Milky oil

[Greenie]

Thanks everyone for the help again.

I had replaced quite a few things when I put the engine in, it's all new hoses, new heater valve, water pump, stainless steel pipe from water pump housing. I gave the heater matrix a good flushing before I put it in – hope it’s ok as fitting it was probably one of the least enjoyable parts of the build so far. The water pump is made by County by the way, are they any good?

When I fitted the drain plug and temperature sender I had to scrape some really very hard crud away in order to screw them in, so I guess there's more of the same inside, hopefully it'll soften up but I like the idea of the dishwasher tablets Marcus, I was wondering what I could use to help clean it out.

I’ll see how the flushing goes before I dismantle or replace anything else, I also see there’s a bit of a knack to refilling the system to avoid airlocks, squeezing the bottom hose with the engine running looks like a good way to get a severe manicure though!

On my wish list at the moment is a drain tap on the bottom of the radiator - and a waggalater of course  ;D

Better get on with it now the rain has stopped!

[gfiandy]

Dish washer tablets may help but for about £7 you can get two part rad flush that is designed to do the job (from Halford or probably cheaper of the web). The first part is an acid to dissolve the lime scale and the second part neutralises the acid and they claim it helps to remove rust residue as well.

I did this with mine as the previous owner had left it sitting for a very long time. (short write up of the process I posted on another forum below)

Today I decided I could put it off no longer and the cooling system had to be cleaned and the antifreeze replaced. I knew it was going to be a long and tedious process using the two part flushing solution.

However I had not factored just how long and tedious. You have to empty and refill the cooling system eight times plus a backwards flush. My spitfire has to be watched for about 10 mins to ensure the air has bubbled out each time it doesn't seem to reprime itself very easily. You also have a 30 min and a 15 min fast idle for the two parts to work. It took three hours in all a lot of it just waiting with the car idling still I did get some tidying done in the garage and cleaned the other halfs car.

Anyway judging by the red sludge that came out it was needed and now I can be confident that however it gets cold it gets the block is not going to freeze. No noticeable change in the temp the car runs at but I guess that is mostly set by the thermostat.

Regards,
Andrew