cleaning junkyard heatcores
 

you know how all those heatcores from junkyards are all dirty, and every body ask's how you clean them. well im actualy suprised that nobody has suggested taking them to the local garge such as EXXON and Texeco to get them to do some of their special steam cleaning (special becaus i think the mix a chemical with the water befor they heat it up).

Steam cleaning is more a 'road dirt' oil/tar/grease cleaning process is'nt it?. You need something corrosive to clean the limescale off the innards of a HC I beleive (caustic soda IIRC?)...

I've heard you can just let them sit in a tub full of soapy water for a day or so to get 95% of the gunk off.

buy around 2 gallons of vinegar, and fill a small tub with it OUTSIDE. Place a piece of tubing on one end of the rad. Submerge the rad in the vinegar(This cleans off any shit on the outside, as well as corrodes away the copper corrosion)then suck on the tube to get a siphon going into a new bucket, once it has pulled the whole container through the rad do it again(repeat as much as deemed neccessary). Once this is done flush it with de ionized water(dont use tap water) and rinse it with regular tap water(The fins and such)

I just went to the coin carwash and stuck the wand into both of the inlets. After a few minutes of alternating the inlets, and giving the core a few good shakes, the water flowed out clean.

well it sounds like coke or pepsi would work also... cops even carry the stuff to take blood off the road.

I'm sure they carry doughnuts to wipe blood off their seats too ;)

I teied vinegar and it did'nt work, it was OK for 'polishing up' the brass but never touched the mineral deposits inside the radiator :shrug: ...

Coke might do it, though I doubt it, same again it's good for de~tarnishing...

I'm filling my bathtub up with coke so I can make that "flow thru with hose" thingy :D
anyways I think lowering the heatercore in caustic soda or something would be an idea. or some chemical that u use to remove clogs in your plumbing whatever that is. probably poisonous so one better be careful.

Depends on how bad the heater core is. The last bunch i pulled was in great shape on the inside. The antifreeze was still in the cores and hardly any corrosion or deposits. I just ran diswashing soap through them for 24 hours. I used the same pump I use for water cooling. Also cleaned it out in the process. :) Now the fins are a different problem. They got a lot more crap on them that you can see from the out side. I sandblasted the outside with fine grid sand (same stuff i use for sand etching glass) and then washed it off with water, let it dry for the night and then soaked it in MEK. Then rinsed it off and let it soak in soapy water for another 12 hours.

You could always use something like this http://midwayautosupply.com/detailed...ption.asp?3690
this
http://www.theride.com/3253204.html
or this
http://midwayautosupply.com/manufact...tor%20Cleaners