lime scale deposits in engine

wiggy

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Last winter I removd short section of plumbimg on cooling system for raw water cooled 1GM10. Inside tube Irecon diameter was down by 40% due to limescale looking stuff (very granular), any ideas on how to clean out engine assumig it is as bad inside? Would white vinegar do it if gut through and left once engine was up to temp (works wonders on taps at home)?
 

VicS

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A central heating boiler descaler such as Fernox DS3 or DS1 would be more effective than vinegar. DS3 is based on sulphamic acid, DS1 on organic acids. The DS3 will probably be the better bet on a limescale deposit.

Hydrochloric acid(brick cleaner) will be the quickest but might be aggresive enough to do damage especially to aluminium bits. (But dilute it several fold and only use it cold)

Remove or be prepared to renew any anodes
 

seascape

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Sorry to hijack the posting.
Would the Fernox be best re-collected in a bucket at the exhaust and then continually re cycled / pumped back through the engine a few times via a pipe connected to the water pump inlet ?
Would the thermostat need to be removed from the housing then the lid put back on to ensure the Fernox gets right around the block?
 

VicS

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[ QUOTE ]
Sorry to hijack the posting

[/ QUOTE ] That's not what I call hijacking!

If it can be arranged to circulate that would be a good idea. It would enable you to use a larger volume therefore remove more scale before the solution becomes "exhausted". the alternatives are of course to use a more concentrated solution than recommended and/or to repeat a simple soak until clean.

Weak acids like sulphamic and the organic acids in DS1 react rather slowly so unless you can circulate with a external pump you would have to circulate for a few minutes then let it stand for a while before repeating. On the otherhand circulating by running the engine will get the cleaning solution warm.

Yes I would remove the thermostat otherwise you would simply be circulating the solution through the bypass and exhaust system only.
 

cliff

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When I descaled my Bukh I placed a bucket under the exhaust to collect the coolant then pumped it back into another bucket in the cockpit from where it was drawn back to the engine. This arrangement allowed the engine to warm up quite quickly - once the engine "overheated" I stopped it and allowed it to cool before restarting and repeating the process. It took about ½ an hour to "overheat" as there was some loss of water which was made up with cold fresh water dumped into the bucket in the cockpit which helped keep the temp down a bit.
The other thing was I flushed the engine out with fresh water by using a hose to keep the cockpit bucket topped up and allowing the exhaust water to discharge normally. Once the engine was up to temp I then placed a bucket (with a 12v inline pump) below the exhaust and added the Fernox to the cockpit bucket.
The hot recirculation seemed to do the trick judging by the crap that settled in the bottom of the buckets and the fact that the calorifier worked much better after the descaling treatment.
The internal anode in the engine was replaced after descaling and final flushing of the engine with fresh water. (there was not much of it left anyway.....)
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VicS

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[ QUOTE ]
When I descaled my Bukh

[/ QUOTE ] sounds like you have devised a pretty good system. I'd take the thermostat out though and if possible block the bypass to maximise the circulation through the engine itself. That would speed things up a bit perhaps.

Can you remember which Fernox product you used. There are quite a few of them!

See also the mention of Rydlyme on another thread running at the moment.
 
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