What do you use to flush your cooling system/ radiator?

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Grumpy
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What do you use to flush your cooling system/ radiator?

Post by Grumpy »

Prestone Radiator flush or 50% white vinegar mixture? :hmm:
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Over the past year I've seen some posts on bike websites suggesting using a 1/2 mixture of white vinegar & distilled water as a flush. (see one example- Engine Ice's website: http://engineice.com/faq.html ) Anyone have experience with using vinegar /why would that be better than Prestone radiator flush?
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I know that running white vinegar through our coffee pot does a great job of removing the deposits, but my coffee pot isn't aluminum or copper, doesn't have a water pump and I don't ride it :gig: . ??
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Whadda you use?
" He who never made a mistake never made a discovery." ~ Samuel Smiles

'03 Voyager XII; '82 V45 Magna (that i hope will run again)
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Re: What do you use to flush your cooling system/ radiator?

Post by Bill52 »

I used the Vinegar/Distilled water mix seems to have worked OK. Used it because that was what I found some groups recommending. Don't know if it is better than the Prestone flush.
I did flush mine 3-4 times until I was out of Vinegar and distilled water.
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Re: What do you use to flush your cooling system/ radiator?

Post by Grumpy »

You kept flushing it... did the mixture coming out still look cloudy ?
was anything odd coming out .....? that is, on one webpost, a guy using the 50/50 vinegar mix said 'jelly like' stuff came out.... On our Voyagers, I can't see that coming out through the tiny drain hole, and can imagine it plugging a radiator... ??
" He who never made a mistake never made a discovery." ~ Samuel Smiles

'03 Voyager XII; '82 V45 Magna (that i hope will run again)
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Re: What do you use to flush your cooling system/ radiator?

Post by Bill52 »

The last one or two flushes were pretty clean, first one were very cloudy, be careful draining it gets pretty hot. The last one or two were probably unnecessary but I had the distilled water and vinegar and I didn't kow if this was 8 years without a flush.

Also I don't remember the drain hole being that small sure seemed to come out fast when I removed the plug.

Grumpy wrote:You kept flushing it... did the mixture coming out still look cloudy ?
was anything odd coming out .....? that is, on one webpost, a guy using the 50/50 vinegar mix said 'jelly like' stuff came out.... On our Voyagers, I can't see that coming out through the tiny drain hole, and can imagine it plugging a radiator... ??
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Re: What do you use to flush your cooling system/ radiator?

Post by Steve in Sunny Fla »

where is the drain located? My connie has it on the water pipe to the water pump. same location on the voyager? tia, Steve
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Chris near Kansas City
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Re: What do you use to flush your cooling system/ radiator?

Post by Chris near Kansas City »

Same. It's in front of my finger in the picture.

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Re: What do you use to flush your cooling system/ radiator?

Post by Steve in Sunny Fla »

thanks - appears to be in the same place, more or less- - Steve
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Re: What do you use to flush your cooling system/ radiator?

Post by Grumpy »

Well, tonight's the night to finish this job... after much internet searching for what vinegar mixtures are used for.... I've decided to go ahead and use a regular commercial product. Good old Prestone 'good for aluminum and all engine metals' Cleaner. This is a new Prestone product and specifically mentions scale... Also, it must be gentle- they state it needs to be in for 3 to 6 hours of normal driving .
. :thk:
Oh - here's what I found out about vinegar - the reason it works so well is it's an acid. It does dissolve the deposits on copper and aluminum as well as a bit of both metals in the process. It's even used to etch both metals in some paint-prep operations. Even diluted its an acid, that's how it works.
" He who never made a mistake never made a discovery." ~ Samuel Smiles

'03 Voyager XII; '82 V45 Magna (that i hope will run again)
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