Odd thermostat question

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Happy Friday folks.

Prior to flushing my truck with citric acid crystals (night and day difference visually), it took an abnormal amount of time to get to temperature and the temperature gauge would also increase at wide open throttle. After the flush, the truck warmed up faster, but still increased in temp during WOT.

Replaced the t stat with an OE part and it now warms up even faster and stays steady at WOT. What gives? I'm just curious.. obviously now there isn't an issue.
 
Sounds like everything is working fine now. Prior you probably had a partially plugged up cooling system, and a thermostat that might have been a bit lazy. Bottom line be happy with the outcome.
wink.gif
 
if it has a real gauge and not a fake gauge.. its working correctly.

your engine temp will increase at WOT.
 
A thermostat stuck OPEN will be slow to warm and also coolant not spend enough time in the radiator to release all its heat before going back to the engine for more. I have seen stuck open thermostats overheat an engine in the middle of winter.
 
Is this citric acid crystals a dedicated engine flush or a new way to use a house hold item to fix the car? I’m intrigued because I currently have an old Jeep that needs a serious flushing and if this works that good I’d give it a try. Where do you get these crystals?
 
Originally Posted By: double vanos
Is this citric acid crystals a dedicated engine flush or a new way to use a house hold item to fix the car? I’m intrigued because I currently have an old Jeep that needs a serious flushing and if this works that good I’d give it a try. Where do you get these crystals?


Trav here recommended it to me after I had asked about the Mercedes Benz citric acid, which costs a bit more for less acid. 2 lb bag of food grade citric acid crystals. $10 or so on Amazon.

I removed the thermostat and dumped the whole bag into the thermostat hole and radiator. I then ran the truck for about 20 minutes or so without the thermostat. I had just replaced the heater core so I bypassed that to keep junk out and also not unnecessarily dilute the solution. I also removed the engine block plugs, which released even more rust. I then took the garden hose to it for about 20 minutes on the block and radiator, refilled with tap water, ran for a bit without the thermostat, drained again then refilled with 50/50. Very overkill I know, but the cooling system had about 20 years of neglect and now I am 100% confident in it.

Oddly enough, I let it sit for about an hour after the flush and removed the lower hose and it still sprayed everywhere. Not sure if it was still too hot or if there was a chemical reaction between the acid and the rust that created some sort of gas. As I removed the clamp, the hose started getting pushed back so all I could do was get my face out of the way. Looks like there's orange juice sprayed everywhere under the hood.. So maybe let it sit longer and/ or wear some chemistry grade safety glasses just in case. If things are still bad, you may need a new radiator, but at least you'll know everything else is okay.

What kind of old Jeep is this by the way??
 
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Before


After.. Still looks somewhat bad, but that rust looking area is actually grey colored. Terrible lighting plus I'm in a woods so I had to use my phone's flash. Come to find out, a tornado was just 5 miles north of the house. That explains why it was dark at 8pm. Lol.


Thermostat hole on the intake.


Upside down pic of the rust stained driveway with some cat tax.


Rust that came out of the block when I removed the plugs.
 
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Originally Posted By: double vanos
Is this citric acid crystals a dedicated engine flush or a new way to use a house hold item to fix the car? I’m intrigued because I currently have an old Jeep that needs a serious flushing and if this works that good I’d give it a try. Where do you get these crystals?
Citric acid is the active ingredient in some OTC radiator flushes. You can buy in bulk from Amazon or eBay. It's usually 100% pure food grade. You can use it instead of lemon juice in recipes too and it's a great cleaner for water softener resin beds.
 
Originally Posted By: SHOZ
Originally Posted By: double vanos
Is this citric acid crystals a dedicated engine flush or a new way to use a house hold item to fix the car? I’m intrigued because I currently have an old Jeep that needs a serious flushing and if this works that good I’d give it a try. Where do you get these crystals?
Citric acid is the active ingredient in some OTC radiator flushes. You can buy in bulk from Amazon or eBay. It's usually 100% pure food grade. You can use it instead of lemon juice in recipes too and it's a great cleaner for water softener resin beds.


Citric acid is also sold at Walmart and used for canning tomatoes. $5.74 for bottle of 410 grams; about 14 oz. If you read the back of the package here on ebay, citric acid is a common ingredient in many household and bathroom cleaners, bath bombs, food preservative, soft drink ingredient, carpet cleaners, livestock tanks and water lines (farm uses), etc. The world outside of BITOG knows it as Vitamin C.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Citric-Acid-100-No-Additive-for-Household-Cleaner-Bath-Bomb-USP-Grade-for-Food/162166960071?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

I recently purchased a car with a totally neglected cooling system and spent an entire Saturday flushing the cooling system with Irontite https://www.ebay.com/itm/Irontite-911016-Thoro-Flush-Radiator-Flush-Fuel-System-Flush-Engine-Cleaner/283058372866?hash=item41e7980102:g:Rs4AAOSwBKpbS7wm followed by BG cleaner, followed by Citric Acid twice. I finally rigged up a connection with some heater hose and clamps to connect my garden hose to my thermostat housing and ran the engine with no thermostat and idled for awhile until the residue came out clear. Flooded my driveway with vitamin C and water; then used an RV connection adapter to blow it dry with compressed air. Refilled with fresh Dexkill and I'm good for a few years.
 
Originally Posted By: Kawiguy454
A thermostat stuck OPEN will be slow to warm and also coolant not spend enough time in the radiator to release all its heat before going back to the engine for more. I have seen stuck open thermostats overheat an engine in the middle of winter.


I've also had this experience. A previous owner believed it's a good idea to install a cooler thermostat. So the temp gauge occasionally visited the upper 2/3 of the temp range. I installed an OEM thermostat and it stayed rock solid in the center.

The thermostat has an important job, and is set at a specific temperature for good reason. Now if this car had a high-capacity radiator then it probably would have run cooler with the lower temp thermostat. Problem is, all they changed was the thermostat.
 
Originally Posted By: Ihatetochangeoil

Citric acid is also sold at Walmart and used for canning tomatoes. $5.74 for bottle of 410 grams; about 14 oz. If you read the back of the package here on ebay, citric acid is a common ingredient in many household and bathroom cleaners, bath bombs, food preservative, soft drink ingredient, carpet cleaners, livestock tanks and water lines (farm uses), etc. The world outside of BITOG knows it as Vitamin C.


Vitamin C is ascorbic acid, not citric acid.

Ed
 
I've been on a citric flush roll. Did 2 tractors the last few days.. Not a huge conventional green fan, but I refilled both with conventional green.

OM says to change it yearly, which has not been done. These were nice because there's a little spigot that needs loosened to drain the block. That's it. Now if it's so filthy that the spigot gets clogged, that's another story. Lol.
 
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