Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

I had a block dipped at a former Redi-Strip franchise. They don't go by Redi-Strip anymore, but are a commercial/industrial metal cleaner. When I got the block back I could see that here was some rust scale in some areas of the water jacket, while other areas are clean. I chucked a piece of 3/8" stiff guy wire in my drill and went into all the holes around the cylinders. Then I used a piece of stiff steel wire about 1/8" and went in between the cylinders and the exhaust passages. When I turned the block on its end there was a double hand full of rust and scale fell out. I'm confident I can't reach any more with the limited access but I know if I got this much out there is more. What is the prudent action to take? I've read good things about Evapo-rust and am considering putting the block on the engine stand so I can level the deck, block the water pump holes, and soaking in the Evapo-rust.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Take it to the 25-cent car wash and wash it out.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Or, hit it with a pressure washer if you have one while it is sitting on its nose with a block under the cam gear cavity for the water to run out of the water pump holes. Long straight slot screw drivers are good too. All this attention bears fruit. I've done this to two flatheads that I've built so far and they both run very cool.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Forgot to mention that I have a 3000# pressure washer and washed the block thoroughly before the dip. That got a LOT of rusty crud out. I'll pressure wash it again after any other treatment(s).

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

I made a couple gaskets(with only bolt holes) for heads and turned it on end then fill with evaporust or similar, or molasses and water (I've heard).
Then after done and dry roll it around on a thick sheet of plywood, any loose pieces will fall out , if they don't , I wouldn't worry about them.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

I sometimes spend a week cleaning block inside and out before taking for hot tank. When I get it back I clean inside again and it is not uncommon to get piles of stuff out again. I use an air line with a 10" pipe on it to blow out as much as I can. Then I flush with water to get the rest. I had two done in a bake oven and was surprised ant how easy the rust and crud came out.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

It is too bad that the Redi-Strip process doesn't seem to be available most places anymore. When one was available near me, I had blocks (and a 34 body) cleaned and there wasn't a speck of rust anywhere inside or out when they were finished. I believe proper disposal of the extremely toxic waste became so expensive it became not feasible to run a franchise. I don't blame the regulations, that stuff just can't get into the environment. The Redi-Strip that was forced out of business here had been dumping waste into a river close to their building to save money.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Agreed, the stuff is noxious. But I have a hard time believing they couldn't tack on $10 per job in "environmental fees" to pay for a neutralizing system. Lucky they weren't sued for what they'd been doing all those years. (Maybe that's why the folded?)

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

That's another great thing about Evapo-rust. It is not an acid nor an alkali and can be disposed of down the toilet. It is not toxic in any way. For a demonstration of the difference between acid de-rusting (Vinegar) and chelation de-rusting (Evapo-rust) see here: http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123032

Of course, no chemical will remove old casting sand which I think is the main source of the problem cooling flatheads that are otherwise totally free of rust. Manual labor is the only way for that crud.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

I'm using a Streamlight LED penlight to look inside the water jacket. These things will put a beam into places a shop light can't touch. I keep it in my pocket whenever I'm in the shop. It is amazing what good light will do for ancient eyes.

There is no casting sand or debris in this block anywhere that is viewable from the holes in the deck. As I said earlier, the block was cleaned from every access with a 3000# 4 GPM pressure washer before going to be dipped.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Henry, I too, am a great fan of Evaporust. My only problem was that my 5 gallons turned black and quit working well before I'd run 300 lbs of steel through it.

My question to you is : "Did you ever do the Evaporust 'thing' by running it in your engine?" I have been thinking about doing this and would appreciate any information before spending that kind of money on an unknown procedure. (Though from all my experience, it should work very well.)

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Sorry to hear of your bad experience with your stripper company.
In order to cool as it should the water jackets need to be bare cast iron as it was
when new. It is a simple chemical fact on what will eat rust and scale out.
I won't go into that here but it is nothing you can buy at the average store.
That is one big reason why the leftist EPA has closed most of the good metal strippers in the country and the ones still in business are getting rich.
A block that is done properly will be bare bright cast iron in the deepest part of the
water jackets when done. Absolutely no evidence of scale or rust.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Has anyone tried muriatic acid after manually getting the lose stuff out?

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

After rigorous poking/prodding/scraping etc and multi-angle pressure washing I bolted the heads and waterpumps on mine, blocked everything up, and filled it to the top with straight evaporust. I let it sit for 3 to 4 weeks and did a multi-angle pressure wash again. It is clean--nothing but bare grey iron when looking in with a flashlight. It killed my evaporust though so be prepared to part with $80...

This was on a 59A and the head studs came out super easy too.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Sounds good. $80 is less then a Redi-strip job. I think that running electricity through the parts is a big part of the Redi-strip process. Don't really know exactly how it works or what chemicals are used, only that it works great. Maybe evaporust will help us all out. Thanks for doing that experiment!

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

No, I haven't spent the $80.00 it costs for 5 gallons to put in my engine mainly because my engine does not seem to have any rust in it. When I remove the radiator hoses from the heads and look inside there is no rust. My engine was "boiled out" when rebuilt a year ago but the water pumps that I used for my experiment were removed from the block for that "boiling" so didn't get cleaned.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

I've worked with muriatic acid to clean metal a lot. It is very powerful, caustic, corrosive, and temperamental, meaning it's very hard to control and keep it from corroding the metal once it has removed the rust. I would never put it inside of an engine where you can't see what it's doing and when to remove it and neutralize it. Evapo-rust is the best approach from my testing.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Ditto,
I worked in a radiator shop many years ago and we used Muriatic acid to clean out the radiators after they were patched, it made the insides look all shiny and new, but you had to be fast on the water hose after you put it in or it would eat through the core tubes.
Being a kid at the time I performed a few experiments by dropping a penny in a cup of Muriatic acid, a few seconds and it would be shiny as new, but in a minute it was gone!
Of course this was back when pennies were made of copper.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

remove thermostat, drain any antifreeze/water out of running engine, then put plain cheap white vinegar in the engine, run it thru several heat/cool cyles and then flush it out, I had a 41 plymouth that took two vinegar rinses to get it clean, but every on I have done this too has run considerably cooler after. Use fifty/fifty mixture and put a bottle of water wetter in there and lets go for a cruise!!

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

I would go to Home Depot and pick up a gallon of Prep and Etch. It's the same as Right Stuff, Metal Ready, Ospho, whatever. Basically a phosphoric acid solution. Get a tote large enough to hold at least half the block, pour in the P&E, fill the rest of the way with water, dip, and leave in for 10 minutes and check. You might need more time depending on how much it's diluted. I;'ve had good luck derusting parts this way.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Andy, does the Prep and Etch leave a black coating where it treats the rust?

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

I'll add that I also tried evaporust on a operational engine. This was a 50 (about 4.5 gallons coolant capacity). Former owner had put in Al radiator and didn't use any zinc. I drained about a gallon of coolant and replaced with evaporust. I took several 20 to 30 miles drives over a two week period. Then I drained and flushed several times. A the time I also had a leaky thermostat housing so when changing I was able to look down inside the engine. Both radiator and head were much cleaner appearing when I completed the process.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

Thanks for all the ideas. I think I'm going to get the block checked and machining done before I spend any more time with it. I'm leaning toward soaking the coolant areas in Evapo Rust when I get it back. I can't see any more scale, just rust colored surface where the scale was. Most of the area is clean with a cast iron color. I just want to do a thorough job while it is all exposed.

Thanks again for all the suggestions and comments.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

If you are get it machine & checked get baked & cleaned first.

Re: Cleaning rust from water jackets.
 

No, but it will turn white if it's not washed off. It should be dried quickly to avoid flash rust. If you dip and leave it to dry you get some limited protection from rerusting.