Fishing fun (?) in a Pilothouse

[Jeff Balazs]

Since I have the cylinder head off I decided to try and make certain the cooling system was as clean as I could get it. A few weeks back while the head was still on I used a power washer and wand to flush as much rust and stuff out as I could. I did get a fair amount of rust particles out.

I started "fishing" down into the water jackets using one of those small magnetic tip extension tools. It is amazing how much stuff I have fished out so far. Probably 3 to 4oz and it is still coming up. Not just rust sludge....but pieces of water distribution tube and lengths of wire. None of this stuff would have done a fresh cooling system any good if it managed to come loose. I know hot tanking the block would have got some of it...... but I doubt very much if you could get a lot of the larger stuff out by any other method. I am saving my "catch" on a magnetic tray and will post a photo when I am finished fishing.

It's the closest thing we have to ice fishing here in SoCal ...... you just never know what you have until it comes up through the hole!

Jeff

[pflaming]

When I had mine down to the block, I removed the freeze plugs, and took a high powered, steam nozzle to mine. While I worked the nozzle a friend went in the water holes from the top with an air hose nozzle with a tube on the end. We spent a good hour and a half and stuff came out. But not after 90+ minutes. Without taking out the freeze plugs, we could not have cleaned it like we did. I should have taken pictures of the cleaning.

Edited April 8, 2012 by pflaming

[NiftyFifty]

I tried everything to get the schmoo out of my block before I took it in for machine work, but once they started nosing around and pulled on frost plug out there was about a 25 year supply of seed in the block that I had no idea about..so thank god I got it dunked....

I would always recommend if your going to the expense of a rebuild or the time to pull the engine out and apart..take it in for a dunk and say yourself a lot of pain later on

[Jeff Balazs]

Hey Guy's;

Well I have all the freeze plugs out.......and like you I kept flushing til nothing more came out. Thing is there is still stuff in there. And it doesn't look like I need to rebuild the engine at this point. I just had a feeling there would be more there.

With the head off there are many spots deep in the cooling jackets you can reach with one of those small magnetic wands. There are several small access holes open to the interior of the block at this stage. It might be overkill.....but it doesn't cost anything but some time to do this. All the stuff I get now is just that much more that won't be adrift in the cooling system.

Jeff

[Jeff Balazs]

Pilothouse Fishing Update

Owner lands a whopper!

Fishing through a 3/8" hole in the center of the block (in the water jacket area between the piston and valves 2/3 of the way back) yielded a 2" section of water distribution tube. It was way too big to get through the hole. Fortunately I was able to get it back up into the WDT casting hole and drag it out the front.

One thing is for sure....there is no way it would have ever came out during flushing.

Jeff

[Jeff Balazs]

Catch of the Day;

Here is a photo of the stuff I fished out of the water jackets with the head off.

I had already flushed it with a power washer and a small wand while the head was on. I flushed until nothing more came out. As you can see there was quite a bit of "stuff" still in there. I am not really surprised ... most of this came from the center of the block. I am planning to flush again after I put the head back on.

I am really glad I took the time to do this......at least I know for certain that none of this stuff will find it's way into my new radiator.

Jeff

[Dave72dt]

If you have the engine out, you can stand it on end and flush it with the head off. Power washer wand down every water jacket hole. You can still do that to the head before it goes back on.

[Jeff Balazs]

Hi Dave;

I am doing this with the engine in place for now. So far it does not appear that I absolutely need to remove it. I was trying to bring up the fact that flushing with the engine in and the head in place leaves something to be desired.

Jeff