FE Power Forums
FE Power Forums => FE Technical Forum => Topic started by: HarleyJack17 on May 28, 2020, 10:35:59 AM
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I have never had to do this, so all new. Large brass OEM style radiator for my F-250. Has been out and drained for a few years, was new when it went in. Piecing the truck back together and ready to install the radiator but noticed there are white "growths" inside it. Not typical build up, I am guessing it may be like calcium. Looks almost like tiny little plants growing inside it, multiple "strings" at the top that work their way up in the air. Obvious they would break off if I shot water in there. Just seems odd but I guess that is what happens. Should have ran water through it before storing it.
What is a good, or best, way to clean it prior to install?
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In the past I used muratic acid. Fill the radiater slosh around for about 3 or 4 minutes and drain and rinse with clean water.
You can redo it several times to get it real clean but you don't want to leave the acid in to long.
Just a little at a time.
Greg
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Honestly, take it to a local rad shop that is busy. They have the tanks and chemicals, and can do any repairs. It cost the $30 to have mine cleaned, tested, and painted.
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Try CLR. The stuff that is available at most grocery stores, Lowes, Home Depot, ect. Fill the rad. with full strength CLR and let it sit until the foaming stops. Empty and flush with clear water. Don't discard the used CLR as it is still useable for other less critical needs.
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Honestly, take it to a local rad shop that is busy. They have the tanks and chemicals, and can do any repairs. It cost the $30 to have mine cleaned, tested, and painted.
Some jobs are better left to the professionals. Good advice.
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Honestly, take it to a local rad shop that is busy. They have the tanks and chemicals, and can do any repairs. It cost the $30 to have mine cleaned, tested, and painted.
Some jobs are better left to the professionals. Good advice.
If there are any left that even work on copper/brass units. With everything aluminum for the last 20+ years and rockauto et al < $200 replacements, there's not a lot of call for "radiator repair". The best guy here retired years ago, his little building was practically a EPA super fund site all on it's own LOL. Razed and the surface material remediated, no kidding.
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Honestly, take it to a local rad shop that is busy. They have the tanks and chemicals, and can do any repairs. It cost the $30 to have mine cleaned, tested, and painted.
Some jobs are better left to the professionals. Good advice.
If there are any left that even work on copper/brass units. With everything aluminum for the last 20+ years and rockauto et al < $200 replacements, there's not a lot of call for "radiator repair". The best guy here retired years ago, his little building was practically a EPA super fund site all on it's own LOL. Razed and the surface material remediated, no kidding.
Same in my area. There used to be one in every town. Now, there is only one small garage within 50 miles (at least) that still does it, and it is NOT cheap to get them recored. I spoke with the guy a few times for jobs I had him do for me at work. The price was pretty expensive, but less expensive than replacing the radiator outright (oddball equipment that you can't get generic pieces for). He told me that the cores are really expensive for him to purchase.
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Radiator shop without a doubt
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There are a good four or five where I live in San Antonio. I know there are not a lot of good reasons for a consumers at our level to have a late model radiator repaired but there are a lot of commercial/industrial customers for these shops.
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Try CLR. The stuff that is available at most grocery stores, Lowes, Home Depot, ect. Fill the rad. with full strength CLR and let it sit until the foaming stops. Empty and flush with clear water. Don't discard the used CLR as it is still useable for other less critical needs.
I'll second that. I did mine about a month ago. Bought a gallon of CLR and sloshed it around for about 5 mins. and rinsed thoroughly with water. Came out nice.
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If you use CLR or some other caustic material how will you pressure check ?
Pain in the ars to install, uninstall and then take to a radiator shop because of a pinhole.
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I am with the CLR gang, of course a shop can clean it, but to do it right, they take it apart and clean the core. They generally don't have anything that is hotter or fancier without going inside
I'd fill it with CLR and water, get it hot, and dump it and refill with antifreeze.
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Yeah, I am leaning toward the CLR, or vinegar. Hear you can use Phosphoric acid as well since it is safe for metals. The radiator is not junked up. Like I said, it may have a 1000 miles of use before the motor spun a bearing. BUT it has me learie to just wash it out. I meant to get a picture but got busy redoing the steering column on the old truck last night. There are no real signs of corrosion, just several of these " white sprouts" almost like moss spores that grew up into the air from the top of the core. The inside openings, top of the core, all that looks ok...just these growths. Odd deal. Kind of why I wanted a picture.
Will see what I can do. Only one radiator shop even close to me and up in the air from what I have heard.
Thanks for the replies, tips.
Otherwise, I hope to hear the 445 come to life soon. Been way to long. Lost a full two days this past weekend since I had to do a complete rear brake job on my sons '83 Chevy C10...what a p.i.t.a. Took almost an hour to clean one side thanks to a blown axle seal...thing must have been slowly leaking for years. Add to that about 20 minutes fighting that seal and three trips to parts store. Longest brake job EVER!
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Look for white corrosion where the tubes are soldered to the flat tanks on the outside. If there is none showing it is still in good shape. If white is showing it is already on its way out. Radiators can go bad just sitting
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Where I had mine done (Calgary) there are still several large shops. The one I used has been there for years, had over a hundred copper/brass rads sitting in queue to be cleaned and serviced, and because they have the big tanks for the caustic chemicals, it was in one day, back the next.
BTW they put a cap on its, hooked the top to a pump and ran pressurized chemical through the core while it was in the tank. Since it didn't need any repairs it cost me $30. That about the same price as a gallon of CLR. And they pressure tested it and painted it (the cleaning stripped the paint off).
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I've already used Liquid Plumber. Seemed to work OK. You just have to rinse real good after the soaking.
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[quote author=cjshaker link=topic=8815.msg97771
Same in my area. There used to be one in every town. Now, there is only one small garage within 50 miles (at least) that still does it, and it is NOT cheap to get them recored. I spoke with the guy a few times for jobs I had him do for me at work. The price was pretty expensive, but less expensive than replacing the radiator outright (oddball equipment that you can't get generic pieces for). He told me that the cores are really expensive for him to purchase.
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I live close to a reasonably big city and same here, only a couple of rad shops that do repairs and it isn't inexpensive these days. Just paid 1100 bucks to recore a rad out of my FMC Wayne chipper. Labor was 140 bucks and the rest was the the core and the top tank.
Only 2 real shops that had the ability to do it and they're 60 miles apart and they were both within 100 bucks of each other so I went to the closer shop.
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I remember the radiator shops used to unsolder the tanks, then boil it clean in a tank, then run brushes through the tubes and then solder the tanks back on. They called it "rodding" out the radiator. Too much labor cost these days except for specialty stuff. DIY flush saves you a lot of dough unless you find someone to do it for 30 or even 50 bucks or so as mentioned earlier.
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The shops to look for are those that deal with class 8/heavy-medium duty trucks. Re-coring truck radiators and air-to-air coolers is still profitable. These shops likely have the necessary equipment. Check with the parts guys at your local Kenworth/Peterbilt/Freightliner/Mack dealers, they may be able to help or point you in the right direction.
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love the FE Ford FoRum.
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The shops to look for are those that deal with class 8/heavy-medium duty trucks. Re-coring truck radiators and air-to-air coolers is still profitable. These shops likely have the necessary equipment. Check with the parts guys at your local Kenworth/Peterbilt/Freightliner/Mack dealers, they may be able to help or point you in the right direction.
The trouble is cores for big truck radaitors and CAC's are common and inexpensive, relatively speaking. I've got to 1800 sq ft cores for my old Kenworths sitting in the shop and they were about 500 each for the cores and were on a shelf in town. The core for my 73 F250 was 700 and had to be ordered.
And some stuff you can't get cores for anymore. I recently did some work on a 68 D200 sweptline recently and they don't make a core for it anymore. My only choices were custom build or make a Charger rad fit. I made the cheap Charger rad fit!
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I agree about shops that do truck radiators. The one I used had a steady flow of medium and heavy truck radiators coming and going.
They suggested that I may have overheating issues with a 500hp engine with a stock rad, and suggested a multi-tube re-core for $500 to $900 depending on the number of rows and material.
I just had them clean it, check it, and paint it. They would have unsoldered it and cleaned it had it needed it for $150.
Since it was a rad out of an F250 with a tranny cooler that I repurposed to cool my power steering I didn't want to swap it out for a new one. So far it has run in a very happy temp range.
I think my point is a few phone calls will find you an answer - either you have a suitable service or you don't.
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Late as usual but here are some pics of what I was describing, just for record. You can click to enlarge and see the "growths".
Going to used vinegar and let it sit for a bit/slosh it around, then repeat with a baking soda/water mix to neutralize the acid.
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That appears to be "solder bloom" You can try the vinegar but IMO it will take a lot longer to dissolve. I stand by my recommendation of using CLR, full strength until the deposits stop foaming. Drain then flush completely with clear water.
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In the past i have used hydrochloride acid to clean radiators and
heater cores. Worked fine, clean as a whistle.
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To follow up and update.
Used right at 2 gallons of white vinegar. Radiator laid down and full and soaked for about 18 hours. With help from my son, we agitated it a bit before draining. Then flushed with a baking soda/water mix, then flushed twice with normal house water.
Came out pretty darn clean. No solder bloom nor the minor rust residue left, good clean metal. Time will tell but I am happy with the results. I would recommend letting it "stew" maybe for an additional 24-36 hours if you want it as new. Hopefully there will be no long term ill effects.
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Go to a jd or other tractor dealer they have some one who fixes them.