What to do with engine rust

[jumboflan]

I recently noticed rust or brown muddy water in coolant resorvoir and n under radiator cap. So I drain. And now I'm about to do a flush with blue devil 3-1 radiator flush. I took off upper radiator hose and saw like a metal chunk. Is this bad?? I was going to replace thermostat too. Should I remove and replace thermostat after I do the flush with radiator cleaner. The original thermostat and hoses and radiator on this car. 1993

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[jumboflan]

This came out of my upper radiator hose. Even though I drained coolant system 1 day earlier. There should nt be any in there right according to gravity. Maybe my radiator is clogged

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[S14rebuild]

Take the thermostat out. Reinstall outlet, run a hose thru the upper hose and let it drain out the lower... replace the radiator. And ur heatcore will be destroyed. Ive had sucess using generic coolant flush liquid, but no lie on a friends civic he ran water and 2 bottles of CLR. drove it around about 5miles and then flushed it all.


I had a motor that sat for years and the coolant ate away the block to the point it destroyed a cylinder sleeve....

Ur gonna be replacing, radiator, water pump, tbermostate, heater core, all the hoses and freeze plugs. That motor is fukkd

[jumboflan]

I think I know where the broken rusted metal came fro.m. It's that. Breather or air hose connected to upper radiator union where it recirculation back to the lower radiator hose.
S14rebuild do you think my ka24de can still be salvaged. I didn't drive since 2017. I started up a few times and drove around for 20-30 mins like once every few months since 2017.

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[S14rebuild]

Doesnt look like its worth ur time and $...id be looking for a new block...

Everything is gonna be rotted out and leaking...

[jumboflan]

Welp I put new thermostat in old one was caked in lime calcium rust. I hope the car will run good after I flush with clr and water wish me alot of luck I'm done waiting for gasket to dry. I didn't know you have to take off radiator shroud. It makes it so much easier. Without radiator fan shroud blocking. I hated taking it off though. I got it off and flung it on garage floor. Then one tab broke. Oh well have the other side. Still. Thanks S14rebuild

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[jumboflan]

I flush radiator like 4 times with twice blue devil 3-1 radiator rust oil cleaner. And then I flush twice with water and drove yesterday. I drove to south San Jose, CA. From San Francisco. It was going good. Until I got to my destination. Right when car came to stop at parking lot the temp Guage went up. I saw smoke steam from under hood. Then I turned heat all way up. It came down a little, then went back up so I shut off engine. The coolant was burping out the coolant resorvoir. I knew something up while I was flushing out. It only took 3. 5 quarts before radiator filler hole would fill to top. I guess too much rust.
I'm radiator over last 6 years.

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[jumboflan]

After San Jose I came back home and took 1.5 hours to get back at 4am. Alot of road construction. I had to get off road 4 times because detour. And bad planning. I didn't know how to navigate back home but it didn't overhear because I had heat on full Blast. It wasn't fun coming home I was ready to scream. My engine was getting fucked. I drive without insurance or registration for 5 years already. But this time I had imminent threat of breaking down. Highway 101 north from south sj to San Francisco Airport all under construction.

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[S14rebuild]

Told you, its gonna be a never ending or winning battle with a block and cooling components that rusted out.

[mechanicalmoron]

That stuff looks more like bars. Either way, you're a drama queen. Wash it out already, put your choice of color antifreeze in it, and move on.

You took off your fan shroud, not a good direction to go if your shits overheating. It's what makes the air moved by the fan actually go through the radiator. Your A/C fan also comes on to stop a 240 overheating, so don't "delete" things willy-nilly.

Did you put a cap on it? It'll boil if it's not holding pressure, and the cap is the pressure regulator.

[andisan]

Did you put a new radiator in it?

That?s what I would do first, and I had an overheating problem but that?s because I didn?t bleed it right, KA are picky to bleed, or maybe it was me being impatient and wanting to get the car on the road


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[jumboflan]

Just picked it up today at orielly. Will get a new cap too

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[S14rebuild]

Please knock out 1 freeze plug in the block, easy to get to and see how corroded it is...just to give u an idea how much rust ur really lookn at

[jumboflan]

Okay @s14rebuild s14rebuid

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[S14rebuild]

lol.....just tryn to save u from a nightmare of constant leaks nightmares thats all

[Kingtal0n]

1. remove thermostat so rust chunks dont get stuck
2. with engine running, unplug the upper rad hose so the water can drain out, then use a hose and flush with tap water until the water looks normal and rust is gone. Flush for at least 30 minutes. Rev the engine a bit sometimes to help push the water.

3. put the hose back on and drive the car a little to free up more rust

4. Repeat (2. and 3.) until all rust is gone

5. Now if there is still questionable rust chunks leave the thermostat out for the next part. Otherwise reinstall thermostat.

6. Fill radiator with 100% distilled water, flush the rad and engine until it only has 100% distilled water. From this point onwards, NEVER put tap water inside the engine again. ONLY distilled.

7. Use some kinds of radiator cleaning agent. This step might take 1-3 weeks because sometimes you can drive with the rad-flush juice for many days at a time.
Use any Radiator flush from auto part stores. Try different versions over time if you like, first week this one. Next week a new one. Next week a different one again, etc... Flush again and again with distilled water and keep using radiator flush from the auto-store and distilled water until the water you drain looks normal. The rad flush stuff will help clear the last remaining bit of junk from the system and the distilled water is necessary to maximize the effects of rad flush juice that you buy from the store.

8. After removing all 'radiator flush juice' by flushing again with 100% distilled water, You can put on all new parts you can access that were rusty (radiator, thermostat, hoses, metal outlets, metal tubes, anything you can comfortably change that had rust in it or is rusty) now that the water looks normal.

9. At this point you should have 100% distilled water and all new radiator and parts in the engine and good looking water. Now, to keep it that way, add anti-freeze as required by location, i.e. In Florida I use 10% anti freeze (because it never freezes here) but up north you will need more anti-freeze. Use the least amount of anti-freeze possible. Water is better at cooling, but some anti-freeze is necessary to prevent the distilled water from eating the metal parts over time.

[mechanicalmoron]

Originally Posted by andisan

Did you put a new radiator in it?

That?s what I would do first, and I had an overheating problem but that?s because I didn?t bleed it right, KA are picky to bleed, or maybe it was me being impatient and wanting to get the car on the road


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There is absolutely nothing to bleeding a KA cooling system.

There is no need to jack the car to exactly 35.3 degrees and bounce alternate diagonal corners until the bubbles spell "done", no matter what the internet says.

If it bubbles forever, it's up to temp and boiling, because you have the cap off. Just like in this thread - his shit was boiling because his cap's bad, and/or his fan's not working.

Rust is bad, and you'll know why when all your freeze plugs start gushing. And when they do, you'll need to pull the engine to get to them all - and there will still be nothing wrong with the engine that a new one would solve.

If you've got your stock metal radiator, fuck replacing that, alumaseal will do you better than a plastic tank crapper, you have to spend quite a lot of money before you're matching OE quality.

Put kool-aid, and a new cap. Go from there.

Did I say cap? Say cap with me. The boiling point raises with pressure, your cap is the pressure regulator, if it's bad, your coolant will boil over at operating temp, no ifs ands or butts. You cannot begin to diagnose the cooling system without a good cap.

[jumboflan]

im still here. Figurin it all out. Man, there were a couple of metal coolant inlet nipples for heater core that went boom after i changed all but two heater core hoses. I didnt pull on those for fear it breaks. But over time it broke after i drove a few time in november december 2021. and fast forward to today august 2022. im still stuck. It's boiled big time in june 2022. I ran without a fan shroud. Because it doest fit over my koyo radiator. Which i decided to buy instead of the plastic end capper orielly radiator i replaced in august septmeber 2020.

I replaced the radiator cap with a brand new one . I boutht it off a advertiser here. mav1178 or something

It' s going good for 2 hours idleing in driveway. I fixed the radiator pip that goes to the intake manifold. The thing had a rip in right corner where rubber hose couldnt get to..

Then in june 2022 as i mentioned, i drove(without fan shroud) I couldnt fit the shroud without the stock radiator. . I have a koyo aluminum one now. Brand new. Anyway i overheated while going 15 blocks away from my house. the things ok for 30--50 mins while in my driveway. But as soon as i went up hill about 15 blocks away to show a friend. The thing blew up the little 1/4- 3/8 hose. that goes to the upper radiator neck to under throttle body. The one i had rewelded and brazed. I didnt replace that one hose of all the heater core hoses i did.

Somehow when it overheated i tried to make it back home but there traffic in 15 blocks. And it took 10 mins to get home.

But when i got home it was smoking and cracking and hot for 1 hours solid.

Now i replaced the little hose with a silicone one i got as a whole hose kit for sr20det. I cut it up and used it . Now im wiring an ISR efan . i didnt think that running car without a fan shroud could fuck me so bad.

I didnt turn off car and push down hill all way back though. Which i couldve technically did. At one point i was thinking to go another street to get back home. Which in hindsight wouldve been 100 percent better. Theres an old lady or something in front stopping completely for every stop coming back 15 blocks.

I think i messed up.

[AKADriver]

You're kind of cascading problems, every time you fix something and then it overheats again and stresses some other component (old rubber hoses, rusty water neck, etc).

A lot of people get away without a shroud for a while if they leave the "A/C condenser fan" in place since that will automatically kick in at a coolant temp of 105C and save the motor. No shroud and no e-fan together is what killed you.

I run a stock shroud on a KA with a 54mm radiator, it does fit, it is extremely tight but it works.

[lok]

The trick to installing the shroud is putting in first and then installing the radiator.

With a thicker radiator, it takes more manipulation and is more difficult with the condenser fan installed.

The 89-90 has the condenser fan in front of the condenser as a pusher.

[AKADriver]

Yeah I think my method was to put the bottom half into place, attach the condenser fan and top half to the radiator outside the car, then drop the radiator straight down, then attach the halves from underneath. Only works for the 2-piece S13 KA shroud I guess.

[bardabe]

one word, Thermocure.

it works, I use it at my shop on all these dirty ass clapped out cars.

https://www.evapo-rust.com/thermocure/