[s-cars] Gelling coolant

[Tom Green]

I'll have to defer to Dave Dawson on the details, but, you have the  
right idea,
and the Finish should be fine. This is dishwasher detergent, not the  
dishwashing
detergent for hand-washing dishes.
  I suggest about a half cup or two times the normal dishwasher  
amount.  Drain the
coolant first and refill with water and add the Finish.
You don't want to operate the car, just run the engine until it gets  
up to temperature,
then about 15 to 20 minutes at idle to let the cleaners work in the  
system including
the heater.  Then drain and refill with water, bring to temperature,  
drain and repeat
until the coolant water is perfectly clear.  It may take several  
times to remove all the old
coolant and the dishwasher detergent.   Even the low sudsing  
dishwasher detergent
can foam some, so it is important to completely flush all traces from  
the cooling system
or a slight amount of foam can cause an air block in the system and a  
localized over-
heating can occur.  Who knows if it is compatible with coolant?
I suspect those fleet maintenance guys have a power flushing machine  
to expedite
this process.
It is a good practice to use de-mineralized (soft) water for the make- 
up portion of the
coolant.

Tom

> Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:25:05 +0000
> From: " G?sli ?ttarsson " <gislio at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [s-cars] Gelling coolant
> To: "djdawson2 at aol.com" <djdawson2 at aol.com>
> Cc: s-car-list at audifans.com
> Message-ID:
> 	<22d42dd20704161225x2be3e7c3tcb58e80faae8951a at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Calgon?  I have not seen this particular brand, locally.  Will  
> something
> else do the trick?  Finish? http://www.finish.co.uk/faq.shtml
>
> Then, what is the drill?  Do I just add a bunch to the expansion  
> tank?   How
> much?  A tablespoon?  A cup?  Dissolve in water, I presume (Finish  
> is a
> powder)?  How long do I run this?  1 day?
>
> Thanks
>
>   Gisli
>
>
> On 4/16/07, djdawson2 at aol.com <djdawson2 at aol.com> wrote:
>>
>> You may want to scale back from a chemically assisted flush to a  
>> detergent
>> assisted flush.  In the fleet maintenance industry, one of the  
>> favorite
>> flush agents is actually Calgon dishwashing detergent.  It will  
>> thoroughlyclean and break up hard water scale deposits... and it  
>> will not potentially
>> damage seals or cause harm to engines that use several metals in  
>> their
>> assemblies.
>>
>> FWIW,
>> Dave