Author Topic: Cleaning coolant tank (Read 4051 times)

Rat407 · « **on:** May 17, 2005, 12:41:06 pm »

Anyone have a good way to clean out the oily crud that builds up in the coolant tank from a bad head gasket? I tried simple green but it didn't work.
Thanks

Justin · « **Reply #1 on:** May 17, 2005, 02:00:29 pm »

You mean the overflow tank right? What I did was take Brake cleaner and sprayed it inside with the extention tube on it to get up in the tank, it blasted it away pretty good, but the crud was still gel like before I did this so if yours is dried on then the only idea that I would have is to boil it in a water bath to let it soak and get it hot then maybe simple green or something would clean it
Later
Justin

srivett · « **Reply #2 on:** May 18, 2005, 12:14:08 am »

I used about a gallon of paint thinner on the reservoir on my 92. It has the super amazing 3 chambers within a chamber so it took a lot of shaking to get things clean. Too bad you can't get the rest of the system cleaned out. Well, I've heard that the Castrol engine cleaner does a good job if added to the coolant system but I've never tried that. In the future I will be adding an inline coolant filter. I'll probably put it in the small upper rad hose return line.

Steve

Northern RD · « **Reply #3 on:** May 19, 2005, 09:43:15 am »

Quote from: "Rat407"

Anyone have a good way to clean out the oily crud that builds up in the coolant tank from a bad head gasket? I tried simple green but it didn't work.
Thanks

Try any commecial floor degreaser, they work great and won`t damage the plastic that the bottle is cast from. I did the bottle on my `83 and it came out factory white: not faded yellow but WHITE!