The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 235 Cooling Jacket Corrosion

I’m tearing down a 235 and I can see oxidation/corroded walls of the cylinder cooling jacket. I’m doing this in my garage and don’t have equipment for flushing the jacket wall with chemicals that would descale the jacket walls, and there after collecting the chemicals and disposing of the chemicals.
Any ideas?

I think some have used evapo rust ,environment frendly .also vinegar or citric acid mixed with water .

Would it be feasible to have a machine shop clean the block for you? That might be the easy button.

Many moons ago, I rigged up a system with an old pool pump that circulated a rust removing solution (I chose strong white vinegar). Inbound and outbound points were the block drain and upper radiator hose. Pump sat in a big tub where inbound and outbound points outbound points were plumbed in.

Disposing of the nasty “stuff” was still a problem.

Does Evaporust “evaporate” when left open? Might be able to let the used solution just sit outdoors in a safe place, and they dispose of the dry remnants in the normal garbage.

JW51 your rig up sounds very innovative and the items required though achievable but right now not something I would undertake.
As to Evaporust that KEVINSKI suggested or the vinegar mix could be a way out. And yes letting stuff like that evaporate and or dumping cat litter powder or powdered oil absorbing stuff seems like a way to dispose the residue.
Since the engines water pump and the block freeze plugs allow for partial access to the water jacket I’m tempted to soak those areas with Evaporust and or the vinegar solution to see what results I obtain. If the results are ok I’m thinking that while the engine block is on the engine stand I’ll cover up the large openings and pour the solution into the jacket. After that I’ll drain the liquid and let the solution evaporate and then discard the solids.

I don't think there's a need to try and evaporate either vinegar or evaporust. Once it's done it's thing, it's basically inert. Especially vinegar. Down the toilet with lots of water is what I do.

Circulating the stuff thru the jacket would be ideal, as the stuff that's just sitting in one spot gets used up pretty quickly.

What I did was to leave the engine right where it was, remove the water pump and then pour CLR in there until it was within 1/4" or so of the pump opening. Then I straightened out a coat hanger and bent about a 1 inch L at the end. Then I let the CLR sit there overnight, drained it, neutralized it with soda, repeated and this time I scratched around at the #6 cylinder as best as I could with my coat hanger. Eventually it drained okay through the petcock at the rear of the engine. I left it at that. You can buy vinegar up to 45% strength (which A---you must use in a garage with the door open only and maybe put a fan in there too and B---you don't want to leave in the block for more than about 15 minutes because it is very nasty stuff. Soda will neutralize what you drain off also. Or you could go water greasewood bushes with it. I haven't found anything that damages those. Good luck!

Nothing much beats boiling a block in a strong solution of water, laundry detergent, and lye. I have used a cutoff wheel on an angle grinder to split a 55 gallon oil drum in half vertically, and build a support structure from pipe fittings to hold the half drum about a foot off the ground. Fill the drum with water, add a small box of Tide and a gallon of Sodium Hydroxide "main line" drain cleaner. Submerge the block and build a fire under the drum. After a few hours of boiling, remove the block, cylinder head, oil pan, valve cover, and other cast iron or steel parts (NEVER ALUMINUM!) and give them a good rinse with a pressure washer. Once the parts are clean, they will flash rust almost immediately, so apply a light mist of oil with a spritz bottle as soon as they're dry.
Jerry

Jerry, thanks for the advice. Wow! That’s a great detail of process. I’m confident your process worked extremely well. I must say that I envision that my HOA would go bananas if I was to try your recommendation.

Hmmmmm- - - - - -isn't an HOA what us B-52 guys used to call a "target-rich environment"? Fortunately, I've got a 100 acre playground, with the nearest settlement resembling a gated community of nosy neighbors about 20 miles away. That's not quite far enough, in my humble opinion!
Jerry

Jerry, thanks for my early morning laugh.

Is the engine still in the truck?

No. It’s a spare engine I’ll rebuild to replace a 216 when it expires.

A more PC-friendly approach might be to use a heavy duty plastic tote big enough to hold the major parts like the block, cylinder head, etc. and a recirculating pump to move a couple of different cleaning solutions- - - - - -a strong solution of HOT water and Trisodium Phosphate for greasy deposits, followed by a heavy concentration of phosphoric acid and water , also close to boiling hot, for rusty stuff. These two chemicals are what's in the various commercial degreaser/de-rust products anyway, just in fairly low concentrations to keep the tree huggers happy. Warning- - - - -using anything strong enough to actually work will probably make all your kids be born naked!

www.ebay.com/itm/236835713827?

Jerry

Not a suggestion, just a quick on subject story. We have many many horse shoes in the barn from 40 years of always having a few shod horses on the place. Cleaning old rusty, dirty shoes is a pain. Little bro needed a few recently for a project. So happens I had a bag of H2SO4 in one of those plastic pouches you used to get when you bought a dry, 12v battery. Put a couple dozen old shoes in a HDPE five gallon bucket (hydraulic fluid bucket) added about 3 gallons of water, put on long rubber gloves and face shield then slowly poured acid into the water (NEVER the other way). It bubbled and rolled a bit, in about 30 minutes I pulled the shoes out and they looked new. Now, not recommending this for an engine but old battery acid (this was new acid) when handled with all due care will eat rust like candy. Proceed at your own risk. Only do this outside.

RonR

For really aggressive rust removal, use Muratic acid (technical grade hydrochloric HCl) mixed with water. The stuff used to clean up excess mortar after a brick-laying job. Just don't walk away for very long if you want any parts left! Those bubbles are Hydrogen gas- - - - -no smoking or open flames!
Jerry

After taking in all suggestions, which I still need to digest, how you’ll feel about pumping high pressure water via high pressure washer, forcing out the loose rusted matter, letting it dry out and then flooding the cavity with Eastwood Rust Converter, drain the remaining rust converter and let it dry?
When in use would the hot water in the cavity deteriorate and plug the radiator?

Pressure washing is good, but only after softening up the hard packed crud chemically. It's had decades to get there- - - -and it won't get dislodged easily.
Jerry