Rusty Radiator Fluid

[speedfiend]

Hey guys I recently drained my radiator fluid and it was a nice nasty orangish brown color when I drained it. So for a day I ran straight water with bg coolant system flush then flushed that and refilled with straight water and ran that for a day then flushed and redid that again for another day. As I was draining the water this morning I noticed some small rusty chunks on the top of the fins inside the radiator. I plan to drain this water out this afternoon then i am going to install a new thermistat, waterpump, and samco hoses. My question is does anyone happen to know exactly why this shit is showing up in my radiator? I have heard that it is a sign of the waterpump going bad. My dad thinks the motor sat for awhile before it was shipped to me and the block has a little deteriation in it. Anyways this is a zenki blacktop sr with a koyo radiator just for reference. And I have been driving on this motor for over two years with no major problems other then normal maintnence of a 10yr old motor. Any ideas or suggestion as to what this rusty shit is would be appreciated. Thanx, Cameron

[JDMClifford]

well i just opened up my friends redtop and it had brown shiz in the coolent hoses, and he deffenatly had a bad water pump. you should just be able to pully the pully off and unbolt the waterpump and pull it out. it should turn freely.

[gotta240]

rusty radiator...

[speedfiend]

Yeah i figured it was the water pump cause one of my buddies just had his water pump bearings shatter and his fluid was just like mine. I am going to install the new stuff today and flush it one more time to see if that takes care of it. The radiator is a koyo which iirc it is aluminum which shouldnt rust.

[MELLO*SOS]

You might want to reverse flush the radiator, because the way you're doing it all that crap is just going to clog the top of the radiator up. Pull it out of the car and flip it upside down, then use the garden hose on the lower water outlet to get that crap out of the radiator.

Your water pump is probably somewhat dirty and should be replaced (as with most swap motors) but I bet the majority of this crap is coming from your coolant passages. Replace the pump, flush the rad and you should be gtg. GL man

[speedfiend]

Thanx a lot guys. Yeah I am going to pull the radiator when I get outta class this afternoon and flush it that way. And then Ill replace the pump and thermostat. Hopefully that will take care of this. Ill let you guys know. Thanx, Cameron

[sbanzer123]

did the owner before you put some stop leak in it?

[speedfiend]

did the owner before you put some stop leak in it?

The motor came straight from a clip in japan so honestly I have no idea what could have been done to it before me. The koyo was brand new when I bought it and installed it. I think the clip may have sat in a junkyard in japan for awile before it was shipped and it built up some corrosion in the block. That combined with a stock waterpump that has never been changed I think is the cause of my problems. Everything is getting changed today so I will see if it takes care of the problem. I already flushed the radiator out of the car and got all the chunks out of it so I should be good. Hopefully we will see. Thanx

[Addicted2Kouki]

yeah just change the waterpump... flush the system.. not just the radiator.

[g6civcx]

That's typical. The motor probably sat in a junkyard for some time, and as the result it develops some rust inside the cooling system.

When you do your radiator hoses and thermostat, run your finger inside the water inlet and outlet. Chances are you'll find a coat of mildew-like substance from dried coolant and residues.

I suggest performing a BG coolant flush. It should cost about $80. That will flush out all the junk in the system.

You may try reverse-flushing as well, but be cautioned that sometimes reverse-flushing may be harmful.

[MELLO*SOS]

^ how/why is it harmful?

[g6civcx]

^ how/why is it harmful?

Reverse flushing involves the use of compressed air to force coolant to flow backward. Any time you pressurize the cooling system, you have to pressure test first and make sure you don't use too much pressure.

Although you can use quick bursts of pressure to loosen debris, if you use too much pressure you'll cause a leak, which is more than likely given how old the equipment is.

Just be careful if you do it. Use common sense. That's all.

[SochBAT]

More times than not, people are using garden hose water in their radiators, which isn't pure, so will highly likely rust up, and deteriorate shit.

*EDIT* Thought you just meant pullin it out. Never thought to have done that. Always thought it would damage the engine too much, mainly cuz the pump goes one way, and reversing would mess that up.

[g6civcx]

I'm talking about using a compressed air attachment and reverse flushing the entire block, not flipping the radiator upside down.

[speedfiend]

Well yeah i ran the bg coolant flush throught he entire system with a flush machine from my dads work. Then i flushed the system with straight water four times more over the course of four days. And then pulled the radiator and reverse flushed it off the car. Anyways today i pulled the waterpump, thermostat, and radiator hoses. When I pulled out the thermostat I found a nice large chunk of rust that was blocking flow throught the thermostat. You can see the chunk in the pic below on the bottom left. The waterpump was pretty deteriated as well. Anyways for the folks who have been following this thread I figure you would be interested in my finds. Thanx for all the help guys. Cameron
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-8/1060738/Picture193md.JPG

[MELLO*SOS]

nasty. glad u got it fixed :)

[g6civcx]

That's what happens when you don't properly service your cooling system. I can't imagine what the inside of the water passages in your block looks like.

[speedfiend]

Yeah I can only imagine how the block looks. Only problem is this is my daily driver so i have no time to completely tear the motor apart to make sure everything is nice and clean. I personally service everything on my car at all times so this is just neglect from the owner in japan or just sitting in japan for awhile.