Cleaning the Radiator Question

Hey Guys , I'm bout to drain the system and after reading on the CLR I think I'm gonna go the Baking Soda route . I'm gonna drain it down and the fill it up with Baking soda and water and let it set for a while and the flush . I'm not gonna start the car just flush and see how that goes . I will report back soon
 
Keith, doing the baking soda alone will do you no good.
The posts above mention doing: 1. the CLR, then 2. the baking soda.
You need an acid (CLR, vinegar, whatever) to break up the deposits in the radiator. The baking soda is a base (opposite of an acid) and will stop the acidic reaction once you are done trying to clean the deposits. That way, you do not end up with a partly acidic antifreeze mixture running through your system.
 
I would never clean the rad without removing it from the car. (n) The correct way to do this is to remove it, plug both ends and fill it with some straight, undiluted CLR in it (this might take a few cans of it) and let it soak for a few days and then, rinse it with high pressure hose. (y)

good luck,

Claude. ;)
 
Another alternative, RMI-25
It's available from several of the leading buick vendors.......

http://www.buickgn.com/RMI25.htm
http://arizonagn.com/?page_id=943


Nick Micale (Arizona GN) got me going with this stuff and it's specifically designed for cleaning and treating your cooling system. Won't do any harm to your other engine components!
You won't believe how much crap this will get outta your radiator / cooling system.
I've used this product and can only say WOW!
My cooling system runs cooler now after being treated........(they claim a 10 degree F temperature drop).
 
Last edited:
Ok so I have drained all the antifreeze and it was very nasty , I have filled it with baking soda and vinegar , It was a slow process fill the rad with the two because of it foaming and hopefully cleaning . I'm gonna let that work for bout two hours and then drain thru the petcock after draining I'm gonna remove both hoses and flush the fire out of the rad with water hose and hope to wash all of the crud out . If this fails , and it may , I will only have a few bucks in it . I have not started the car thru all this so nothing has got into the engine . And believe me I'm gonna spend alot of time flushing the rad out .
 
This will probably do very little. The vinegar was the ingredient you needed to react and remove the scale in the radiator. You needed to do this then let it sit for a few days. The baking soda/water was to be used to flush the radiator after those few days.

When you combined the vinegar and baking soda, the chemical reaction goes to carbon dioxide gas (the foaming you saw) + water + sodium acetate.

You now have nothing left in the radiator to clean the scale as you hoped.
 
Just my opinion of course, but no amount of vinegar and or baking soda is gonna fix that 30 year old radiator. The only way to restore proper flow is to either recore the original, or install one of the aftermarket units that are available. It looks like you've got a decent investment in aftermarket upgrades, why skimp on the cooling system? With that said, it's your car and you are free to choose how you will proceed. I will be checking this thread to see how you make out, Keith. :)
 
if you aren't going to replace/recore/renew, then go with the RMI 25 treatment as mentioned above.

Be aware though, the RMI will find EVERY corrosion weakness in your cooling system, be it radiator, gaskets or seals and it will attack it just like it does build up in the radiator core. If you used a sealer previously, it will find and most likely eliminate it.

It's good stuff, but it doesn't discriminate when it finds corrosion. It can be a real eye opener to someone who thought their cooling system was "OK".

I use it mixed with antifreeze and swear that it keeps my car running 15 - 20 degrees cooler than just antifreeze. And remember , both Nick and I live and drive our cars in Phoenix, AZ.

It was 108 on Thursday. It will be a high of 72 today {Sunday}. WTF is up with that? :D
 
Last edited:
Ok guys after doing all this today I have found it wasnt worth a damn . I was trying a bandaid and it didnt work . I still have all that shit clogged to the flumes inside the Rad . I got some RMI 25 from Nick bout 6 months or so and have been running it since then and could not tell it helped any , being that said the RMI is probably kept me running as long as I have been cause I know its good stuff and I have another bottle that will go back in with the distilled water this time . The rad is bout to come off this week and going to the shop to be done right , I have learned my lesson . But the old saying live and learn so I'm now bout to have a cold drink and catch the last few laps of the race
 
This will probably do very little. The vinegar was the ingredient you needed to react and remove the scale in the radiator. You needed to do this then let it sit for a few days. The baking soda/water was to be used to flush the radiator after those few days.

When you combined the vinegar and baking soda, the chemical reaction goes to carbon dioxide gas (the foaming you saw) + water + sodium acetate.

You now have nothing left in the radiator to clean the scale as you hoped.
:facepalm::arghh:
 
Hey Guys Thank yall for all the help , its coming off after work today and going to a rad shop . I will be running the RMI and distilled water going forward . I'm proud I got to inspecting things cause I found the top rad hose has been rubbing on that pulley that's its close to so I will be replacing it also
 
Hey Guys Thank yall for all the help , its coming off after work today and going to a rad shop . I will be running the RMI and distilled water going forward . I'm proud I got to inspecting things cause I found the top rad hose has been rubbing on that pulley that's its close to so I will be replacing it also

Please be careful! That's most likely a result of your MAF pipe (assuming you have aftermarket pipe)! And last year I had a brand new well known brand of pipe (whose name shall remain nameless) cost me my first ever Hot Rod Power Tour!

Put it like this I have what is basically a brand new MAF pipe (from another popular vendor who will remain nameless), that I took off my car after only fifty miles due to fitment issues and the quality of the connectors. In that, my top adapter connector sucked down so hard that it moved the pipe. (AND IT IS NOT LIKE MY CAR WAS SET ON HIGH BOOST LEVELS AT THE TIME AS IT WAS ONLY LIKE 15 PSI). And while I had no idea this had happened, but, when the pipe moved (from the connector collapsing) it pushed the top radiator hose into the fan belt. Which then cost me my first ever power tour! Now i do live in the sticks and this did happen at 10:30 at night on Sunday night. So, u go try and find a top radiator hose for a turbo regal at anytime much less 10:30 at night on Sunday night.

I will say this, I wouldn't even want to give the other pipe away (that I'm telling you about). Even though it's basically brand new. Because I know the results of such! So, please do beware someone else's nightmare out there (when seeking a MAF pipe)!

To solve your problem, Earl Brown is Da Man! He's very reasonable / inexpensively priced and his 3.5" pipe fits perfectly (even when running his larger up pipe)! I know this may sound cliche, but, the angle of the dangle really does matter. It's enough to make a difference between a 5-10 minute install (or a 2.5 hours install)!

I guess some manufacturers pipes just are not bent right (and that's no bull there)! Also Earl sends you everything you need to make it happen too. And it's all quality stuff too (which is another thing you have to be very careful of too)!

I'm sure that I can't be the only one with a like new MAF pipe sitting around either. And I'm not dogging anyone's product, just relaying my life experience is all! Nightmare is more like it!!

Good luck with it though!!





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My rad looked just like the one in the previous pics and rmi 25 and then having it boiled at a rad shop did nothing to remove that scale and unclog it. I got a new rad from rock auto with the oil cooler built in. Runs much cooler now.
 
I'm bout to find out how much it is to rod out , if its bout what one at Rockauto is then I'm going that way
 
The rads at the shop bout to go in an acid vat and I will pick it up tomorrow . its 40 $ for the cleaning so I'm gonna see how it goes when I install it . I'm just gonna run distilled water and RMI 25 . Summer is bout here in north Ms so its gonna get hot . if this doesnt work i will go a different route . that means a new aluminum rad and some dual fans
 
The bad part about these liquid 'fixes' are that they're handicapped from the start. Our radiators have horizontal flues. The like to clocg from the bottom up.


Dumping any kind of miracle jizz in there can't work because it can't get inside the flues.

The other down side is there are a LOT of solder joints in a radiator, so odds are any cleaning that gets done will cause a leak long before any cleaning that will result in a more efficient radiator.

Back when my GN was a 250,000 daily with the ordinal radiator, I tried all the stuff to keep it running cool. Nothing, not even RMI worked. I had too many flues clogged up to transfer heat. My radiator rejected just enough heat to be able to drive there car. I could kick it on the interstate, and it would stay hot for up to 3 hours without cooling down to the thermostat setting.



I wouldn't worry about the hoses and suck with a CLR bath either. It comes in a plastic bottle so I can't imagine it eats rubber hoses. The bad part is enough CLR to rill a stock radiator most likely costs more than a brand new F-body radiator that doesn't need cleaning (and has a lifetime warranty)
 
I do not understand all the time and effort to clean a 30 year old radiator. The savings is so small it's not worth it. After all you have is a radiator that will now leak from the solder joints being compromised. One click and $100 and your done. seems simple to me.
 
I got the rad back on and took it out last night for a drive here in town , It did get to bout 190 but that was in town with AC on and just distilled water . I'm gonna keep a close eye on my temps and go from there
 
Top