engine coolant flush/clean

Anyone cleaned their cooling system?
I have read about using citric acid, vinager, hot water heater cleaner...all to remove lime, scale, rust, etc to improve cooling
No one seems to think Prestone radiator flush does much good!

 

Can't speak for prestone but make sure you read the label and make sure it is compatible with you cooling system. Also when you refill the system use either RO or distilled water but never tap.

 

I might rethink doing this yourself or better yet...if it ain't broke...don't fix it. I've been working on cars as a hobby for 45 years and if you'll read the threads I have never seen so much hoopla over a simple thing. The bad news is if done incorrectly...worst case scenario...you could burn up your engine. Either have a pro do it or don't do it at all if you're not experienced...opens a whole can of worms that you can read about ad nauseum on thus forum

 

bingo
all manner of debris could be dislodged and damage the impeller in the water pump or foul the thermostat or a hundred other niggling problems

 

I agree with the last 2. If it is dirty enough to need it the debris will just clog the passages in the radiator and heater cores.

Regular changes with the water sources mentioned and Zerex G05 is the best thing you can do.

 

With a friend I flushed the coolant system on my GT4 back end of last year. We used a commercial radiator cleaning fluid (I could probably find what we used but as in UK might not be same brand for other countries).

I doubt this had been done on my car for 20 years and the amount of rubbish that came out was incredible. We did two flushes with the fluid then a further flush with pure water (reverse osmosis) before refilling the system with pure water, blue antifreeze and water wetter.

Have now driven 500 miles since then and all is fine.

 

Zerex sounds familiar for what I used