Should he put baking soda in water to neutralize vinegar, then flush that with water, then add distiller h2o plus antifreeze? I know parts cleaned with vinegar flash real fast.

I am pretty sure I got everything out vinegar wise...Filled up two more times with the tap and let it drain then did a manual force feed on each side when I took off the pump housing. I even flushed the heater core with pressurized tap water.

Here is the kicker. I poured in one gallon of Prestone, one gallon of distilled. I pour the other half gallon of coolant....and thats all she takes. I get her up to temp, put on the cap. water starts flowing, mixing....I add another half gallon of water...The end. thats all she takes.

I check the pH and it says 6.3 Thats odd...I should be at 9.5-10

I check the distilled water by itself...I get a reading of 5.5

I check the Prestone by itself and I get a reading of 9.

How am I supposed to get a reading of higher than 9.0 if the coolant itself is 9.0 MAX.

I think this Prestone they are selling is watered down. I bought 4 gallons from Pep Boys 3 months ago.

I am going to order pure Glycol now from a local guy and measure it. It's used on boiler/solar panel heating systems...it HAS to be the same.

On a bright note...even with how it is now...she was idling the whole time at 175ºF

Something is fishy with this water pH though....

water sitting out eventually becomes acidic.
co2 gets absorbed and it becomes carbonic acid.

so if the cap was off, or not sealed, the ph will be pretty low like you found.
also your meter/whatever might be a bit off.

the water you opened to test 3 months ago read 7.2 and is now 5.5?

no...

I wasn't clear...

the coolant mixture was 7.2pH 3 months ago

the pure glycol Prestone today is 9 straight from a sealed container

the distilled water from the sealed container is 5.5

Which is funny... the water or the PH test meter? Seriously, the test could be off. There could be residual vinegar in the engine but shouldn't be any in the water bottle.

My calculation is that you added only some 9 quarts of a combination of anti freeze and water. Don't know what your cooling system holds, but certainly more than this,,,like 16 quarts or more.

If so that leaves some 7 plus quarts not accounted for,,,,likely residual water mixed with vinegar,,,h**l only knows what your pf level should be by now, but certainly not what your calculations suggest it should be. Vinegar being highly acidic and all!

Have you ever opened up your block petcocks?

I would be highly suspicious that your cooling system still contains a certain level of old gunked up coolant also.

All in all the reason that I have always relied on the Prestone reverse flush system.

I couldn't loosen the petcock on the block...i guess 14 yrs of corrosion has led to this. I had the vinegar in there....full up....i drained it....i filled it up twice more with tap water.....drained each time..Threw the system flush in the radiator...topped up....got to temperature 180ºF + another 20 minutes to cycle it....let it sit there for 12 hours...drained...flushed block twice again with tap water...removed the water pump...flushed each side with tap again plus the heater core.

On a bright note, my temp doesnt break 180º.

I am going to call my buddy tomorrow and have him get me the military grade Glycol that his friend sells to them. They use them in diesel trucks for the Army....I am going to drain the system again on Monday. I'll cry over the loss of one bottle of Prestone and the 8000 mile trip it made. I'll get my folks to bring me a Prestone backflush kit and put it in line with my heater hose. No other choice at this point....I have like 4 more Prestone Radiator flushes...I'll toss one more in there and drive the car around....and purge the block one more time...

Small price to pay to keep my aluminum components intact

As a suggestion after a full flush, 1)hook the garden hose up to the water neck (no tstat) and let her run for a while. Compressed air is nice but not essential. Get it really well flushed 2) Drain block as best you can. 3) Assemble 4) Add the correct amount of 100% antifreeze first. As posted above, a 16 qt system would take 2 gallons of 100% antifreeze 5) Top off with water. 6) Run it to mix well.

Doing it this way gets enough antifreeze in even if there is water left in the block... which there always is. I have always had good luck with Prestone extended life antifreeze or similar.

Instead of the T-Neck (I have read that the cap can crack due to high under hood temps) Can I use this contraption? Pop out the thermostat. Connect tap water hose to the rear, connect line air pressure regulated at 20psi on the bottom?



Cooling System Blaster

That should work. Mine is homemade to go from female hose thread to 1 1/2" PVC which is a good fit for the top hose.

Scott Smith has mentioned a couple times that you can fill the cooling system with EvapoRust. Run the engine up to operating temp and shut if off. Let it sit over night and then flush.

My only concern is getting all of the EvapoRust back out of the system. The block drain plugs would definitely need to be removed. I know on the SB engines, they are right behind the engine mounts and a PITA to get to.