ElvisGraceBo

I decided to clean my radiator by blasting it with the hose last week. Since I don't drive her everyday, I hadn't really had a chance to see the difference in the temps. All I can say is Holy $h!T, what a difference. In some situations, theere is as much as a 20 degree temp difference. I drove it one way about 40 miles, both open road and stop and go. I checked temps and I was around 201. Considering that it has been in the 230s during stop and go and now is 215 degrees is huge. On the open road it was running around 199-201degrees where it had been previously 220.
I wish I had done this months ago. I didn't remove the radiator to clean this but was able to open up the shroud enought to give it a good spray down with the hose.
Thanks to the forum members again for the inspiration to do it myself.

jhammons01

Let me make sure I understood you correctly.


You "cleaned" your system and it runs cooler??

No water wetter? No removal of the Thermostat? No lower temperature thermostat? No larger aftermarket radiator? No remote fan switch in the cockpit? No lower temperature fan relay??

I'm confused!!!!

glntom

He got the debris/dirt off the radiator fins, allowing more/better airflow though the radiator causing increased heat exchange==>better cooling.

mgroshong

Whats there to be confused about?

When you allow air to flow through a radiator it actually starts to transfer heat. If he had it clogged up with road debris from years and years of driving then a simply cleaning could help dramatically.

ElvisGraceBo

Yes, I physically cleaned the radiator, the part in the front of the car with the aluminum fins. I was absolutely aghast at what came out. No wonder it was so damn hot. I didn't remove the radiator, I just opened up the shrouding enough to get a good strong spray from the hose. I sprayed from the engine side towards the front of the car. I was able to spray some Krud Kutter on the fins and let that set in for a while and then sprayed it with the hose again. No $h!t, 20 degrees cooler. Of course, that was the issue with my cooling system. Nothing else was wrong. Best thing I have done to the car yet.

[IMG][/IMG]

That was the picture after everything ran down the driveway. You can see the dirt and debris that was all jammed up in the radiator fins. There was tons more that flushed down the drive.

littlesk8cracker

i believe he was being sarcastic, because we always have tons of people looking for upgrades to make their car run cooler, when in fact a properly cleaned and maintaned stock system cools just fine. people seem to think you need special thermostats and switches and this that and the other to make these cars run cool. none of that is needed, just maintain what you have stock and you should be fine

ElvisGraceBo

This is the theory I went with. When I looked in the space inbetween the condenser and the radiator I could see debris on the front of the radiator. While I was cleaning it, the radiator changed color from dark aluminum to bright aluminum. It was amazing how mush shizz was up in there. I bet If I were to rempove it I could get it even cleaner but I didn't wat to disconnect the trans lines and empty out the radiator fluid. When Istarted taking it apart, I realized I could get a stream of water inbetween the shroud where is seperates from the fans, and it did the trick. A little degreaser helped too, I let it set on the radiator for like 10 minutes and sprayed it again.

thedudeman321

some people need to go and and pick up a sense of humor

glntom

I work with the public everyday, so I assumed he really WAS confused.

jhammons01

sorry, I was being a smart a$$ all along

I've been in many threads whereas jokers stumble in all day long stating the the C4 is supposed to or designed to run 230°-240°.......pure BS

There is not an engineer in the world that would think that hydrogen embrittlement would be the desired result.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_embrittlement

But one after another come on this board and claim your motor is supposed to run above boiling point on purpose.

These cars are decades old now with years of sediment build up.....

So many go straight to the extremes without ever considering that having their radiator boiled out may be the solution........Boiling your radiator out should be step one when you are having heat issues......not the final attempt.

pkazsr

Many cannot recognize sarcasm, maybe that is why I have so few friends.

ElvisGraceBo

in a forum atmosphere ther is no hearing of a voice for inflections in tone. It's ashamed that some people don't realize this. Then, of course, ther are the people who use the anonymity to be a$$hole$ on purpose. It's the normal people that make this forum fun to be on. Rock on Forum members, boo-hoo to the posers.

GREGGPENN

Don't we have plastic end capped radiators (like most other "modern" cars)? As such, I've had a local radiator shop say they don't recommend/do this much anymore,,,that buying new is a better option when plastic is involved.

BTW: I figured out jhammons01 sarcasm right away. He's been in too many 160-stat threads not to have figured that one out! LOL

jhammons01

^^ya know, it is either or .......

Boiling out my '84 was ~$60 dollars benched.....and a new OEM was $100 plus shipping from thepartsladi

I opted for the new one and threw the old one out with the trash. Thepartsladi shipped the new one in the same amount of time the radiator shop told me that the could turn mine around.

$40 just didn't make enough of a difference to even mess with a ~20 year old part.

ch@0s

Yup hes kidding
and he is right too

BWD111

Try this next time to clean the coils! Works great!!!http://www.nucalgon.com/products/coi...s_calbrite.htm

ElvisGraceBo

I wonder if I can use that in my bathroom to remove the water spots on my glass shower doors.

mgroshong

Wow, looks like the jokes on me. haha

I should have put two and two together.

ElvisGraceBo

Seriously, no jokes. You are not the butt of the joke at all. We don't mind explaining things.

Pwnage1337

I laughed at all the people who didn't understand the sarcasm