Tekforums
Chat => Sports, Hobbies & Motors => Topic started by: bear on April 22, 2006, 19:25:03 PM
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My friend has a 4-stroke dirtbike with watercooling. The channels in the radiors (one on each side) is clogged with some sort of green oxide.
Does anyone know something that can disolve it ? He has tried oxalic acid.
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There are plenty of generic radiator flushes available - Id give one of them a go
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Is the clogging on the outside? If so, theres a leak in that radiator !
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There are plenty of generic radiator flushes available - Id give one of them a go
He has tried that of course. This oxide seems hard to solve.
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Is the clogging on the outside? If so, theres a leak in that radiator !
No on the inside !
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what about some of this rust eater stuff you can get ?
that should react with the oxygen in the oxide and then you can just flush it out ?
carefull tho, some of these rust eaters leave a solid lump, where you want a goo left ;)
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Dont forget that the green oxide has to come from somewhere. Could mean some nasty damage.
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green normally means copper, tho copper oxide is blue.... not sure where/why it goes green, its normally caused by weathering :dunno:
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The radiator is aluminium but the cylinders has magnesium in them(to save weight), a bit to much it reacts badly with water so he had some leeks so he just leek stoppers two different kinds so the oxide (the light green stuff clogging his radiators) is a mixture of all that :)
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green normally means copper, tho copper oxide is blue.... not sure where/why it goes green, its normally caused by weathering :dunno:
Copper oxide is green, copper carbonate is blue iirc from a level chemistry :)
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The radiator is aluminium but the cylinders has magnesium in them, a bit to much it reacts badly with water so he had some leeks so he just leek stoppers two different kinds so the oxide (the light green stuff clogging his radiators) is a mixture of all that :)
lol tbh... buy a new one :)
Then you can have fun watching the magnesium go PPPPOOOOFFF!! when you throw the radiator on an open fire. :D
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problem is that the radiators are very expensive around 250 GBP
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this might sound silly but have you tryed taking the rad off and filling it with vinegar?.
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They are taken off and he is looking to buy pure oxalic acid
what he used was a bit diluted, I will tell him to try vinegar.
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cool. vinigar is quite good at removing most oxides/mineral build up etc.
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tbh... if your using vinegar.
Careful :) it may only be weak acetic (ethanoic) acid but I remember doing experiments with that stuff in school at GCSE. It will eat the magnesium.
Make sure you swill any solution out well afterwards with water. :)
Oxalic acid is the bigger brother of acetic acid basically. Two -OH groups as opposed to acetics one.
Its more reactive, and if its concentrated stuff and not diluted expect it to eat away the magnesium in a shorter time :) Careful with it! :P
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Well the magnisium is in the cylinders and was added to lessen the weigt but they added a bit to much :) the rads are detached so I guess there will be no problem.
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Ahhhhh right :D lol I thought you said the radiator was made of magnesium or something lol! :D meh.. if its aluminum, its unlikely to be rust then :) like you said... probably the gunk! :)
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even though the cylenders are magnesium lined for a guess, the actual block its cooling and the channels the coolant run through will still most likely be cast aluminum.
whats had the leaks?
the engine or the rad?
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even though the cylenders are magnesium lined for a guess, the actual block its cooling and the channels the coolant run through will still most likely be cast aluminum.
whats had the leaks?
the engine or the rad?
The engine which is now fine everthing is in good shape now he is ready to go
except rads, he will put on couple of smaller ones for an similar 2 stroke untill
he gets these sorted.
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is it thick and hard ? or goo/goopy ?
steam cleaner / hose pipe / etc... would help it out a bit ;)
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steam cleaner would be good :)