Radiator Flush

[nstone63]

I had a country mechanic look at my car when I was visiting family, and he reckons I need to flush the radiator. The problem is, he also reckons this would cause the welsh plugs to corrode out.. which is painfully expensive...

Is there a solution that anyone knows of?

[Coast_Calais]

just flushing alone won't corrode welsh plugs... years of cooling system neglect and sheer bad luck will make welsh plugs fail..

it's not very hard to do a flush yourself and save some $$$'s...

[Morton]

I'd suggest you flush it three times if you have the spare time. I don't understand how flushing the cooling system will make the welsh plugs corrode, unless you go and fill the clean system with tap water. I take it the mechanic is assuming there's a buildup of sludge on top of the welsh plugs which is preventing them from rusting out... but then, if your welsh plugs are rusting through, they're going to be the least of your worries in six months lol

[nstone63]

the mechanic is assuming there's a buildup of sludge on top of the welsh plugs which is preventing them from rusting out

exactly.. not sure what the best plan is..

but then, if your welsh plugs are rusting through, they're going to be the least of your worries in six months lol

haha yeah, I'm waiting for that.. it's gonna suck pretty bad

[Morton]

Look at it this way - it's an old car. Does it overheat? If so, flush the cooling system and deal with the consequences later. If it doesn't overheat, leave it be.

[wortus]

If the radiator itself is blocked and needs a chemical flush take it out and try to flush it off the car or just get a new one. As far as the rest of the motor goes flush it with clean water, remove a heater hose from the engine end and flush back through that and then keep it topped up withthe correct type and concentration of coolant and the corrosion if any should stop. If it's an early VN with a surge tank check the small pipes from the inlet manifold that go into the top of the surge tank they block up with crud.

I changed the water pump on my VN and i had alwas maintained the coolant yet the alloy behind the pump was corroded, maybe the previous owner let the coolant expire? I just cleaned it as best I could and put it back together with new coolant and there was never any trouble.

[Benboy]

Re the Welsh Plugs. I had a VN manufactured in April 1990. The plugs had coolant weeping out at about 40,000 km (18 months old). Holden had to do a recall and replace the welsh plugs on cars of that vintage because thay had used the wrong coolant. Apparently caused premature failure of the plugs. They were replaced by Holden with Stainless Steel units. If your plugs are original, I suggest that you make a point of replacing them. A big job and will cost you if a workshop does the job, HOWEVER, if they should fail wilst driving and you dump all of your coolant, you will have an even bigger expense. With the VN you should be using Tectaloy V Plus or equivilant GM Specification coolant. To do otherwise means you risk a chemical reaction in the cooling system that can cause components to fail. Tectaloy VPlus

[nstone63]

I was looking at it on the weekend, they look like they could be stainless steel.. but I don't want to be wrong and flush it out.. (i'm flat broke at the moment..) any way to check?

I'm absolutely certain that I should use Tectaloy VPlus, unfortunately I'm also certain that it's not it there at the moment.. = flush

[Morton]

I suggest you just flush the bastard out, and then go grab some V-Protector coolant from your local parts supplier. You can buy several different brands of radiator flush - I think they're all basically the same, I've noticed no difference in product performance between brands. It basically dissolves the calcium deposits and lets you dump them out.