Cleaning coolant reservoir and hoses

USO... if u didn't already know... I'm swapping the engine in my 96... the old engine had the coolant leak and oil was leaking into the coolant and gummed up the overflow reservoir...

I've read before about someone using brake cleaner and cat litter... I'm gonna go the route of the course oil absorbant and engine cleaner.degreaser.... just throw it in there spray a generous amount of engine cleaner and shake it up... the oil sludge is pretty caked in there... you guys think this will work... providing I clean and wash it put well afterwards do u think it will cause any problems after... I'm also replacing the radiator btw.... I have to go this route because there are NONE of these at the junkyard..

And I also want to wash out the hoses... I will probably end up replacing a couple... but a lot are less than six months old.... so what do u guys think would be the best way to go about cleaning them when I take them off? I don't want to do anything that will soak into the rubber and slowly leak into my coolant system...

Would a dunk in boiling or near boiling water with a mild detergent like dawn and a long scrubber like a baby bottle brush work? I just really don't want to replace them since they are so new.. its just the dumbass before I got the car decided to bandaid things instead of sol vin the problem which were the gaskets....

I just need some other opinions...

if you use a dish setergent like Dawn and hot water and let it soak a bit the caked in oil sludge should come out, and should eliminate the need for the engine cleaner in the coolant reservoir. When I cleaned mine (they just get cruddy after years of use) I used a wire wheel cleaning brush, looks kinda like a tail, here's one (LINK)

Because that sludge is an emulsion of oil and antifreeze it won't be *that* tough to get out.

Albertj

Cool... thanks... it just looks really bad. I thought because it was oil too it would make it like tar sludge... what about the hoses.. will dawn clean those out OK too? Or thould I just use blue shop towels and just wipe them out real good... I just don't want ANY oil in there...

I guess ill just use dawn... ill still use the absorbant... I know the abrasiveness will help and speed up the process.

Seriously. Cleaning the reservoir, a bit of soap and non-clumping cat litter. Put it in, and shake the snot out of it. Rinse it out and it will be clean as brand new.

Karma wrote:

Seriously. Cleaning the reservoir, a bit of soap and non-clumping cat litter. Put it in, and shake the snot out of it. Rinse it out and it will be clean as brand new.

Yep. works like a charm. i think i did a write-up on this at some point.

write up here:
https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t6724-clean-up-that-dirty-coolant-reservoir?highlight=coolant+resovoir