Cleaning water cooling channels

[James W]

Morning all,

My MD1 engine rebuild has begun and i'm determined to utilise all the spare parts I have from a spare engine, rather than fit a new engine. It will happen eventually, I'd just rather have a couple of years grace to save up a bit more cash! Also, the original engine can't have done that much work as the boat's been laid up for 21 years!

The exhaust manifolds have been sent away to be repaired and now i'm looking at the cylinder heads and blocks. They all have them have rust in the water cooling channels and i'm looking for the best way to clean this out without damaging anything. Can anyone give me any ideas please?

Thanks in advance,

James

 

[Swanrad2]

I would do the following - it helped with our heads (before we located spares)

Gentle prodding with a wire coat hanger and soaking/rinsing in acidic central heating solution (you can pop the heads in a bucket with a fish tank aerator in it to help circulate the stuff).
For the bits that will come off - take them to a diesel engineer with a hot bath to clean diesel bits.

 

[James W]

Thanks loads. I think the block may have to come off though....there's a fair bit of rust in the channels and that worries me.

 

[nigelmercier]

I flushed mine with Oxalic Acid solution. I don't know what it did to the block, but the hoses came up a treat.