Volvo Penta 2003 - drain plug blocked

[poultey]

The drain plug to my VP 2003 is blocked; removing it (both parts) and probing inside with a screw driver has only resulted in confirming the presence of a light grey chalkly moist sludge. Not the first time this question has been asked but the answers I can find online are not working. I need to remove the plug in order to flush any remaining water so as to not dilute the Rydlme solution I intend to soak the sludge with (engineer recommended). I've removed the anode already but I estimate there still to be 1.5 litres of water remaining below the anode hole and the top of the sludge. Introducing a tube and pumping out the water would work ( possibly through the thermostat housing) ? . . . . trying that through the anode hole has so far yielded nothing. Anything stronger than HCL acid I want to avoid - fumes in cabin etc. Any thoughts on how to disburse the sludge very welcome.

 

[Refueler]

Engine - is it raw water or heat exchanger cooled ?

 

[poultey]

Engine - is it raw water or heat exchanger cooled ?

Raw salt water

 

[Stemar]

What happens if you put a dollop of the sludge in rydlime? If it dissolves, you may have your answer.

 

[Refueler]

Raw salt water

OK ... then I would set up a fresh-water supply and run engine with FW via hose topping up a bucket ... you do not want hose pressure direct to engine .. let the FW do the flushing ....
After a decent flush ... then introduce the Rydlyme or whatever you are using ... shut off everything once all in ... leave - then flush out etc.

 

[Malish]

Anything stronger than HCL acid I want to avoid - fumes in cabin etc. Any thoughts on how to disburse the sludge very welcome.

The chemist in me says include a concentration of HCl in your text, 'conc' HCl is 37% HCl and fumes in moist air... I'm sure you do not mean to use that. 10% or 20% v/v (by volume, ie 1 in 10 or 1 in 5 of conc HCl in water) is more likely what you mean and I would agree that nothing stronger that that should be used unless you are very careful.

 

[Stemar]

10% or 20% v/v (by volume, ie 1 in 10 or 1 in 5 of conc HCl in water) is more likely what you mean and I would agree that nothing stronger that that should be used unless you are very careful.

Any concentration of acid or alkali strong enough to wriggle into the depths of an engine and dissolve crud should be handled with gloves and eye protection. A plastic apron's a good idea, too.

 

[Refueler]

I would be wary of standing an acid or alkali in an engine ... no idea what damage could be done. Consider that it is strongly recc'd to flush well all such agents out of engines when used ..

Just a comment - "light grey chalkly moist sludge" .... mmmmm its recc'd by various engine co's .. Perkins ... Volvo etc to run a Raw Water cooled engine a lot cooler than an indirect cooled ... basically to reduce the deposits of salts / crud etc. Indirect of course have Glycol Coolant with cleaners etc - so they can run at better performance temperatures.

Because of this - I run my raw water Perkins with wide open seavalve - and she gets maximum water flow .. yes - significantly cooler run than optimum - but I have no deposits in system after 30 odd yrs of ownership.

 

[chris-s]

I really should save the answer for the process we follow to flush our 2003 it gets asked so often.

Firstly, remove the short pipe at the back of the cylinder head that feeds into the elbow and block off the outlet from the head.
Remove the anode.
Remove the thermostat from the housing and refit it with some sort of seal to make it water tight. We actually butchered an old thermostat for this job.
Somehow, attach a hose to the thermostat outlet feeding to a bucket. We have a calorifer take off to use.
Remove the inlet hose and connect another hose fed with a spare bilge pump from a bucket of cleaning solution.

Now you will be able to circulate the cleaner thru the distribution pipe and the whole block for as long as you want.

Whether or not you will actually be able to clean it enough to be able to clear the drain is not guaranteed, that might need more prodding.

 

[poultey]

Appreciate the replies and should have mentioned the state of the engine as described with its sludge is what remains after a 3 hour flush and one hour soak both with Rydlme. Chris-s, I used the setup you describe. Draining all the engine water pre another soak with Rydlme remains the goal and I'm now thinking that may be achievable with compressed air introduced from outside the engine into the drain hole. Feel uneasy using acids prepared by my own hand, commercial products I'm ok with. Finding a nozzle small enough . . M6 ? now is the challenge.

 

[poultey]

Solved - water is now trickling from the drain plug but only after inserting into the drain-plug aperture and rotating an angled dentists tool. Just prior to the breakthrough I was still seeing no water when inserting a long screwdriver. The dentist tool, like others recommended, was simply a length of steel with a return of approx 10mm at the head end - any longer length and insertion into the aperture wouldn't be possible.
All this followed three cooling system flushes over a two week period intended to clear the drain hole; the first a continuous 4 hour cycle of Rydlme solution, second Hydrochloric acid at 6% for 10 minutes, finally neat 1 litre Rydlme sat for 48 hours.
After all the flushing there was still plenty of crud at the base of the cooling system evidenced by retrieving a one inch coating of grey mud on whatever was inserted into the drain hole. I should have tried the angled tool far sooner.
The absence of the water that escaped post-prodding will at least allow for a de-cruding solution to be introduced to the cooling sytem that is not immediately diluted and therefore more effective in shifting a greater volume of said crud next time.