[6spcab]

Well, I decided to clean a bit of the engine to assist in the area of cooling.

As you can see in the pics, I had several miles worth of junk caught between the radiator and condenser. I took some pics of the mess before and after . I noticed the car does run a bit cooler now as well as the A/C is cooler as well . Just an FYI.

Lee

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[Greimann]

Good show. That is one of the most overlooked items when it comes to diagnosing poor cooling issues with the engine or AC. I hope all the small animals displaced by removing thier nests have a good home!

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[Brian]

okay, stupid question...

is there anything to keep in mind when cleaning a radiator? or do you just use a wet brush and scrub it down?

i'd like to flush my coolant in the next few weeks and cleaning the radiator would make sense, too.



thanks

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[Greimann]

Great question! Important question!



The fins of the radiator are easily deformed so touching them with an aggressive brush or extremely high pressure spray (like those powered units) has the potential of bending the fins and reducing cooling capacity. A hose spray is fine and a soft tire brush should work ok too. Backflush if you can. In other words, spray from the opposite side the crud enters.

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[Brian]

thanks for the tip, dave.

so a garden hose with a spray nozzle from back side and front side plus a soft brush?

glad i asked.

the before and after pictures from lee were impressive! i wasn't sure if there are solvents i should also be picking up.

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[Greimann]

A driveway cleaning nozzle on the hose makes a good stream.

A cleaner like a wheel cleaner would work well. If there are oil or tar deposits on the radiator, you will want to get those clean. Some of the fins may already be crushed from rocks and such. It would be a good thing to straighten them out as well. I use an old tooth brush handle that has been filed down to a point as a non-marring tool. A piece of wood would also work.

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[6spcab]

Best case scenario is to remove the radiator for easier access. However on mine all of the debris was located on the top half of the radiator and condenser due to the air flow. So I just removed the top radiator bracket and gently moved the radiator back. Used a hose and a soft brush. Use the hose to spray water in the opposite direction of airflow to push everything back out from where it came from.

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