Clean outside of coolant radiator?

[Paul Higg]

Does anyone know the best way to clean debris from the radiator on a 94 LT1? The forward radiator looks to be the air conditioning radiator and the aft one is the coolant one. If I look in at the radiator with a flashlight from the passenger side through the slot shaped hole I can see a bunch of pine straw, straw, and other debris right where the fan is on the back of it.

I can fit a shop vac tube in there but it only goes so far. I was thinking about maybe using a half round file and gently filing the fiberglass housing just a smidge to allow the other tube access and then I can vacuum the entire radiator, gently, very gently. There does not seem to be any way to get at the radiator from below, the top, or the driver's side.

Any other ideas?

 

[Hib Halverson]

To properly clean the cooling stack, you have to remove the top part of the shroud.

I use a combination of shop air, shop vac and water pressure to fully clean that area.

 

[Paul Higg]

Thanks Hib, now this sounds like a lot of fun. Not.

Time to look in the FSM on how to do remove it right I guess.

 

[ken mohr]

I pulled the radiator out on my 89. Wasn't that hard and had the radiator checked while out. I could see only a small amount of debris but got a ton out of there. I had flushed with water and air before and thought it was fairly clean. Filled a 5 gal bucket 3/4 full compacted by hand.

 

[Paul Higg]

Sheesh! I don't really want to pull it out but that's a LOT of debris.

 

[Baldie88]

I did mine last fall. Check out this link for more information: http://www.batee.com/corvette/dcrg/readerstips/larsstuff/this_tech_paper_will_discuss_sim3.htm.

I did the "bubba" method and didn't disconnect the hoses because I had just flushed the radiator and put in new antifreeze a couple months prior. I ended up taking the top cover off and just pushing back the radiator a little so I could see down the front of it. Anyway what I ended up doing was to take a cardboard core from a paper towel roll and tape it to the end of my shop vac. This allowed me to get between the radiator and condenser. Found several packs of cigarettes, a luggage tag and about half an elm tree . Wasn't a bad job and only took about an hour.

Good luck.

Ron
"Baldie88"

 

[Paul Higg]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Several packs of cigarettes, and half an elf tree!

HAHAHAHAAAHAHHAA

I was rolling when I read that. I love it. That's about what I have too. I counted three butts, saw some bark, plenty of pine straw and a lot of regular straw. That's a good idea about the paper towel holder, I will do just that.

Good post Ron, you made me laugh.

 

[JAKE]

I used the high pressure wand at the local car wash to clean mine and my son's (both 96s). I shot from the engine compartment toward the nose of the car.

To get to the A/C condensor (er?) I stuck the want between the radiator and condersor. Soap first, then water.

It did a great job and no disconnecting "this' or removing "that". Worked for me.

Jake

 

[bczee]

If only I could get my vette in the house and drive around inside.. these make a great vacuum cleaner ! .. they suck everything up ! LOL

 

[Paul Higg]

Jake, that is a good idea, and as for your idea bczee, HAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAA, another good one. They do seem like low slung vacuum cleaners.

 

[Paul Higg]

Jake, exactly how do you do this? Shooting directly from the engine compartment? Do you somehow manage to get underneath and shoot through the plastic fan? Can you give a little better description?

Thanks.

Paul

 

[Toms007]

Paul, this was one of the first things I did after I bought mine. It was running a little warm when I would get into stop and go traffic, so I started doing some investigating. I had a little garbage in between the AC condenser and radiator, not knowing for sure when the last time the antifreeze had been changed I decided to remove the radiator and clean thoroughly between there. What I found was that the radiator (before taking it out) "looked" pretty clean, however upon removal I found the front was 2/3 embedded with what looked like cottonwood tree "cotton". I was glad that I took it out and sprayed it with a cleaner and reverse sprayed out all the gunk. While the radiator was out, I reverse flushed the AC condenser (it gave me enough room there to do it without the radiator being there). The result was a much cooler running engine in the stop and go traffic.

The only bit of advice that I would add here is if you don't own a set of those "gearwrench" combination wrenches, get a set. There are several little screws that these wrenches make your life so much easier, that they will pay for themselves the first time you use them. Particularly the 6 (IIRC) 7mm screws between the frame rails and the radiator shroud. They are a PITA to get to otherwise.

 

[Toms007]

Paul and others who might be interested, this is the write up I did after I did the radiator removal and cleaning. The procedure is pretty long (to read) but I think it covers the subject reasonably well.

Radiator Removal

1. Disconnect Battery. I just took off the negative post.
2. Remove Air Filter Assembly. 2 outside bolts on filter housing (thumb screws) and loosen clamp on TB (straight screwdriver). There are three sensor connections on my 94, one way up front on the air filter housing, 1 on the MAF and one closer to the TB. Unplug all three.
3. Remove Horn on driver’s side. Just the one connecter there. (12mm socket)
4. Remove Air Pump. I just took off the three rubber mounted bolts from the bracket. Don’t do it that way, you have to go back and remove the bracket anyway to get to three little screws later, so just take bracket and all. This consists of two additional bolts (10mm) in bracket. The third bolt for the bracket is the one holding on the horn.
5. Remove Headlight relays (I think that’s what they are) mounted on the drivers side of the shroud (2, 10mm bolts). I just carefully laid it back out of the way so I didn’t have to unplug the connectors.
6. Move to passenger side. Remove Coolant recovery tank. One small hose (straight screwdriver), 2, 10mm bolts (w/large washers attached) to frame, and 1, 10mm bolt through the inner fender.
7. Remove passenger side horn. (12mm bolt), one connector.
8. Disconnect small hose on radiator (from fill tank) straight screwdriver.
9. Remove AC dryer bracket bolts from shroud (10mm bolts, 2) and I also removed the 10mm bolt that holds the dryer to the bracket, it gave me a bit more slack when I was removing the shroud later on.
10. I also removed the screw (10mm) that holds one of the AC coolant lines for the same reason. This screw was down on the cross member frame right in front of the engine. Again this was to give me a little more slack when removing the shroud later.
11. Remove the 6 screws that mount the fan to the shroud (10mm). 3 at the top and 3 on the bottom. Lay the fans back a little way to clear the shroud.
12. Remove the bolts from the shroud. On the drivers side there are 3 little (7mm) screws that are down on the front under the frame rail. A 7mm nut driver works great on the bottom 2 the top one is a pain, I was able to loosen it enough with an open-end wrench and then screw it out with my fingers. (I have big hands, so it can be done, not easy but it can be done). There is also two 12mm or 13mm bolts that go through the shroud into the top of the frame rail, and one 10mm nut that must be removed from the top of the frame rail. On the passenger side there are the same three little 7mm screws, handle the same as the driver side. There are two 10mm nuts on the top of the frame rail and one 12mm or 13mm bolt.
13. At this point I drained the radiator. The pet cock on mine opened without any problem. I used an eight quart drain pan to catch the coolant (well sort of caught most of it).
14. Next I removed the radiator hoses, first the bottom hose (passenger side) more coolant will run out (missed most of it). Then the upper hose (drivers side), more coolant, more mess because I missed it too.
15. While I was doing this I had decided to change the hoses out. My 94 has the upper hose in two pieces connected with a brass “T” with a smaller hose running from the “T” to the TB. I replaced that hose as well. The lower hose was a 1 piece unit. I replaced them with genuine GM parts, bought them from Chris May @ Superior Chevy in Kansas City, 1-800-728 8267. The total for all four hoses and shipping was less than $70. You would have a hard time beating that price, just tell Chris you a Corvette forum member and you’ll get a discount. The biggest problem I had was taking off the OEM clamp from that small hose under the TB. It took me about 45 minutes, just couldn’t get to it from any angle. (when you put it back on, buy a screw type clamp and save yourself some headaches)
16. The next thing I did, (which if you have a standard transmission skip to the next step) was remove the automatic transmission cooling lines. A flare nut wrench is best here, but I didn’t have one so I carefully used a 12mm (I think) open end wrench. More mess as I didn’t catch the transmission fluid that ran out.
17. Next is the shroud removal. Carefully lift from the driver’s side first. Raise it up past the hood hinge (kind of a pain), and then you can work it up past the AC lines that go to the condenser.
18. Once the shroud is off, the radiator can be removed. Note how much junk is in between the radiator and the condenser and how much junk is embedded into the front of the radiator. Clean the front of the radiator, if you use a high pressure hose (either water or air) be careful. High pressure stream can bend the fins over, reducing the cooling capacity of the radiator. Once I had the junk cleaned out I spent about 30 minutes straightening the fins that were bent over using a small flat blade screwdriver.
19. I took this opportunity to clean the front of the engine compartment in front of the fans really well. Vacuuming out all the junk and the front of the condenser as well.
20. Reverse the procedure for putting it all back together.

As a note here it took me about 4 hours to get to this point. I could do it much quicker the next time. I would estimate about half the time.

 

[Paul Higg]

Thanks for the step-by-step Tom. I am going to do just that as soon as I can take it out of service for a while. I have about a million little things that need to be done to it.

Paul