Who's been here...?... Best way to flush a cooling system full of oil.

ahale2772

ahale2772

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Oct 27, 2011
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Customer did not realize his gasket was blown until the engine ate 2 gal of oil.

Now I'm left with this.

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The engine has less than 5k miles on it since I rebuilt it. Im thinking oring protrusion might be the cause of the failure. It was re tourqued a few times.

Anyways. I need to clean it. Im hesitant to pull the head seeing that it will make more of a mess. i'm thinking 10 or twenty gal of diesel... Run it for a while, flush it a few times. It will probably require all new rubber lines after.

The shear quantity makes me not want to try water. I'd end up with 300 gallons before its clean.
 
OMG!, maybe a type of surfactant mixed with water would flush it out and then a type of detergant mixed with water to clean it well?
 
Headgasket failure or oil cooler failure?


Lots of tide detergent. Either way it's a mess to get clean. I've done a few like that.
 
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MAXTORQ said:
Headgasket failure or oil cooler failure?


Lots of tide detergent. Either way it's a mess to get clean. I've done a few like that.
Click to expand...

a visual check of the oil cooler pointed to nothing. I'll defiantly be pressure testing it.

all the hoses are getting replaced either way. new radiator (not even going to attempt cleaning that)

I'm going to attempt diesel fuel first.
 
That sucks! I wouldn't buy a new radiator. Our local shop will tear down and clean for less than $50. They make those water hose nozzles with a rubber cone, that you hook regulated air up to, and you can jet wash out the engine block. That might help after you loosen it up with degreaser, or diesel.
 
It's really not all that bad. Hot water and dawn dish soap....open the drain petcock on the radiator, flush it a couple times, then close it up and run the engine with water and dawn. Repeat a couple times and everything will be fine.

Had a friend that ran a blown gasket for months. He would run it till it started overheating, then we would flush it and he'd go another couple weeks till it started overheating again. Broke college band aid at its finest.
 
On the few Fords I have worked on with this kind of contamination we ran simple green and water thru the system. We have had a couple that the whole lower part of the radiator was plugged solid and after two cycles of simple green and water it was free and clear.
 
I agree with MadMoose... My buddy uses the the tide detergent/ dawn dish soap method..
 
If you use the purple power be careful because it is corrosive to aluminum. .. dilute it or bye bye radiator.
 
I'd be tempted to pull the radiator, hook a garden hose to the lower water elbow on the engine, put a long hose/tube on the thermostat housing to get it away from the truck, start it up and walk away for a couple hours.

I would think that would get the majority of it out without draining and filling it several times, then soap it from there.
 
I was leaning towards diesel seeing that If it dissolved most of the oil, it would be something i may be able to put through my waste oil burner.

But... Even an old diesel mechanic friend suggested a dishwasher detergent and hot water. Ill try that and report back. Hopefully i can get it to all settle out after in a 55gal drum.
 
jfaulkner said:
Cascade works better than dawn because it's made for a dishwasher and doesn't foam as bad.
Click to expand...

And they pulled the magic bullet ingredient out of cascade because it wasn't eco friendly.

If you can, add a valve somewhere up high in the system (heater lines) that you can open without scalding yourself. Run the engine up to temp with water and detergent, shut it off and bleed the valve. Waste oil should flow out. Drain the rest normally.
Works best with no thermostat

If you want

Monkey Fist Rage
 
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