i still have original 6 ordered new waterpump my car is running hot want to flush the whole system it has the complete heatercore system in car and is mammoth anybody know how to correctly flush this i do not want to tear things apart and find easy answer afterwards
Vinegar...........Fill it ,run it, flush it but be warned it can and will make leaks show that stop leak or rust had stopped up.
most effective thing to do is when you open the plug or petcock on the drivers side of the engine is to root around in there with a stiff wire. The other thing that is improtant is the distribution tube that is accessable after you pull the water pump. You can't pull it without pullig the radiator, but you can rod it out with some stiff wire and get some idea of what kind of shape its in. The tube is important as it directs coolant up toward the vavle seats and assures that all the areas get sufficient coolant.
Go ahead and put your new waterpump on, and button everything up, but leave the thermostat out. Don't add antifreeze yet...just water and a bottle of "radiator flush" available at any autoparts store. If you don't want to include the heater-system in the flushing process, (though I think you should) just make a heater-hose connection from the heater-hose inlet to the outlet on the pump. Drive the car a bunch. (read directions on container of rad-flush) Then drain the whole system, refill with water, run engine for a few minutes, drain again, and refill. Still no antifreeze added yet. Only add antifreeze and install thermostat after you're sure that all possible causes of overheating have been attended to. You wanna be able to drain the system without having to catch the fluid. And you wanna have full water-flow right from a cold start-up, so you don't have to wait for the engine to heat up before monitoring water-flow...it's safer. If you do have a hot eruption, it's better that it's just water sprayed all over everything. And it eliminates wondering if the thermostat is to blame. Then I would check some basics...if you haven't already. Mainly pay attention to water and air FLOW. Airflow through the rad...are the fins bent over and/or clogged with debris? Forget about any fan or shroud issues right now. If it doesn't get enough airflow at speed, a fan or shroud isn't going to help, except maybe when at a standstill. Coolant flow...Open the rad cap, and start the engine. If the thermostat is in, wait for the engine to heat up. If the thermostat isn't in, proceed to looking down the neck of the rad, and watching for a good strong "river" of water rushing past. If you don't easily detect excellent movement, you have a coolant-flow issue. Test the radiator...with the cap off, unclamp and remove the lower radiator-hose. The radiator should empty very quickly...like in 3 seconds. If not, try back-flushing with your garden-hose with the rad upside down. If needed, take to a pro for boiling/testing. If those things check ok, you might have other issues such as ignition timing, plugged exhaust, a lean condition caused by a vacuum-leak, etc. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
Also check that the lower radiator hose isn't collapsing at rpms. Just visually check while revving the engine.
A good way to flush the whole system is to flush out the rad, heater and engine individually. You can do this with everything still in the car but you will have to remove all the hoses, the thermostat and the petcocks in the engine and rad. Just run a garden hose through both sides of the heater core until the water comes out clear, same thing with the radiator. If you get alot of crap out of the engine you might want to pop out one or two core plugs and really flush things out, but like Plym 46 said the water distribution tube is important, if it plugged up the engine is always going to hot.
AND!! There is a "water distribution tube' that runs the length of the block behind the water pump. If it is damaged/ate up it will effect the cooling also. Just a slip fit in the block but the radiator needs to be out to change.
You should also pull the freeze plugs on the lower drivers side and get in there with some stiff wire or wire brush a lot of crap will build up in the lower water passages. You will get a lot out of there by flushing through the water neck. NAPA should have the freeze plugs. Each time I have checked they had them.
with thermo out I took rad hoses off. Stuck garden hose and air nozzel in top out let with a rag stuffed in around them flushed that way the out the hoses in bottom outlet and did same. hasn't got hot since then. My distribution tube is in very good shape and new radiator but still got hot til I flushed it out.
tracked waterpump due in tomorrow going to change the ten quart oil change also original glove box lid sticker recommends 30w
Had a 440 run hot and it was flushed many times.I pulled the motor to change out the core plugs or freeze plugs.I put a magnet in the water jacket and got 5 pounds of rust and another set of core plugs that was just pushed in.Never ran hot again,there must be a thread on stuff found in water jackets....................YG
You can't miss this step lightly The water distribution tube runs fromt the back of the water pump all the way down the inside of the water jacket directing cooler water towards the bottom of the valve seats If this gets bloocked or distorted it collapses the circulation of the water very quickly Steel one will rot - brass. copper ones will not however they are not an easy item to remove - esp the rotten steel ones. Its a great way to keep an engine cool but a bitch of a system to fix if it is damaged/blocked or rotten. You will need to remove the radiator then the water pump and look for the funny oval shaped hole in behind the pump - to get the tube out you can bend a piece of wire and hook it out - sometimes its a matter of patience and a lot of wriggling back and forwards to get them to come out. If you are fortunate for it to slide out - welcome and what beginners luck - refitting them is easy and they do slide in even with a light persuassion with a drift/hammer. A lot of crud and rust settles in the holes blocking them and some times the interanal walls of the water jacket crumbles trapping the tube. Regardless of what you find it needs to be cleaned out other wise you are wasting your time. If a small piece breaks off or gets left behind you have to get it all out - no half jobs here All the best
Sorry I just got back to this but I saw the thread on Fordbarn the guys were running vineger straight and then flushing with straight water.
Also meant to add that you should reverse flow clean the radiator. - Put your hose in the bottom outlet and push the water back up the radiator - this caq help dislodge the grunge that has been pushed down the cooling fins from the return hose on top of the radiator
i pulled radiator and pump and here is picture of oval tube for people that never seen this like me,where do i buy tube? now that i am to this point? found tube at Andy's gonna put car back together with new pump and see how it goes and wait for tube to arrive next week.
when you get your new pump make sure the backing plate is correct for your system. Internal (small sheet metal stat housing) or external ( large cast iron housing with s piece of hose connecting the pump and the housing)
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