Honda Car Forum

Can ordinary coolant-system scale remover be used in an aluminum engine
during a drain & flush?

Abeness wrote:
> Can ordinary coolant-system scale remover be used in an aluminum engine
> during a drain & flush?

on a commercial basis? sure. my personal honda? no.

the chemicals in the remover, unless scale is removed to the extent that
all the metal in the system is bright & shiny, are going to be retained
to some extent in any residual scale. that will leave a high ion
content and therefore substantial propensity to corrode. on a
commercial basis, with good testing & ability to absorb failures, it'll
work. for a one-off car, with uncertain status of the system going in,
and uncertain execution of neutralization & flushing processes, i'd
leave it alone. if you're over-heating, service the usual suspects &
consider a new radiator if it's badly scaled.

jim beam wrote:
> on a commercial basis? sure. my personal honda? no.
<snip>
> leave it alone. if you're over-heating, service the usual suspects &
> consider a new radiator if it's badly scaled.

Okeedok, jim, thanks for the opinion. I *was* overheating, but only cuz
of a stuck thermostat, apparently. I'll just flush it with water, then.

Abeness wrote:
> jim beam wrote:
>
>> on a commercial basis? sure. my personal honda? no.
>
> <snip>
>
>> leave it alone. if you're over-heating, service the usual suspects &
>> consider a new radiator if it's badly scaled.
>
>
> Okeedok, jim, thanks for the opinion. I *was* overheating, but only cuz
> of a stuck thermostat, apparently. I'll just flush it with water, then.

if you can. when you've finshed flushing with water, run some distilled
water through it as well. it's the mineral content of tap water that
causes a lot of cooling system corrosion.

jim beam wrote:
> Abeness wrote:
>
>> Okeedok, jim, thanks for the opinion. I *was* overheating, but only
>> cuz of a stuck thermostat, apparently. I'll just flush it with water,
>> then.
>
>
> if you can.

Have to. No idea what kind of nasty-lloking green stuff is in there now.

> when you've finshed flushing with water, run some distilled
> water through it as well. it's the mineral content of tap water that
> causes a lot of cooling system corrosion.

Good point. I had planned on simply leaving the few drops remaining
after the flush, but maybe this is a good idea. Certainly not much of a
bother given that the system holds only a gallon, as compared with my
last, a real beast that took some 4 gallons.