Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[V6 CDX-er]

If that coolant has a pretty thin consistency, I am not convinced the oil cooler was the cause of that!

Oil cooler will cause sludge - not discolouration on it's own.

I'd have been inclined to do lots of flushing and then monitor, before condemning the cooler, in the abscence of sludge.

At this moment in time, as you, Chris and Entwood are speaking, I've got my fingers in my ears saying "la la la la I cant hear you" 

Too late now though. In my typical impulsive way I've already decieded that the oil cooler is at fault, whether it actually is or not.

Someone has been there before me though. Bucket loads of red and blue thread lock on a lot of the bolts, plus a return of the wonderfull yellow gunk sealant.



Anyway, when it comes to flushing the rad, do I just remove top and bottom hose, or do all the hoses connected up to the rad need removing?

[albitz]

Its not just the Rad you need to flush, its the whole system. And if it has had oil leaking into it you will need to flush it many times in the coming days/weeks.
Pointless putting any anti freeze in until flushing is complete imo. Although, you will need to keep an eye on night time temperatures, as its still possible to get below zero temps.

[I_want_an_Omega]

Also - dont forget to flush/reverse flush the heater matrix whilst you are at it.

If you undo the pipe connectors to the matrix (on the engine side of the bulkhead) then  - heat up the end of a plastic garden hose (using a hot air gun) until it becomes soft enough to easily press over the end of the pipe with the raised flange. If you do that to both connections then you can easily flush/reverse the matirx by swapping over which hose you connect to the tap - if you see my logic.

That way you also get the matrix (eventually) full of clean water for when you refill the coolant system. If you dont drain/flush the matrix then you will end up with that volume of crud immediately dumped into your newly cleaned cooling system.

HTH - Rob 

[V6 CDX-er]

Thanks all for the advice.

When I am flushing the rad, is it just a case of top hose off and drain tap open, or do I need to dissconnect all the other pipes that feed into the rad as well?

Cheers.

[I_want_an_Omega]

I've always undone as much as poss and shoved a hose in

[Entwood]

I've always undone as much as poss and shoved a hose in

Unfortunately won't work for oil contamination as the oil sticks to the surfaces inside.

Open the drain and take the header cap off .. allow as much out as comes, close drain, fill with a pre-mixed low suds biological detergent /water mix, with heater on max hot run engine with header cap off "burping" the pipes to remove air, allow to get pretty warm but watch for overheating .. just in case oil has blocked any waterways.

It is important that the engine gets hot, as a) the thermostat must open to get circulation, b) the detergent works better when hot, switch off and leave to stand for 30 minuts at least.

This further alows the detergent to do its thing and also prevents any "hot spots" caused by residual heat and no coolant, which can happen if you drain straight away. Drain.

Repeat ... at least a dozen times if not more ..

When I did my mates 2.2 we were lucky .. his missus had acess to large quantities of commercial strength low suds biological detergent ....    Still took over a week doing the procedure 3 times a night !!

[V6 CDX-er]

And now I'm stuck 

The union came off easy enough. Suprisingly easily actually, so I don't think that I have sprained the thread, but even after several hours of trying, I cant get the dam thing to screw back in again.  :-?



Anyone got any tips, (besides leave such jobs to the pro's).

Cheers 

[Andy B]

....

Anyone got any tips, (besides leave such jobs to the pro's).

Cheers 

and you can't slacken the other end? I know it's stating the obvious but you just have to get the pipe as central as you can ............

[V6 CDX-er]

....

Anyone got any tips, (besides leave such jobs to the pro's).

Cheers 

and you can't slacken the other end? I know it's stating the obvious but you just have to get the pipe as central as you can ............

Thanks Andy.

The top is end slack, only on a couple of threads, just so that it 'bites'.

It's not going on at an angle at the bottom end, in fact it's about as straight as you could wish, but for some reason the flare nut just isn't biting into the thread, kinda the exact same problem that I had with the flare nut into my brake caliper.

With the flare nut on the brake caliper it must have been torqued up to about 2 million lb/ft. This flare nut on the oil filter housing felt to only be 20-30 lb/ft, maybe even a little less, so I cant see how the thread could have strained or stretched or got damaged.

The other flare nut attatched really easily, This one wont attatch at all. 

[Andy B]

....The other flare nut attatched really easily, This one wont attatch at all. 

How about connecting this end first  :-/

[V6 CDX-er]

....The other flare nut attatched really easily, This one wont attatch at all. 

How about connecting this end first  :-/

Ah.....   


To my shame I hadn't actually thought of that. In my defence it was nearly 4am when I called defeat last night.

[pauls]

I know iam a bit late on this one but looking at the fluid in the coffee jar it doesnt look thick enough to be oil cooler. When mine went back in 08 the oil and water mix in my header tank was like a light brown custard.Also i was told i caught it early because no overheating and only needed 3 flushes to clean out with something called bio cleaner :question

[V6 CDX-er]

I know iam a bit late on this one but looking at the fluid in the coffee jar it doesnt look thick enough to be oil cooler. When mine went back in 08 the oil and water mix in my header tank was like a light brown custard.Also i was told i caught it early because no overheating and only needed 3 flushes to clean out with something called bio cleaner :question

Upon reflection Paul, I think you might be right.

The oil cooler has definatley been done before judging by the amount of (what i suspect is) bathroom sealant around it. Also even though my coolant is very dirty, I suspect that is all it actually is, (dirty).

Well, it's done now. well, almost done, just need to finish off re-assembly.

Also taken my header tank off to give it a dam good clean out.



I put a splash of Persil in a bucket of boiling water to wash the header tank in.

[Andy B]

....
Also taken my header tank off to give it a dam good clean out. ....

I uysed a bit of industrial strength caustic to clean mine out, which helped, but if I was you I'd get the system cleaned out & just replace the header tank with a nice shiney new one. IIRC they're around £35