The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Temporary cooling system for first start up?

I am following the excellent tech tip for resurrecting my Stovebolt, but there is not much coverage of the cooling system.

My rad and hoses had some decent rust flakes in them when I removed and flushed the rad with water. My question is can I do my first fire up with the rad in its current condition? It has no major integrity issues, just internal rust. There is some in the water pump and thermostat as well. I am assuming there are more rust flakes inside the engine, but I would like to determine if the engine is salvageable before I dig deeper and clean that up. The rad had some coolant inside when I got it.

Now if the rad is not an option, can I run a garden hose through it? If it starts I would like to run it for a few minutes to warm up the oil so I can get it changed again.

Any tips from those of you who have faced this dilemma? Thanks.

I would think you should be just fine. You have flushed the rad and determined that it will flow so hook it up, fill with water and go for it. Garden hose will do if the rad doesn't flow. Just don't run the thing for an extended time w/o a water temp gauge.🤔

As long as the radiator is capable of flowing a decent volume of coolant, use it. You'll also get an idea if there are any noticeable leaks you need to fix- - - -water pump, heater core, etc. Rust responds to various types of acid as a flushing agent(I use muratic)- - - -grease and sludge needs something caustic like lye or Trisodium phosphate to cut it. Follow up with a flush with a box of baking soda and plain water to neutralize any leftover acid. The cleaner the system gets the better, but be aware you'll also expose pinhole leaks as you remove the crud.
Jerry

My water pump was a leaky mess, so I opted to do the garden hose cooling system. Worked fine, but if I had it to do over again I might have put up with the leak and just run it for initial testing.

Once I verified the engine would run, I used some of my garden hose plumbing as the means to flush both directions (in the top and out the block drain and vise versa) multiple times to degunk the water jackets. Used a bunch of white vinegar for that task and a cheap garage sale swimming pool pump to do a continuous loop for a few hours.

Getting ready to try a restart after replacing water pump, radiator, and manifolds. Have a pantyhose filter rigged into top radiator hose to catch any remaining rust flakes (there will be some, I'm sure). Curious to see how that will work.

I have had this predicament several times. I don't like the idea of using a rusted/flake filled radiator. It seems like it just keeps putting more crap into motor. I would not use it until I was sure it's clean. Either by rodding, flushing or buy new.
You can, of course, fill a motor with water and run it for a few minutes without worry, no radiator.
Recently I ran a motor on just a garden hose by using large PVC sized to rad hose ID. Clamped rad hose on. Adapted large PVC down to a female garden hose connector. This way you have good water pressure into motor. Ran the output into a container so I could see and examine the rust and such. You can do this both ways to get a back flush if you want. PVC will have to be different OD's. 1.5" and 1.75" usually.

I think I ran with T-stat out.
Yes JW, just to see how a motor runs, a leaking water pump would have been OK.

Well, steady gush would have been a better descriptor. But yes, it still would have been fine. The various bits of random plumbing connectors I assembled came in mighty handy when it came time to flush. So all that effort was not lost.

I like to make things more complicated than they need to be. Especially when it means trying out some sort of home-brew, redneck work around. Keeps me from making too much progress all at once.

My latest stall tactic is doing a cheesy, temporary exhaust repair. But that's a topic for another thread.

My 54 didn't have a radiator when I got it. I used a bungee to strap a 5 gal bucket on top of the fender, inserted a pce of PVC into the water pump outlet hose without a clamp, pretty tight fit. Used a small bungee and strapped that PVC with an elbow on the end so it would dump into the bucket. At the bottom of the bucket, I attached a spigot with male water hose connection. Had a 3' pce of water hose that inserted into the water pump inlet hose, gravity feed, wasn't a tight fit but worked fine. I could run the engine for 10 minutes or so until my makeshift gas tank emptied. I could monitor flow as level in the bucket changed. This is not a job for inside the shop, or on your driveway or even over your nice lawn as the hot water will kill the grass faster than roundup ! You could tighten things up with more plumbing and better fittings, but this was quick and accomplished the purpose. Keep an eye on things, if not circulating or getting too hot shut it down, you don't want boiling water spewing out of the engine.

I have run them on water hose only. Adjusting the flow for a warm exit out of the engine. More water for cooler engine, less for hotter engine. It does get messy, but works good.

I think I will rig up the rad and run it with water first to see if the motor has any life. I was thinking of adding some kind of screen in the system to catch the flakes before they enter the water jacket, but not sure how to achieve that while maintaining good pressure.

If all runs ok, I will attempt to flush out all the crap inside.

Thanks for the advice. I figured most of you had dealt with this before!

The pantyhose trick is a good one. Cut off the toe section a few inches short of the length of the lower radiator hose to keep it from getting sucked into the water pump impeller and install it inside the lower hose where it attaches to the radiator outlet. It will strain the debris out of the coolant as it exits the radiator and keep it from getting into the engine.
Jerry

I think I will give that a shot Jerry, thanks for the know how. Looking forward to cleaning this all out.