Brown sludge in radiator of my 1988 G
Hello fellow G owners- some advice please.
A couple of days ago I notice light brown sludge in my G’s radiator and following a relatively long drive (about 400 miles) the level of coolant dropped a little bit so maybe a small leak somewhere? So some concern as I think that maybe some oil is leaking into the coolant so possibly head gasket problem or is it just the radiator which is old and needs a good flush?
BTW the temperature gauge even on a long drive stays around 12 so no overheating but if the rad is full of sludge maybe it would be worth cleaning changing the thermostat? And should I be thinking of cleaning the water pump? Any thoughts suggestions and advice will be gratefully received.
Thanks guys. H
You need to FLUSH the entire cooling circuit.
You need to start out with Dawn dish washing soap or similar to De-Oil he system.
Then, you will need to use Mercedes Citric Acid Powder that you DISSOLVE in water prior to adding to the cooling system.
Benzworld had more information on this procedure. It is lengthy. It will require multiple fills/flushes.
I will dwell on this subject a little latter but to those in a similar situation when draining the sludge from the engine; you have a responsibility to legally dispose of this waste. This does mean, you can not dispose into drains. This waste has to go to a licensed disposal site; most convenient is to ask a garage to take the load, it might be they ask you to pay a charge for it as they have to pay as well.
Draining in the public system carriers a hefty fine running in the thousands.
Hello and thank you, belatedly for your comments and apologies for not doing so sooner. Good tip about the spanners will certainly use it. when you flushed your system did you remove any hoses and what about the thermostat; did you have to remove it? Regards. Henry
Lads:
For this situation, mercedes makes a Citric Acid Powder to clean the cooling system. They also have a very elaborate procedure for removing scale from the radiator, etc...
You all need to read into that. The Benzworld forum has some technical manual postings regarding how to do it for various engines. Not sure what engine your G has as you never specified.
If there is scale in the cooling system, just flushing with a hose will not help you.
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Hello and thank you for getting back to me. Apologies for possibly not acknowledging your reply, I thought I had but past few weeks have been hectic. In any event thank you for your comments and will certainly give the Dawn dish washing soap a try followed by the citric acid.
As you suggested I have looked at the Benzworld for info on process but could not find it. Probably looking in the wrong place. If you have a few seconds and if you can could you please outline the process for instance how much and how many flushes would I need to do with the Dawn soap and also the mix you used and also what mix/volume for the citric acid and how long should I keep the latter in the system before final flush?
Finally did the flushing work for your system? Henry