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Old 09-12-2015, 03:37 PM
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Stretch Stretch is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Somewhere in the Netherlands
Posts: 14,461
Cocking about trying to clean an expansion tank

G'day Folks,

I've been messing about with a little experiment trying to clean out gunk from an expansion tank. The gunk came from a failed head gasket - and then there's the age yellowing that probably will never go...

...so far it is a list of what doesn't work and one thing (so far) that has given the best results.

I started off with baking soda - forgot to mention this the first time I posted...

...sorry no pictures - it didn't work...

...Then I tried vinegar (hey it is pretty good at cleaning burnt off crud on saucepans!)



Unfortunately I only had red wine vinegar.

It managed to stain the inside a bit more.



So OK after that I thought - engine degreaser



It works well on mucky engines

Not so good inside grotty expansion tanks though



(It looked like the red wine vinegar staining was planning to stay)
Attached Thumbnails
Cocking about trying to clean an expansion tank-m102_910-expansion-tank-cleaning-red-wine-vinegar1.jpg   Cocking about trying to clean an expansion tank-m102_910-expansion-tank-cleaning-red-wine-vinegar2.jpg   Cocking about trying to clean an expansion tank-m102_910-expansion-tank-cleaning-engine-degreaser1.jpg   Cocking about trying to clean an expansion tank-m102_910-expansion-tank-cleaning-engine-degreaser2.jpg  
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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Last edited by Stretch; 09-12-2015 at 06:44 PM. Reason: Forgot about the baking soda
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