Orange sludge under radiator cap

[GTyankee]

Believe it or not ..

Most dealerships Dodge, Ford, GM, all use the Hunter Road Force Balance machine

HUNTER GSP9700 TIRE AND WHEEL BALANCER​

Most Chain Type Wheel & Tire stores, also use the same Hunter machine

But there is a BIG difference,
The Wheel & Tire stores, train some if not all of the shop employees how to run the machine properly, some actually go to Hunter's classes.

Dodge Dealerships, grab anyone that happens to have a free moment & tell them to Rotate & Balance the wheels & tires on such & such vehicle.
A Custodian or a car jockey that drives your vehicle back into the shop area, might be working on your wheels & using the Hunter Machine.
If a employee is Trained on a piece of equipment, they get a Certificate & should get a pay raise, usually dealerships rather not have training.


Just because a person has used a similar machine back when they were working at a gas station,does not mean that they know how to work a Hunter machine.

I took one set of wheels & tires to the dealership & they could not balance my tires.
What happened was the person working on my truck, kept ripping off the glue on weights & did not realize it

 

[Rome X]

Believe it or not ..

Most dealerships Dodge, Ford, GM, all use the Hunter Road Force Balance machine

Well, whatever they did/use, it had a very poor result. The tire place is offering to rebalance them, again, but now I'm soured on this tire whether its the tire or not. I told them I'd prefer to try a different tire which they will do, crediting my Cooper price against the Falkens they have to order, but if I do that "no matter what the result I'm stuck with it, no returns, exchanges, credits, rebalances, etc" if I'm not happy. I just want to be done and to drive my truck... lol

 

[TorqueWagon]

Hi all,

Just bought this truck recently, and the radiator fan is really loud, especially in 1st and 2nd gear, and anytime I'm coasting down hill especially.

I check the radiator overflow and its bone dry. I open the radiator cap and this is what I find...
From some basic research it looks like 2 incompatible coolants were mixed, making this rusty looking sludge?

I am brand new to doing anything on my own vehicles, but was thinking of trying to flush this out myself and replace with new coolant. Seems most people also replace the thermostat when they flush the radiator? Anyone willing to offer advice or have a good, reputable, video walkthrough for this process for a 2013 Ram 1500 v8? Would certainly appreciate it.

View attachment 529946

View attachment 529947

Wow, I wouldn't fool around with what might be a situation that could cause serious overheating and engine damage. Has your rig been overheating? If it were me I would take it to a professional RAIATOR shop and talk to some radiator specialists that are very experienced and ask them what to do. The main question of course is can this be cleaned and restored to reasonable efficiency or do you have to start replacing parts of the system. Talk to the experts first- the RADIATOR shop guys that do nothing but radiators! Don't go to the dealer.

 

[GTyankee]

I always use a Radiator Shop

If a dealership knows that there is a issue, they pull the radiator out & they send it to a radiator shop.

Same with a Auto Parts place, they have someone pull the radiator & they send the radiator out to a radiator shop.

Bypass the middleman, go directly to a radiator shop that has been around for years & work on Hot Rods & Classic vehicles, as well as new vehicles.
They can also get you discounts on radiators & associated parts

shops that i have used, nothing fancy, just good work

About Us - Kirk's Radiator

With years of experience, we perform repairs for many of the school districts and fire departments in the county, as well as Cal Trans, CDF, the County of San Diego and the cities of El Cajon, Santee and La Mesa. We work on many customs and exotics where radiators and air conditioning systems...

www.kirksradiator.com

 

[Marshall]

I love the detailed response. I also have no idea what you're talking about in this post lol. What is the firewall? Why would a brass pipe prevent water flow compared to a hose? Why would I then replace the curved pipe with straight pipe? The sum total of my working on cars is doing an oil change for reference. I'm happy to learn, but this went way over my head I admit.

When I buy a used truck, car, ( for grandkids now) I check the motor oil, transmission oil, and the rad. then look under for rust. If you don't know what a firewall is, I suggest you take it to the shop. I think you will be lucky if the heater and rad are not plugged.
I would think your fan clutch could be shot, can you turn it by hand when motor off, and cold?
You should be able to it will have resistance to it. If you don't know ,check on another truck ,car with the same set up.
My 2014 has electric fan drive , so it's different.
Hope you got it cheap, if you bought from a dealer, I will take it back and raise hell.
Down the road, it may need $ sound like it is not heating, you may be lucky.

There is a YouTube guy in New York, South Main Auto??I think. He has a garden hose rig with some compressor air to flush heaters forward and back ward, same type of thing as a sand blaster gun. He seems to like the way it works, a little shot of air helps to loosen stuff, I presume about 50lbs air, not sure on that part.

 

[Marshall]

Man my a$$ puckered,but i ordered the 4 bottles to try out in my 300,as i'm getting ready to put the winter 203 thermostat back in it soon. I sure hope you're right about this stuff Mike,as i'm walking around with my butt cheeks clamped shut now

Almost like trying to find primers for reloading.
Read the ad, No flushing??????? sound strange. Maybe I read too fast. I have the damn bug in my head the couple of days.

 

[Marshall]

I bought the RMI25 the hour you mentioned it. My issue is apparently this RAM had mixed coolants in it, so even if I used the RMI25, I wouldn't know what coolant to put in after the fact and for the life of the truck. A flush seemed to make sense to get a fresh-ish start. When I get it back, I will try this RMI25 on top of the flush and new OAT 10 year coolant they are going to put in. I don't have a shop vac to suck out the slime it puts in the tank, but perhaps a small hand pump to pump the liquid from the resivoir after driving with the RMI25 in would work to clean out the slimy fluid?

Just pull the hose off and run the crud on the ground. (that's the old redneck farmer speak)

 

[Wild one]

Almost like trying to find primers for reloading.
Read the ad, No flushing??????? sound strange. Maybe I read too fast. I have the damn bug in my head the couple of days.

I think they mean you can put it in the cooling system,with-out having to drain or flush the system before hand,at least that's the way i'm reading it.To get 32 oz's into the system,you are going to have to drain off some coolant,but if you just did the 8 oz treatment,you could probably get away with out having to drain any coolant .

 

[Marshall]

I had a new tire on the wife's Honda, they rotated it on the rim, and it helped, but they had a handful of weights on it so, made them put a new one on, if they wanted to get paid.
They tried, and talked to me bfore I paid for the new tires. You can get a bad one sometimes.
I had a 2010 with those plastic covers , never had a problem, But I stayed out of the mud with it as much as possible

I don't know if you could get mud under the shinny part, if so that could really bugger up a balance job.

 

[Dodge 1500 4X4]

There is a YouTube guy in New York, South Main Auto??I think. He has a garden hose rig with some compressor air to flush heaters forward and back ward, same type of thing as a sand blaster gun. He seems to like the way it works, a little shot of air helps to loosen stuff, I presume about 50lbs air, not sure on that part.

Eric is a true Mechanic he lives in my state but only works on local customers, watch his videos a true master in the automotive world!!! South Main Auto Repair LLC channel on YouTube.

 

[Dusty]

When I buy a used truck, car, ( for grandkids now) I check the motor oil, transmission oil, and the rad. then look under for rust. If you don't know what a firewall is, I suggest you take it to the shop. I think you will be lucky if the heater and rad are not plugged.
I would think your fan clutch could be shot, can you turn it by hand when motor off, and cold?
You should be able to it will have resistance to it. If you don't know ,check on another truck ,car with the same set up.
My 2014 has electric fan drive , so it's different.
Hope you got it cheap, if you bought from a dealer, I will take it back and raise hell.
Down the road, it may need $ sound like it is not heating, you may be lucky.

There is a YouTube guy in New York, South Main Auto??I think. He has a garden hose rig with some compressor air to flush heaters forward and back ward, same type of thing as a sand blaster gun. He seems to like the way it works, a little shot of air helps to loosen stuff, I presume about 50lbs air, not sure on that part.

That would be South Main Auto, Avoca, NY.

I worked in a radiator repair shop many years ago (1960s), and the garden hose with compressed air assist was the method they used then.

Regards,
Dusty
2019 Ram 1500 Billet Silver Laramie Quad Cab 2WD, 5.7 Hemi, 8HP75, 3.21 axle, 33-gallon fuel tank, 18” wheels. Build Date: 3 June 2018. Now at 100166 miles.

 

[David H]

I'm looking forward to checking mine in the morning when its cool and seeing how clean it looks right after their "triple flush"

How'd it look? Got a pic?

 

[Rome X]

How'd it look? Got a pic?

Thanks for the reminder, I didn't take a pic it was too dark outside at the time. Its at the tire shop now, I will snap one tomorrow morning and pop it on here. Also eagerly awaiting the RMI25 from amazon

 

[Rome X]

How'd it look? Got a pic?

Well, here it is. So theres clearly some contaminants still in the system, although its far better than it was when I first opened the cap. I have about 100 miles on the truck since the coolant flush and fill. I was told they filled it with Mopar 10 year OAT. if thats true, it went in purple, and what I'm seeing is still orange with some grainy-ness to the liquid under the radiator cap as seen here. I am still waiting on the RMI25 from amazon, about another week out apparently. Is the only way to deal with the residue the RMI25 creates in the overflow tank to buy a shopvac with a skinny hose connector? Is the reservoir something that can be manually pumped out with a little hand pump instead of buying a shop vac, something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XKHP8Q4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AI9RGHO50HBEJ&psc=1

 

[Burla]

Yeah, whatever works for pump.

Not real impressed with that "3" time flush job, sorry I have zero trust with anyone anyhow not to mention dealers. As stated, coolant doesnt have detergents, so assuming you use enough rmi 25 that should fix that. The issue is maybe you will want another flush after you clean it. But hey, it is all a learning process so go with the flow. You might want to drain a little from the petcock and put it in a clear glass just to gauge the situation. If you dont want to mess with petccpck, just remove one of those small hoses down low for a second while you take some out.

 

[Rome X]

Yeah, whatever works for pump.

Not real impressed with that "3" time flush job, sorry I have zero trust with anyone anyhow not to mention dealers. As stated, coolant doesnt have detergents, so assuming you use enough rmi 25 that should fix that. The issue is maybe you will want another flush after you clean it. But hey, it is all a learning process so go with the flow. You might want to drain a little from the petcock and put it in a clear glass just to gauge the situation. If you dont want to mess with petccpck, just remove one of those small hoses down low for a second while you take some out.

I dont trust anyone either, because I pretty much have disappointing service experiences from everything from cars, to medical, to contractors. So is a "petcock" the drain at the bottom of the radiator when I see people drain the whole radiator on videos? Would using that hand siphon pump from the overflow tank to pull some fluid into a glass also give me similar info?

 

[Hemi395]

Do you know if they drained the block during this "3 time" flush?

If it were me, I would do several radiator drain and fills to really flush that out....

 

[Rome X]

Do you know if they drained the block during this "3 time" flush?

If it were me, I would do several radiator drain and fills to really flush that out....

I don't know. How would I get the block to drain? Like if I drain the radiator and fill it, drive it around, drain and fill it... etc? Is there something I need to do, turn on, etc?

 

[Burla]

I dont trust anyone either, because I pretty much have disappointing service experiences from everything from cars, to medical, to contractors. So is a "petcock" the drain at the bottom of the radiator when I see people drain the whole radiator on videos? Would using that hand siphon pump from the overflow tank to pull some fluid into a glass also give me similar info?

I doubt you could drain that, I'm not sure you can even set up a siphon unless it was straw thick. Skip the petcock, just pop one of the small hoses. you want to take a sample from the bottom, really get a good idea of what we are dealing with. dont worry, rmi 25 is the right thing for this, trust it.

Corey brought that up because it is a lot of labor to take off block drain- on drivers side, I might have mentioned it, but no way with a dealer even do this and if they did expect north of 500 bucks.

No more flushing til after the treatment with respect hemi395, just trust the process, rmi 25 next. see what it does, when you run it make sure radiator is filled to top and overflow is full.

What is in it for dealers to do a proper flush? It is a ton of labor, man they just don't do it for chump chnage.

 

[GTyankee]

I had not had to look at my 2009 HEMI engine from below.

Is there a easy accessible Freeze Plug , down under the vehicle ??

If there is, you can work that plug out,
( i never purposely just pounded a freeze plug into the water jacket & left it in there, Ford & GM cooling systems ).
I have then removed the larger bottom radiator hose from the radiator.

Then i used a water hose to begin cleansing the cooling system.
I would put the bottom hose back on & used a Rubber expandable freeze plug to do a simple flush.
When i was close to satisfied, i buttoned everything back up, poured in the coolant, ( IAT ) & topped off with water.
The vehicles were always earlier than 1980s models.
Back then, i was buying poorly operating cars & selling much better running cars, as sort of a hobby.