Cooling System rust removal

[Jc Deluxe P20]

Has  anyone  filled  their  cooling  system  with  white  vinegar  to  remove  rust  from  the  cooling  system  ??    I  have  used  it  on  items  i  could  fit  in  a  paint  can  and  it  

 

did  remove  rust  .  How  ever  i  learned  not  to  try  to  clean  a  master  cylinder  ,  it  ruined  the  bore  and  i'm  afraid  of  unknown  consequences  if  tried  in  cooling  system.

[Sniper]

I've used vinegar to clean a cooling system.  Drain the system one gallon of vinegar, top off with water, run engine till warmed up then another 30 minutes,, drain, rinse, repeat as needed.  Once I did the warm up routine, let it sit overnight, then did the drain and rinse routine.  Not sure it worked any better but I had zero issues and a clean cooling system.

[keithb7]

Any idea how much sediment is in your block? I found 3” of a dirt floor in my block. No amount of vinegar rinsing would get that out. 
 

A good clue to sediment condition is to open your block drain petcock. Any water ir coolant come out?  
 

 

[Tooljunkie]

I have used vinegar to clean a rad. Removed it and laid it flat then filled it through the rad hose fitting. Let it soak for a day and slosh it around once in a while.  
my block was full of muck. I spent hours with all kinds of methods trying to get it out. Long tube on a blow gun loosesned it up and garden hose rinsed for a long time. 
180 thermostat, and it doesent get much hotter than that. 
 

at that point in time, i had no clue about water distribution tube, being cdn made i can only assume its brass and hopefully still intact. 
next round of draining coolant i will be flushing entire system and checking the wdt. Inspection camera behind water pump should work. 

[Los_Control]

I assume my truck was parked because of overheating issues. First start it was obvious a cooling issue and one T-stat bolt was broke, meaning po attempted and gave up.

 

First issue I found was water distribution tube was clogged. I took a flat bar and rodded it out ... hokey repair but expect to pull the motor at some point and will change then.

 

As @keithb7suggested ... the block was filled with sand or sediment, pulled the soft plugs and washed it out. I have heard it may be casting sand leftover from when block was born. If your engine was rebuilt at some time and hot tanked, probably cleaned out. If not there is a good chance your engine would benefit from cleaning it out.

 

Then I filled the radiator/engine with straight vinegar. Ran it through a few heat cycles. Flushed it all out and repeated, left it sit for a few weeks and a few more heat cycles.

Think maybe did this 3 times. maybe over 2 months let it sit with vinegar. Will be more mild and less aggressive then caustic chemical ... AND CHEAP! 

 

As it turned out, my radiator was shot and had about 6 holes in it, leaked from very beginning, not because of vinegar.

Now with no T-stat installed, will idle for a hour or more at 160 degree, then slowly creep up to 190 and a fast idle drops it right back to 160.

Will do a vinegar flush on it one more time when I actually start driving it, take it for a good drive and warm it up.