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Hi Guys,
Something I forgot to mention. Another way of
inhibiting the internal water galleries of an engine that is to be left for
considerable periods of time, is to use machinist's soluable oil (you
know, the milky coolant stuff you see on lathes and mills). In daze
of old when knights were bold, (and back when blokes wore hats),
soluable oil was "The G-O" to prevent corrosion in cooling
systems.
It's only foible was that it would soften rubber
hoses after a while, so you had to change them on a regular basis,
otherwise disaster would strike (usually on a hot day going up a hill) as
surely as Granny Smith Apples are green. But it certainly prevented the
formation of that turbid orange/brown slurry in radiators and blocks that
often masquerades as cooling fluid!!
One of my mentors, Ray, was fanatical
about lubricants and maintenence - he was, at the time, Maintenence
Superintendent for a sugar refining company. He was responsible for
looking after all the bulk handling cranes, front end loaders, and
all the bulk handling & delivery trucks. One of Ray's cars
was an absolutely immaculate black '37 Dodge, and when he finally
overhauled the engine after some 300,000 + miles and 35 years, (the crank
case breather was getting a bit fumey), the cooling passages and the rad
core, thanks to the soluable oil and regular flushing, were as clean
as my cat's whiskers.
This (soluable oil - not the cat's
whiskers) will have the same effect as the soap solution (but it doesn't
froth!!). Both exclude air from the metal surfaces to inhibit
oxidation and galvanic corrosion. As the water evaporates from the
passages, it leaves a thin film of the oil itself. Where the water
cannot get out, it still does its trick like it does on machine
tools.
Cheers,
Leon
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