HC cleaning

[Ion]

As you might know, I bought an Opel Kadett HC. Have flushed it with water, and had it lying for about 2 hours in water with washin-up detergent. Still looks like shit of course =)

Vinegar? Bath? For how long? How strong?

[nOv1c3]

I would call around to a few RAD shops and see what they would charg to clean it up for you ..I bet it wouldnt be that much $$

[g.l.amour]

i cleaned mine with loads of vinegar, fill, let it rest for 1/2 a day, clean, refill, untill the crap doesn't come out by the millions anymore

[PetDMC]

try oxy-vim (the light blue coloured)
it cleaned my block really nice and it doesn't stink

u'd have to buy a bunce of the bottles and dump the core in for a few hours

cleans brass good too

[gmat]

I tried vinegar on a seald waterblock (Maze2). Worked wonderfully. Bath it in vinegar for 1h at least, then flush it with dish washing or soap to remove the smell and acidic residues.

[Ion]

Thank you for the answer guys.
There's only this small linguistic problem, vinegar means two different things in swedish. Or, it is obviously translated two ways. There is the translation:
Vinegar = Vinäger, like oxidated wine, you have it on your sallad sometimes.
Then there is also Vinegar = Ättikssyra, and as you see, that's a totally different thing. This is a weak acid, and we have it in a glass-can, good to put sliced cucumbers in. =) That would probably make it gherkins? Well, anyway, this Vinegar = ättikssyra (syra = acid) is usually stored in a glass-can with the label 34% or something on it.
If this is indeed the vinegar you are using, how strong should it be? And also, there is some difference between 1 h and ½ day, wouldn't want to kill my HC.
Thanks!

[g.l.amour]

better to take the pure vinegar, not mixed with herbs and such. u could use that same pure vinegar to mix with your spinach potatoes, if u know what i mean (maybe us belgians have a weird habit of mixing vinegar with our spinach potatoes...)

[Ion]

WTF is spinach potatoes? =D Spinach? That doesn't even taste good! Only Popeye thinks so =)
Well, it's not a very good question to my answer anyway, but thanks the same.

[sunblade]

The kind of vinegar used for cleaning copper (like pennies ) is lightly acidic, clear, and comes for me in a gallon jug and doesn't seem to be geared towards food as much. There are other types of vinegar (dark brown, etc) more food oriented that sound similar to "vinäger", so I'd lean more towards the ättikssyra???

If you have any copper coins, you could try giving them a bath...

There's a picture here of some standard vinegar to clean some pennies:
http://www.rmsc.org/museum/kidsclub/...es/pennies.htm

[Ion]

Hah, Heinz vinegar =) But yes, that is more like the ättikssyra I'm talking about. =)

Do you have a % on that bottle? And: if I throw my whole HC in the vinegar, and fill the pipes with it, for how long should I leave it like that?

[bigben2k]

In the USA, vinegar is typically 5% acetic acid. There is a slightly stronger concentration, called pickling vinegar, you know, for making pickles... (7%).

[Puzzdre]

Ion, you're prolly talking about the same thing, but in different concentrations. Vinegar for salads is somewhat 9% concentration, and the vinegar for storing vegetables is stronger, you can dilute it (if needed).
There are several types of vinegar, depending the base they're made from, alcohol, apple, wine etc...
The best thing (and the safest) you can do is take that salad vinegar, alcohol base - clear, no color at all, and dump yor hcore in it, leave it for some time (I left mine overnight) and flush it with plenty of water.
You can also repeat that several times, as many as you find necessary...
The weaker concentration of the acid, more time consuming...but safe...

Good luck!!!

[Asmordean]

Originally posted by Ion
Thank you for the answer guys.
There's only this small linguistic problem, vinegar means two different things in swedish. Or, it is obviously translated two ways. There is the translation:
Vinegar = Vinäger, like oxidated wine, you have it on your sallad sometimes.
Then there is also Vinegar = Ättikssyra, and as you see, that's a totally different thing. This is a weak acid, and we have it in a glass-can, good to put sliced cucumbers in. =) That would probably make it gherkins? Well, anyway, this Vinegar = ättikssyra (syra = acid) is usually stored in a glass-can with the label 34% or something on it.
If this is indeed the vinegar you are using, how strong should it be? And also, there is some difference between 1 h and ½ day, wouldn't want to kill my HC.
Thanks!

Vinäger = What english people call white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar, etc.
Ättikssyra = What we call vinegar. Also known as acetic acid. Both vinegars would work but straight acetic acid will yield the best results.

Strength? What you buy in a supermarket should be fine. I believe that the stuff I have is 10%. I've used 50% in a lab, it can strip paint at that concentration. 100% is very very nasty.

[Ion]

Hah:
ättiksyra = acetic acid
vinäger = wine-vinegar

vinegar = ättika;
[wine] vinegar = vinäger, vinättika

=)

Well, I think that the problem is cleared out, but I clearly remember seeing the stuff sold in bottles with 34% or something high like that on them.
So, I'll mix it with water to 10% concentration, and then leave it covered for 6 hours? Agreed? =)

[Ion]

Would anyone like to confirm on the 6 hours/10% concentration cleaning? Wouldn't want to kill the only Kadett in town =)
Will ask the local HC repair firm what they think. Probably something like: "let us do it for you, only 666$!"

[Ion]

Well, this is what I did:

Took 6 dl 24% vinegar (acetic acid), mixed it with 10 dl water and put my HC in it. Let it rest in it for 3 hours. After that, I saw no difference. =) Took som steel wool (is that the correct use of words?) and gave the tanks and pipes a nice polishing job. =)
Looked like copper at first, but then more like gold, so I guess it's brass anyway. As for the fins, I don't know, they look like copper, but I cant get to them with the steel wool, so it's hard to say.
Used the water tap to flush through the HC afterwards, and got some, not much, black crap.

[Puzzdre]

Vinegar + kitchen salt bath removes tarnish from the copper. I tried that on my block, it worked very well.
You can try that on the hc, or you can wait for me to try it first (just got 3 opel cadett hc's, mmmmm copper)

I think this weekend I'm gonna clean them all, I'll let you know if it is worth it.

Cheers!