I have a rebuilt 289 engine 0.060 over stock bore, it worked well for about 10 months after being rebuilt, then on the very first cold day of this winter it began to overheat. It's taken me a bit of time and a money to figure out what the real problem was. This engine has a LOT of RUST and lots of scaling comming from the water passages on the block and perhapps the cylinder heads, big chunks of rusting metal that accumulate on the upper tank of the radiator.
To try to solve this problem I have back-flushed the engine 4 times this month, and A LOT of rust and small pieces of rusted metal came out. Today also installed a bigger 4-ROW HI-FLO radiator and a GANO rad-filter. Well the engine is running very cool now at 160 degrees but...
I know the overheating and clogging of the radiator will soon come back to hunt me again. Perhapps within 3 to 6 months I will have to have the radiator rodded-out again!
in the meantime I will clean of the filter once a week and flush the engine once a month.
What I want to ask ALL OF YOU is: Is there a way to CLEAN OFF, remove for good most if not all of the rust and scaling from the water passages in the block itself and the cylinder heads?
Can a mandrel too with the flexible shaft be used to sucessfully remove all or most of this rust and scaling?
Does anybody know of a better way?
Thank you very much
Gilbert Loza
GilLoza54@aol.com