At 04:44 PM 5/8/2000 -0700, you wrote:
>today i used Permatex rad clean. it has hydrochloric acid in it. that seems
>like serious stuff but i have serious issues.... the directions said to let
the car run for ten minutes. Well i let it run for an hour and half or so....
when i drained the rad it was as black as paint....
>chris in hawaii
>
Chris,
Hydrochloric acid does an excellent job of converting aluminum manifolds,
aluminum heads, aluminum water pumps and pot metal thermostat housings
into a black goop It takes about 10.00001 minutes to do that.
There may still be acid in what remains of your system.
Use a pool test kit and check the PH of your coolent. Compare it with a
50:50 mix of antifreeze and water. If the collent is still highly acid
try mixing a box of Arm and Hammer with water and filling the system
with that to neutralize the acid. The only color that should have come out
of the system is rust with a light gray mixed in. You have damaged some
aluminum or pot metal parts. You may find a black coating on what is remaining
of the aluminum parts where it contacted the acid.
With all your over heating problems, I had assumed that the first thing
you had done was pull the radiator, take it to a radiator shop and have it
rodded out. Cost around $130 to do that in Florida. I have a Tiger radiator
in a V6 powered Alpine. Had overheating problem, took the radiator to the
shop where they pulled one end cap and showed me the flow. Terrible, over half
stopped up. They rodded the radiator and no more overheating problem.
By the way, do not go the other extream and put lye (sodium hydroxide)
in the system. That eats aluminum even more than hydrochloric acid. Generates
a lot of hydrogen gas too, so you could blow a few things up.
James Barrett Tiger II 351C and others
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