Originally I had a problem with a leaking head gasket that has now turned into a much bigger problem because I elected to try a bottle of bars head gasket sealant. It did not fix the leak and now I have partially blocked the heater core. The cabin heat is only blowing hot out of 3/4 upper vents and taking a long time to reach temperature. I am installing a new engine in next week, any ideas on how best to flush out the entire coolant system? I don't want further problems down the line so I am open to disassembling the dash to remove the heater core completely, hook it up to a pressure washer to blow it out. I am just not sure of how to get access to it. As well I plan to clean out all the T's in the system the only 3 I can think of are the one at the coolant recovery bottle/pump, the 3 way valve next to the radiator, and the thermostat. Does that cover all of them? Basically I will be taking every hose apart and running a cleaning brush/flushing. And let this serve as a lesson to all of you thinking that head gasket in a bottle repair is ever a good idea...
Is that stuff PeptoBismol bright pink? I've watched a third gen head gasket repair video; the coolant passages had that appearance.
its a red color with a lot of floating bits in it, it didn't block the heater core until about a month later.
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Found this, maybe worth a try, Thoro-Flush: Amazon link, may need to turn off your adblock: They recommend to run with this stuff for only 15 minutes, then flush. One possible issue: you want this stuff flowing through the cabin heater core as much as possible, and that can be delayed until temp is is high enough. Maybe when mixing the product use hottest available tap water?
I worry about using something very strong like that, if I'm not able to flush it completely out it could lead to another head gasket failure down the road or ruin my water pump. Acidic coolant is the number one cause of head gasket failure, so I'm told. I think I'll try to find the inlet of the heater core and attach a pressure washer to it.
Maybe use motorized suction instead of pressure; I just had a dreadful thought: about what might happen if something blew or came loose under the dash. A shop vac capable of wet operation with reversible hoses to the suction side would be good.
High pressure will just blow the heater core out. You can try reverse flushing but I would stick to lower pressures, like what comes out of the hose and plenty of it. It’s probably clogging your radiator also so your going to need to clean that. Plus the thermos and electric water pumps. Someone was asking about that type of sealer lately, I remember saying to never use it. Shit always causes more problems than it fixes. Guess you can vouch for that.
