Vinegar flush without engine running?

[rigspelt]

I garden-hose pressure-flushed the block and head today (thanks for the flushing kit, Don - perfect), but before I hook up the FWC kit, I would like to do a 2-hour vinegar soak too. I can't start the engine until out of the boat shed inthe spring, but can I passively run the vinegar in at the thermostat housing manifold port and expect it to fill up both the block and head if I allow the air to get out as the vinegar goes in? I haven't seen an A4 with the head off and cannot quite work this out in my head.

The alternative would be to spend more $$ and buy a Jabsco drill pump to pressure-fill the block/head from the aft starboard 1/8" port with the 6" nipple on it, but if the simpler trick works ...

Thanks.

[Don Moyer]

You should be able to gravity fill the block head and manifold with the vinegar solution as you are intending.

Glad the flushing kit worked well for you. It's a rather "widget-intensive" kit. Our hope was to save folks the hours of running around between different shops that is usually required to gather all that stuff together.


Don

[rigspelt]

Our hope was to save folks the hours of running around between different shops that is usually required to gather all that stuff together.

Don, your kit saved me weeks, not hours. I've been scouring the stores for other fittings and hoses for this refit - amazing how a person has to scrounge for this stuff, usually in that rush hour window between after work and home, only to realize that I can't quite recall if I need a 1/2" or 3/8" whatever. You and your team are a boon.

[rigspelt]

Another job done. The block and head took just over 2/3 gallon of vinegar. We let it bubble merrily for 2 hours and then flushed. The clear water in the standing tube turned murky brown by the end of the 2 hours, and flushed clear fairly quickly. No scale when we flushed vigorously at both ports in both directions, but I think the cooling passages are fairly clean in this engine to begin with (25 years in freshwater, 9 summers in salt but low hours I suspect).

Now I can hook up the FWC kit and we can get on with the big jobs: painting deck and hull bottom. Four months to spring -- will we make that deadline?

[sastanley]

I think you've convinced me to get Don's kit and vinegar rinse mine too. Especially after seeing the effects from soaking the water pump & other various parts I could get into a bucket of vinegar. This 'adventure' for 6 pieces of 1-1/4" pipe for the hot exhaust is teaching me to take advantage of the time others have spent already (in this case Don & co. with the flush kit)

Don't talk about deadlines!!

[rigspelt]

Vinegar is surprisingly potent around seawater crud on metal. I put the old stuffing box in some for to bubble for a couple of hours, and it came out pretty clean and shiny: http://www.moyermarine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2851

[lat 64]

vinegar

I never thought about vinegar for engine flush, awesome!
I use vinegar for everything else though. The bilge, the head, water scale, lots of stuff. It's even good for pickling fish if you get one that day. My crew can get allergies from mildew and it kills that too. I swabbed the bilge out, the boat smells much better. The vinegar smell goes away after a while. I dump some in the toilet and it makes that place... well.. better. Its cheep and eco-friendly and good for salsa. Captain Bligh was actually a very progressive man and used vinegar to swab the entire ship several times a voyage to fight disease.

Arrg,

Russ