and water"instead. Hmm interesting!

Yeah, I'd avoid using an acidic fluid on aluminum parts, especially an assembled engine. That's why I thought of using it on irons while they were still apart yet, so I can be sure to flush ALL of the acidic solution before asssembly.

It's surprising how long it takes to flush the water jackets of an assembled engine. I'd save the acid wash for when the engine is apart. Wouldn't want that stuff sitting in an engine, nor baking soda as it can have a harsh reaction on brass such as 1st gen RX-7 radiators (I use it to clean carb jets, which are brass for those who didn't know, that are corvered in pot metal corrosion from water damaged carbs).

I found the magazine that has the article, full of handy tips. It says use a 50/50 vinegar/water mix.

So are you guys saying it SHOULDN'T be done then or am I getting confused?

Another idea someone gave me was to use dishwasher soap. There are more steps but I figured I'd toss it out there for now haha.

No, you can't use an acidic cleaner on aluminum parts. :(

OK, I thought that's what you guys were saying but I wanted to make sure haha. I started draining my coolant/water tonight. I'll just flush it out and put it straight 50/50 for the winter (I had been just adding water during the summer if it ever needed to be topped off).

Thanks guys!

Eric, I'd recommend simply changing the coolant every year if you're that worried about it--- drain the block and the radiator. Be careful about running odd solutions through a rotary engine, regardless of what this month's HotRod RedNeck Magazine says ;)

Oh, and be careful adding water to your engine..... I'm assuming you've been using bottled or tap? I'd avoid that if possible. Use distilled water or keep some Prestone 50/50 handy.

Well Rich you've put me in quite the spot, because I'd like to say I'm not really worried about it other than I'd like to take tip-top care of my engine...but then I have to tell the truth and say it's been tap water LOL. I was just reading all the tips in the magazine (101 to be exact) and some of them seemed really useful in general. I'll steer clear of redneck magazine though haha.

^ Tap water is sin water.

^Unless it's blessed by a priest...which I also didn't have done. LOL

Blanket statements like that often prompt me to do at least a brief google search.

While I would not want to an run acid based fluid through my assembled motor to clean it, agents for cleaning aluminum are often acid based.

Best to do a little research for your particular application rather than rely on terse forum comments. :nod:

Thanks for clearing that up!

too many nannies here..

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_alumi...n_with_vinegar

vinegar won't affect the aluminum, it will just break up the surface minerals from hard waters.

question is, do some of those minerals hold your coolant seal to the rotor housing walls? it may in fact hurt your coolant seal's seal on some older engines that haven't been rebuilt recently. those of you that have rebuilt these engine know that there is a significant amount of mineral deposits all around the original seals. but can the vinegar really even get to it? i would have to say no, it would take many heat cycles running the vinegar to actually get into there and break those materials up.

you guys talk about vinegar like it's really an acid.. i use it to clean ALOT of things around the house. i don't worry about it eating through my hand or anything like lye and battery acid will. electrolyte for example is used to etch aluminum to bring out the oxidized/hardened surface for anodizing processes. lye is also corrosive on aluminum, which is used in many automotive degreasers and probably in small amounts in radiator flush solutions.

if you're really worried about it throw something made from cast aluminum into a pure vinegar solution for a day and check the results(cast aluminum has a high copper content so when it oxidizes it turns dark grey taking away the aluminum and leaving the oxidized copper behind).

also see:

http://www.keytometals.com/Article14.htm