90Mustang_GT

My water pump went bad, so i started to disessmble. I got the radiator out, along with the pump. Ive noticed that there is alot of rust in the thermostat housing, and in the radiator. What should i do to treat the rust? Should i do a coolant flush with all the new stuff hooked up, meaning the new hoses, radaitor, and water pump? or is there somthing i can do now, with everything disconnected? How much more rust can there be in the actual engine block?

Tony71502

It's probably just surface rust. Get it flushed and that's about all you can do. The pump and thermostat housings are aluminum so that is just residual rust from the engine block. The block is not going to rust out in the lifetime of your car. Not worth worrying about.

BTW, where in PA are you?

MustangBradley

There are products for sale at the parts store just for this problem. I can't recall the name but it is in a small quart container. You drain your cooling system and then add this product and fill the rest up with water. Drive it for a couple hours then drain. Flush the system at this point and it removes a bunch of stuff. When I flushed mine the water coming out was brown for a good 45 seconds. Then I filled it with new coolant and water.

As far as the name of that stuff, I can only say ask the guy at the counter for radiator flush. Sorry.

90Mustang_GT

thanks for the help. im right by the wexford area, zip is 15237

nba1341

yea get some radiator flush made by those guys who make the yellow bottled green coolant. cant remember the name but anyways the flush works really nicely

nba1341

prestone!

Jfsram

The best way to do this is to dissassemble as much as you can.
The thermostat housing and all the hoses to the radiator and heater.

Do this yourself because most shop will just to the drain and refill and charge you for a flush.

What you are trying to avoid is having all those rust particles going through the heater core and radiator. They will plug it up.

With it all open, blast a garden hose in every hole. Including the heater core and radiator in both directions.

Now refill the system with distilled water and coolant. Make sure to get at least 7 or 8 litres of coolant into it. Makes a 50/50 mix.
Look up the coolant capacity, I"m just going off memory here, which is pretty dull.

jkrum10238

hook up the garden hose and back flush the whole system till it runs clear and watch for the epa haha

nba1341

lmao when my lower radiator hose came off it stained the street for like a month. I felt really bad for my neighborhood people who had to drive past my house and see an ugly rust stream thing leading to the gutter (did not go down any storm drains environmental people it dried up in the gutter)

uenvyboykin

Isn't the rust in coolant systems caused by particles in water?? I was always told to use coolant and or distilled water to avoid such particles.