89 F150 with 300-6cyl. The rad-hoses-coolant are original (150K) and the coolant is rust brown. No trace of green. I opened the drain petcock and nothing came out. I pulled the entire petcock out, and nothing came out. Tons of gunk on the petcock stem. I flushed as much as i could with my garden hose, but its not enough. The truck is starting to over heat. The way I see it i can:

Buy a new radiator ($100-$130 or so)

Buy some cooling system detergent (acid more like, $15 for two bottles)

Used radiator ($50, but oh so hard to find the ones that have the 1" core)

Thoughts?

Kevin

 

buy a new radiator, they are cheap.

check water pump, is it weeping?

auto or manual?

on detergent, i do not know.

 

Buy a cooling system flush kit, and some of the cooling system cleaner from autozone or wherever. Dump the bottle in and drive it around for a while. Then flush it out real good with the kit as per the instructions. Run it until the water is clean. Drain and refill with 75% water, 25% antifreeze. If it still overheats, then look at replacing the radiator. At 150k, now is the time to change the water pump before it leaves you stranded.

Guess where my 150k mile truck is - getting a new water pump today (too busy to do it over the weekend, needed the truck done today).

 

The radiator may still be usable. It sounds like you want to get out of this as cheap as possible. This will take time and alot of water

Take off the lower rad hose and run it to a bucket or something. Disconnect the top rad hose. Then flush the rad first with plain water until its clean. Put water in at the rad cap and the upper hose port to get it as good as possible.

Now disconnect the upper heater hose and flush it both ways; into the heater core and into the block.

I would suggest you wash out the block by taking the thermostat off (it sounds like you need a new one anyways) and running water in thru there but you can do a decent job by lifting the lower hose which should still be connected at the block end up as high as it will go and filling what you can of the block with water and then lower the hose and let it dump out. Again, try to get clean water out.

Then reassemble and use the flush fluids to remove builtup crap and scale. I've used prestone superflush for years and I'm still on my original radiator & hoses too. You may want to switch to a 5yr/50,000 fluid. Walmart has good prices on Prestone but stay away from the premixed stuff. You can pick up a few gallons of distilled water at walmart to for 75 cents.

Good luck,
Popa Tim

 

Popa, no distilled water. There's a FSB about distilled water, glycol and aluminum radiators - I'll see if I can find it again.

fallen

 

Really? Now this I've got to read. What else would you use. Distilled is pretty close to pure water.... and my Ferrari service manual says to only use distilled water.

 

I'm trying - google skills are failing me at the moment, but a somewhat vague memory says cooling systems require the minerals in the water. Using distilled water causes the action of the coolant to attack the radiator and engine block to get those minerals.

fallen

 

Well, I think I will just kinda step back and see where the distilled water thread goes from here. Otherwise, I agree with pretty much everything that Popa Tim offered for advice and guidance, It's a lot of work and will definitely get the job done. The other option, of course, is to yank the rad and take it to a radiator shop for a professional evaluation of the condition of the innards of your rad. It's going to be a real PITA if you get her all cleaned out just to fail as soon as soon as you pressure it up because of weak and corroded joints and all. I also think that you should seriously check out your water pump for any weeping. At 150,000 it may be starting to show its age. That is pretty much the exact mileage that I changed mine out at, on spec. Once I had it out and could clearly see the weep hole and sure enough I found a small stain of AF weeping out of the hole.

Good Luck and let us know what you decide to do.

Cheers!

Mike

 

I agree with Popa too - I always flush with prestone superflush every two years and pull the block plugs and then fill with distilled water and prestone antifreeze at 60/40. Then I developed a couple of pin holes in the radiator, which was only 6 years old. I replaced it and did a little research and found out about electrolysis and the TSB (I'm still looking Popa - I swear ), so I drained and refilled with Arrowhead drinking water. Does it really matter? Who knows, antifreeze doesn't last too long here in sunny Phoenix so the 5/50 stuff is just added expense to me.
With all the gunk you had in your system, I'd probably bypass having the radiator rodded and just buy the new one, money allowing. If it's too bad, then the money spent there could have went towards a new one, with the added peace of mind of knowing it's no longer a problem.

fallen

 

I hate to spend it, but the right thing to do is buy a new radiator, water pump and thermostat. While i have the pump and water neck off, ill flood the daylights out of the block to flush it out.

On the water thing, ive always used water from the hose. Ive never owned vehicles for more than a few years, so its never mattered where the water came from.

Kevin

 

Ok, i threw in a new rad, waterpump and thermostat. No more overheat! I do have one question though. There's this little blower motor (right side) that moves air through a tube that runs along the head. Sometimes it runs after i shut the key off and leave the truck. What's it do and should it be running on its own? Is it for cooling something?


Kevin

 

that is the fuel injector cooler. i have a 95 300 and do not have that, but i read that yours had a cooler.

 

SHould it run when the truck isn't running?

Kevin

 

do not know. probably has a switch that stays on until it reaches a certain temperature. some elec. fans do this.

 

Yes it will run after you turn the engine off for a predetermined ? time. I believe only he 6 used this fan.