Flushing the radiator, what additives should I use? What filter?

[Hoki]

So I have a alphacool radiator, and while testing the pump in my bathtub loop some black stuff came out.

So now after killing and reviving my pump, I need to clean out the radiator.

So one of the things that I bought came with this primochill sys-prep. I don't know what thats for really should I flush the rad with that?

I also read that mixing 1 parts white distilled vinegar with 9 parts water is good for flushing a rad, so I bought a bottle of that. Haven't added it yet though.

For filtering I'm not sure what to use I have some cheese cloth that I was thinking about wrapping a shaker ball in that and attaching that to the end of my output barb to catch all the gunk.



Should I continue or is this another bad idea?

[bungwirez]

lol Hoki - is BNIB rad right?

definitely flushing your rad is a good idea... I only ever use regular tap water... hot.
fill rad part way, then shake it around till your arms hurt.
empty, rinse and repeat.
most of us try to collect the effluent waste to watch for sludge and goo.
when there is no more, you're prolly good.
final step is usually to rinse one last time with distilled.

alternatively you could set up a buck system with your pump and run water under pressure through rad.
I kinda prefer this... did it on my Admiral, but more so of a leak test routine.

filter? meh... not really needed.

your fancy Prep liquid, IDK... gimmicky to me.
but I'll read the literature and get back to you.

[Hoki]

lol Hoki - is BNIB rad right?

definitely flushing your rad is a good idea... I only ever use regular tap water... hot.
fill rad part way, then shake it around till your arms hurt.
empty, rinse and repeat.
most of us try to collect the effluent waste to watch for sludge and goo.
when there is no more, you're prolly good.
final step is usually to rinse one last time with distilled.

alternatively you could set up a buck system with your pump and run water under pressure through rad.
I kinda prefer this... did it on my Admiral, but more so of a leak test routine.

filter? meh... not really needed.

your fancy Prep liquid, IDK... gimmicky to me.
but I'll read the literature and get back to you.

Yeah its a brand new one, painted white by somebody but new.

I can do hot water. How hot should it be? Hot from the tap hot, tea kettle hot, or boiling?

Also I think the fins are painted. I spilled some water on it yesterday and the underside of the towel was a little green from either the fins, or from the inside of the rad, I'm not sure. Is cleaning the fins off a good idea?

[bungwirez]

fins are very fragile, I would leave them alone.
kinda sucks if they are painted, bit harder to dissipate heat.

tap water hot is good enough, but be careful, not too hot,
cause the rad gets hot quickly.

[xmanrigger]

When I was using Thermochil rads, they were notorious to have a horrible mess left inside of them from factory that had to be flushed prior to use. There was flux and other shit easily visible. If they werent such good rads, I never would have used another because of it.

What I did to clean them was fill with 97% isopropyl alcohol, heat it under HOT water and let sit for a couple hours. Then shake the shit out of it, and then drain. I then flushed with hot tap water until I was satisfied it was clean, and then a flush or two with distilled water.

Seemed to work good. Still have four of their rads and they all perform great.

This is how I recieved the last Thermochil rad I bought. This is a brand new rad.

[bungwirez]

blech!

Darkside rads are definitely some of the cleanest rads on the planet.
One short rinse is all it takes... if that.

[nass]

ya going to needing more rads I think.

[xmanrigger]

ya going to needing more rads I think.

Nope. As brutal as they looked, after flushing/cleaning, top performance. 2 and 4 years later, still using all of them. Great rads. The only issue with any of them is two came with G3/8 (PA) fittings rather than G1/4 (TA).