Long time lurker, first time poster. Hopefully someone here had to do something similar and can chime in. Couldn't find any posts about engine on stand flushing.

Decided to bulletproof my 2004 6.0, but also decided to replace oil cooler after engine was pulled off the truck. So coolant flush has to be done without engine running, otherwise i risk plugging brand new cooler after everything is back together.

Radiator and heater core can be easily flushed and backflushed on their own, so no concerns there.

After some thinking, I have decided on adapting the upper and lower hose ports to garden hose fittings. I plan on doing hot tap water flush first, also to warm up the engine.

Then, one side will be hooked to small sump pump (push side) that will be sitting in the bucket filled with Restore and also a submersible water heater element to keep it close to normal engine operating temp. I can flush and backflush it this way by changing hoses. And then switch to Restore+ and finally distilled water.

Top ports on intake and oil cooler cover will be looped together.

What bugs me most at this point is the crap (likely) in the oil cooler that will be dislocated and not fully removed from the engine before installing new cooler.

Questions:
1. What about removing the oil cooler right away and just not flushing it? I really don't want to do it without knowing if its doable, since it's not likely I can put the old cooler back in for the flush, using old gaskets and orings.

2. Will the water pump itself pose restriction big enough during the engine-on-stand flush?

3. With pump and cover removed, how many and what kind of ports would I be dealing with, and how do I adapt my hoses to flush single coolant runs?

4. Assuming that WP is good, am I looking at replacing the water pump gasket alone, or is it water pump and timing cover gasket set? $$$?

Any help and comments appreciated!

 

I use a simular method but designed for in the truck flushing and useing a filtre while flushing.
I hook it up and let it circulate the whole day.
There used to be a member at powerstroke.org that had a back flush procrdure of just the oil cooler.

 

What about flushing everything BUT the oil cooler? If the old one is replaced or can be flushed separately, why have it installed during the flush?

 

You normally flush with the old oil cooler in place then throw away. Cooler is needed in place to complete the cooling circuit or something rigged up to take its place.

 

That obviously assumes oil cooler is not ruptured (Ford recommends flush with new cooler installed because of that argument) - and mine is not, but if that loop can be closed in other way, why have that restriction in your flushing loop? Don't think any flush procedure guarantees complete clean restoration of that oil cooler, so what if crap is still dislodged from it, to elsewhere in the system. New cooler will get clogged sooner or later...

I yet have to look exactly how its routed, but it seems coolant comes from the bottom of the block, through the oil cooler base/case and dumps into the top of cooler, then comes up again and goes through EGR cooler, then intake, then into the water pump.

Since intake and EGR cooler are out, I already have it router bypassing them. Now thinking on how to bypass the oil cooler itself.

Oh, and them block drains are a b**ch. Neither 5/16 or 8mm has a remote chance of getting in, with the rust in them.

 

Ford may recomend it but then they won't mind selling you three or four oil coolers.
When you flush with a new oil cooler the odds are good you will plug it up and need another new one.
Oil coolers seldom rupture but they easyly plug up.

 

Yeah, I totally get the flush now, replace later point but it still seems not perfect for me. If cooler will be replaced, why flush it at all? Loop/fitting issue might be the only cause and I hope that's not it.

I'd rather have the cooler out during the flush or induce the flush through other ports, to get as much deposits as possible from the block itself.

 

Like I said a member in another forum [Nitrogen] I think was his handle has a good write up and pics of his flush procedure for out of engine. Sorry I will not direct link from one forum to another.
Several members have links to his post in their signatures.

 

Thanks, will try to look it up.

 

Doesn't the Restore and Restore+ products need heat to work correctly?

 

Yes and both of us were talking about a way to do a heated flush without running the engine. His engine is all ready removed. The method I use the engine is still in the truck.

 

Anyone has idea if dealer flush machine requires truck to run?
Asking since in my mind the water pump itself might pose a restriction. Will probably find out whether it does based on the flow from the dump port.

I think I can get the Restore temp high enough to make it work.

I bet I am not on my own with this problem. With anyone doing any work off the truck should have oil cooler replacement as the priority. Not many want to do it twice...

 

Look on Ebay for a used cooler.
You end up changing in and out a few times but you will
get a better job done. The chemicals depend on the heat.

I have not read about a heated cooling system flush. Plus
you are going to be pushing it to reach anything close to operation
temps of 180ºf. 1000 Lbs of block will not heat very quickly
just way too much mass. I think by the time you build something
to do a good job you are going to have more into that than you
would if you just found an old cooler and swapped that in and out.


Sean

 

Original cooler is still good. I considered leaving it in for the backflush, then putting everything back together and into the truck and then replacing the cooler with the new one after 500 miles, but that's so much work to get to it.

I was reading about using Cascade with the tap water hot flush and backflush (140F ?) first. It would do a good part of cleaning on it's own. I would assume, if I run it for couple hours, the block temp would get somewhere close to 140F. Then, I would start heated flush and aim for 180F+.

In this setup flush and backflush are as easy as hooking up my garden hose off the sump pump to upper vs lower rad hose port.

 

The Cascade (or any non-sudsing detergent) or one of the citrus based degreasers like Simple Green or Purple Power is used to remove oil from the cooling system. That's important if your oil cooler has ruptured. Not really necessary if you don't have oil in the cooling system, but it won't hurt anything if you want to go through the trouble.

There are two distinctly different types of cleaners sold specifically for cooling systems.
One is an acid type similar to boiler cleaner. Intended to remove rust, lime and calcium deposits. The other is an alkaline based product intended to remove the silicate (and other chemical) residue left over from the coolant from the interior surfaces.

No matter what you use, a very thorough flush is important. Any of those chemicals are not compatible with the ingredients in the new coolant they are kind of opposite, so getting all of the chemicals out is vital to doing a good job. Opening the block drain plugs allows good flow to the bottom of the engine block where much of the crud tends to settle.

Setting up a closed circuit system with a heater sound interesting. I agree with Sean, it's going to take a good bit of heating power to warm the engine up to operating temp on the stand but 130-150° should be doable and may be enough for the chemicals to work well. Take a few pictures if you decide to do that and it works out good.