Rust in Engine

[Vanquish]

About a month ago I had made a post talking about how my car had sat for 2 years and I went to drain the radiator as the starting of getting my 3.8 Bird running again. Well when I drained the radiator it was clumped with rust, lots of it.

Well, upon tearing down the engine and seeing what is going to need to be replaced, I removed the water pump only to find a lot of rust just sitting back there, so I'm thinking that it's all over the place on the internals and now I'm just plain worried about the level of health my engine is in.

What all should I remove/replace to get rid of all this rust?

What does everyone else do to get rid of rust inside their engines(if it ever gets there)?

Basically, what are my options so that I can let the wife know how much money I'm spending.

[hockeyman]

Re: Rust in Engine

Not rust, it's the byproduct of Dexcool. I changed my coolant to green a while back because of the brown sludge that the dexcool was creating. Do a search in the General Tech section to see how many of us had switched already. You'll have to flush the engine quite a few times in order to get most of that crap out of the engine.

[Vanquish]

Re: Rust in Engine

That's just it though, I've never had Dex-Cool in it for as long as I've owned the car(3-4 years). And you have to realize that plain water has been sitting in it for a little over 2 years while it sat there to rot away when I couldn't drive it and planned on selling it as junk(due to the fact I thought I would never be able to drive a manual again). I will try a few good flushes and hopefully that will work.

Would anyone agree with me to tear it down and just have fun cleaning everything by hand, and possibly replacing parts that need changing or just replacing parts for performance/aftermarket parts that will help my road to more HP.

Is there anything that super flushes the system that maybe isn't made for radiator flushing? Like, has anyone ever drained their oil and filled it with diesel and let it sit there for 30 minutes and then drained it to clean out their oil pan and stuff? I was thinking about using something that isn't made for flushing, but will get rid of that buildup and other stuff just fine.

[hockeyman]

Re: Rust in Engine

Tearing down an engine, cleaning it, then reassembling it is ALWAYS better than using a one-time cleaner, but it's alot more expensive and time consuming. If you have the know how, funds, time and ability to tear the motor down, by all means...do so! Rebuild it with some potent parts while you're at it.

As for the coolant;
I used a radiator flush from prestone. This past summer, I actually bought 2 containers of it and flushed the system out over a period of a week. I would pour the cleaner directly into the rad, drive it for a few days, drain, then refill with green 50/50 cooland, add another container of cleaner, and drive another few days again. Flushed the rad two times afterwards, and I THINK I got all of the brown muck out of the internals. If not...f-it! The engine is not running hot or abnormally, so I'm done with the coolant.

[Vanquish]

Re: Rust in Engine

Well, I know right before I stopped driving it last time, I ended up riding without a thermostat because I was tired of changing them. Back then, before it sat, it had enough gunk in there to keep clogging thermostats to where they wouldn't even open. :( Yeah, it's pathetic.

I'm going to tear down as much of the engine as I feel safe, and comfortable doing. I have more than enough time on my hands, so the time consuming isn't a problem. I am no longer able to work, so all I do is sit at home all day and play video games and help people out on here.

Hopefully, with all the forum members know how, and my elbow grease, we can get this engine torn apart and rebuilt safely and correctly. Wish me luck.................

[CDNFB]

Re: Rust in Engine

Whoa! Hold the phone here!

Your going to tear down your engine only because of that?:eek:

You do have too much time on your hands!

If I was in the same situation as you, I would first take it to get a good cooling system flush. That will clean out sludge, mineral deposits, and rust, not only from the engine but also from the heater core and any collections in the hoses. Then I would re-evaluate how the cooling system works after that.

[Vanquish]

Re: Rust in Engine

Well, I'm cleaning debris that is wedged between parts as well. And just making sure everything is in safe shape that way I don't have to take everything apart down the road a little when something small goes out.

The debris(grass, dirt, wasps nests, etc.) came from sitting on side of a garage for 2 years, uncovered and undergoing Hurricane Katrina. That storm somehow managed to blow things under my hood and stick debris in the oddest locations. Heck I dislodged a stick from a crevice under the hood yesterday that was thicker than the space it was in. The wind pushed it so hard in there it shaved the stick down to size where it was lodged in there. 150 mph wind is awesome to play in, but I hate what it can do with debris.

[CDNFB]

Re: Rust in Engine

Have you taken anything apart yet? And can the engine start and run right now?

If you can run the engine, flush it yourself (buy some prestone coolant flush, or similar) first, then do the tear down. Might make the job a bit easier.

[Vanquish]

Re: Rust in Engine

I need a new battery, and I've already started disassembling, but not enough that wouldn't take an hour or two to put back on.

Things that have been removed from under the hood:
Radiator (and all hoses that run to the radiator)
Cooling Fans
Air Intake (completely)
TB
Altenator
Water Pump

I think that's it from the removal side of things. I'm scared to start it up though, for fear of hurting it even more.

I never put any fuel stabilizer in the vehicle before I let it sit for a little over 2 years, what should I do about the 3 quarters of a tank of gas that's in it? Is it possible I will have to install a new fuel pump?

Also, would it be safe to spray coolant flush straight into where the thermostat is and the water pump with them removed of course? So, I would be shooting it straight into there instead of going through the radiator, because I'm replacing all the radiator hoses as it is, so no since in cleaning the old ones or causing more rust/dirt to be moving around in the cooling system that originated from the hoses.

[Moses]

Re: Rust in Engine

I'd pull the gas tank, seeing how it usually takes 6 months for a few gallons of gas to completely breakdown.

Also, there's these things called Microbes. They live in gasoline, little bacteria. When they die, they actually leave " corpses " and if you pull the tank, it will smell bad I'm sure...because like all "corpses" they decay...that's where the "bad gas" smell comes from.