The previous owner of my 2005 F250 blew the head gasket and continued to drive the vehicle on tap water from destination to destination. Miles driven on tap (Florida Tap water to be exact) water are unknown. However, the signs are only obvious for that I have nothing but rust flakes in my coolant system. After approximately 1,200 miles I have to dump my coolant and back flush my oil cooler to remove the rust particle build up in the oil cooler rescricting coolant flow to cool my oil until my oil temps hit 235f and then I have to flush all over again.
I have already cycled the fleetguard Restore in my coolant system, but that truthfully made everything worse, in a sense because it broke up a lot of the rust in the system, but that may not necessarily be a horrible issue if I can find a product that dissolves rust.
So my question is, there has to be a chemical combination of some sort that I can cycle through my coolant system to dissolve all the rust particles in the system? I can't be the only one that has this issue, especially 6.0s being that idiots blow head gaskets and will run on tap water as a last resort without knowing the damage that it does to an engines coolant system. Since then everything has been rebuilt regarding the blown head gaskets. Studs, magnafluxed heads, gaskets, welded EGR etc.

So my question is, is there anything, anything at all that is safe to cycle in my coolant system to elimate the rust particle build up in my system? ANY help will be greatly appreciated. It's about twice as difficult as changing your oil, but what really gets you is having to do it every 1,200 miles. It will start to drive you insane especially if you rack up miles quickly. I have a Sinister coolant filter on the truck but it's a bypass filter and only catches so much.

Here is a picture a few minutes after the flush has started of some pieces of the block that are coming free in my coolant system. This is after I dump high pressure water through the oil cooler outlet down the radiator hose.

Thank you!

 

Are you running a coolant filter?


Maybe do another flush like you did before, but remove the thermostat, and rig up some kind of a screen to catch that garbage before it goes back through?


After all of that, and you're getting nothing but clean water back, I'd still toss a new oil cooler in it.

 

Yes I have a Sinister coolant filter, however it's a bypass filters therefore it does not catch all the particles.

No chance in hell would I put another oil cooler in at this point. Not until I figure out a solution that will dissolve the rust. I have a brand new OEM oil cooler awaiting install. I have already installed 3 brand new oil coolers in 20,000 miles.

 

If flushing won't clean it out the only option is remove the oem cooler and go with an air to oil cooler. No chemical will clean large amounts of scale without destroying the rest of the engine. If it was mine I would pull all the freeze plugs and flush till the water was clean, then replace the rad and heater core.

 

If you are seeing flakes that large I have to wonder if you have some serious cavitation going on inside the cooling system.

 

Maybe try evapo rust. It's safe, biodegradable and reuseable. I've used it for other things (cast iron pans) and it works well. It seems to dissolve the rust into rusty water vs. making it flake off. Could be worth a try

 

lowes cleaning vinegar, 2 gals in,run around a day,drain and do again, cleans well and is safe,easy to get, breaks down rust since you got a new cooler waiting.

 

I would think that any chemical that is strong enough to dissolve rust flakes like that would cause some real havoc on other thin metal parts within the cooling system.

My thoughts were exactly like yours though, would be nice if you could open the engine up somehow and flush the crap out of it. There's probably a handful of that stuff sitting down in the bottom of the block.

 

Restore or Restore Plus??? Restore Plus is the rust removing product, like VC-9.

You sir, are in uncharted territory. I once bought a Mustang with a 289 that had a similar issue and I never cleared all the rust during the time I had it. But I also did not have Restore Plus at the time. Otherwise the chemicals I'm thinking off I would not trust not deteriorating other components in the cooling system.

Considering the prospect of continuing rust scale issues this would be the only situation where a removal of the oil cooler and going to an external oil to air cooler would make sense.

 

VC-9 actually works quite well to clean rust and anything else that doesn't belong out of the cooling system.

I recently used it on a 98 Ford ranger that the PO was running water in since the head gaskets were blown. The amount of rust in that cooling system was extreme to the point where I had to replace the radiator. I dumped a 3/4 of the bottle of VC-9 in and after running the truck for an hour up to temp, the cooling system was spotless.

For a 6.0 you need two bottles of that stuff, but given that the headgaskets are blown, they should be repaired first then the flush performed.

 

Yes sir I have already done the VC9 flush. I was as thorough as I could possibly be running that solution through. It didn't dissolve the rust, it broke it up even more. The more I flush (every 1,200 miles) the rust build up is slowly dimenishing, that and also the bypass filter catching the little bit that it does.

 

I have an old Y block out of a inboard boat that I am restoring. The water jackets were packed with sediment. It took several days of flushing and soaking with a pressure washer and garden hose to get it clean, and that was with the heads and all freeze plugs out.

The problem with scale is originally that material was part of the casting, only so much can be removed before the block is compromised.

 

Strip it down and have the block and heads tanked. Then replace the heater core and radiator.

 

If it's that bad, do what he said^^^^^

That Ranger had rust all over the cooling system and the heads were no exception. After having them hot tanked, milled, and basically gone though, they looked brand new.

 

Boy that sucks
An engine cavitates hard very fast

With 1200 mi from previous owner running water that might have taken a month or two and the buildup/cavitation is very bad with enough time doing that the engine block could fail

I hope your pulling that thermostat and set truck to 1200rpm while you run the vc-9 otherwise no cleaner will clean much with thermostat in it's the unregulated flow with thermostat out that is the scrubing action