BimmerJeeper

Onto which hose do you splice this kit? Which heater hose?
http://www.amazon.com/Prestone-AFKIT.../dp/B000CCFY5W

Kevin108

When it gets warm, I'm definitely doing the Cascade thing! This is how I installed mine. You can see the T fitting between the oil and transmission dipsticks.

BimmerJeeper

What's the right order to do
1) Cooling system backflush.
2) Heater core blowing with air compressor
3) Radiator replacement.

You do the radiator last, right?

BillyBoy

I'm really hoping not to jinx you... but... when this happened to me, while replacing/flushing my radiator, it was because the previous owner had put multiple "Stop-Leak" products into the system. I figured screw-it, and flushed and flushed till clean and clear. I had the satisfaction... for a brief moment, of knowing my radiator fluid was a bright, clear, shiny green.

Then the real-world kicked in, and I found out the reason the last guy put in Stop-Leak was because the heater-core had a leak. I flushed out all the goop... and created a new problem for myself. I had a foggy windshield for about 2 months, until I finally had the time and place to do the full dash tear apart to change the core. Btw, this also includes draining and
recharging the ac system. A 2day, 200 doallar job. A real PITA.

The moral of the story... if green goop {rusty brown mud} is in your system... but it's working... you might want to leave "well-enough" alone, because you might be inviting problems.

Further, if there is, or might-be, stop-leak in your system... it might be for a reason. If that reason is not apparenty evident... {you can't see the problem in the engine compartment.} Then the reason is probably INSIDE the passenger compartment.

Believe me... not a problem you want to invite or agitate.

Good-luck, and I hope this isn't the case.
Please proceed with caution.

kennzz05

i wouldnt use air pressure thats mighty thin metal and i realise its under pressure normally but chances are youll be using more than 16psi to blow thru it many youtube vids of cooling system flushes

Kevin108

I just hook the water hose up, remove the radiator cap, insert the spigot, start the engine, turn on the heat and run the water until it's clear. I'm definitely open to the fact there might be a better way though.

To refill, I remove the electric fan, undo the lower radiator hose and drain. That usually leaves plenty of room for a gallon of antifreeze.

djb383

That brown goop is most likely throughout the entire cooling system. In order to avoid moving brown goop from one place to another, I would recommend not using the "T" connector in a heater hose but rather separate the cooling system into 3 areas.....the heater core, the motor and the rad. Flush those 3 areas separately by disconnecting the both the heater hose and top rad hose from the t-stat cover and disconnect the bottom rad hose from the water pump. Stick a garden hose in the heater hose, then in the top rad hose, then in the heater hose nipple on the t-stat cover. Flush, flush, flush.

Radi

I had a Saturn crack it's head (as certain models are known to do). When those heads crack they inject pressurized oil into the cooling system where it emulsifies into a thick, brown milkshake. Cascade was the cleaner of choice over on the saturn forum so I gave it a shot. Worked like a charm, and apparently doesn't hurt anything.
It may or may not be as effective on rust and scale, but it's cheap and won't do any harm.

bigbadon

Most often that brown gunk is iron oxide along with dissolved gasket & plastic in a VERY corrosive evil mix. This is the result of OAT,Dexcool,G-05 and ALL extended life coolants!!!. Yes nothing will protect your system from corrosion better than the old conventional green silicate ethylene antifreeze...period. This is the very reason you never had this problem 20 years ago. Silicates will coat iron and make it it virtually rust free.
Why did Auto manufactures change? Because the new coolant will retain its freeze point setting for 5 years. So its selling point was "maintenance free" Conventional antifreeze will slowly lose its freeze protection but which of these two evils would YOU rather have? IMO I would rather check my freeze point annually and change coolant every 2 years instead of having a coolant that will turn into an corrosive nightmare.

NewJerseyXJ609

My honest opinion for you would to be replace the rad. Sometimes there is so much crap in there its just a loss. You could have a bad head gasket too.. That's worse case scenario. But I would definitely go ahead and replace that rad.

ZINGGG

Never gets old, my friend

This is what I would do. If my cooling system looked like that, I'd replace the rad, water pump, thermostat, thermostat housing, all hoses and rad cap. I would flush the heck out of the block and the heater core while I had it apart.

Just me though, I would hate to look at any hint of that and want it to look how djb's does

xjfirefighter

Looks just like mine did. I flushed several times over the.course of a few months. The heat cycles break it out of the block and send it through your system making it impossible to clean in one attempt . I did mine in the summer so I didn't have to keep refilling with antifreeze. Just water

CETME

I have replaced everything but the heater core and the radiator.

I went and got the flush kit, and installed it.









I'm a little unsure of how well the flush kit works. No brown came gushing out of the radiator, just green. I let it backflush for a few minutes and turned the car off. When I took off the radiator cap, there was a thin layer of brown goop developing again. Why didn't if flush out? I stuffed cascade into the radiator. Lets see what color comes out tomorrow.

bigbadon

You have to run it at operating temperature for about 30 minutes with the cascade in it and the radiator cap on. It will clean it. You may have to repeat. I had a Blazer that was almost completely stopped up with this brown gunk (caused by dexcool) and the cascade was the only thing that worked for me.

djb383

I never have quite understood how the heavier/solid/lumpy crud could be flushed "up and out" the top of the rad. Just seems like one would get more crud out of the system by flushing it out at the bottom of the motor (water pump) and out the bottom of the rad.