tricks for cleaning

[High Hopes]

I just spent 1.5 hours cleaning my exhaust mainifold. I decided to pop the freeze caps out just to check inside. Don mentions this in his manual.

YUK! It was completely caked up. It took the first 45 minutes to clean it to the point that I realized that there was supposed to be a wide, open path between the freeze plugs.

At first I used a a screw driver for the initial digging.

Next I moved to a coat hanger which poked holes mostly. Then I took a length of coat hanger wire and put it in my drill. I twisted the end of the wire a bit and fed that through.

But I needed something much stiffer. Let's see... what on an A4 has a length of spring steel? You guessed it - the Moyer oil drip stick extender kit. I broke off about 10 inches of the dip stick and started digging again. This worked very well. I bent the dip stick at the broken end a bit. This end was used to scrape.

Next, I took some galvanized strapping, bent the end of it and shoved that back and forth through the manifold ports. By bending the end just right, I could get the strap to scrape the front and back walls of the water jacket.

For the final touch, I went back to the coat hanger and wrapped a small nut on the end. I spun this quickly with the drill.

Then I repeated the entire process, in varying order and several times, until no large chucks came out of the manifold.

Folks, this is just like work. It seems like a pound of crp came out of the manifold. The trash can looks like there is a shovel full of dirt in it.

Sometimes I think this is too much work for a hobby.

[keelcooler]

Sludge fest in my cooling system required aggressive steps to clean up also. Steve's tips came in handy. I had torn everything down and let acid stand prior to flushing. This work was done in the fall and yesterday went about preparing for paint. I thought I got it all but large rust flakes began pouring out of the manifold. I went on the attack again with my implements and got even more crap out then before. This time in coin sized sheets up to 1/4" thick. I also went back to the block and head passages and found them to be clean. I think the drying out of these surfaces and oxygen exposure over the winter released this torrent of flakes. I was not dreaming that I thoroughly completed this job last year. After all that work any one of those flakes could have flowed up and blocked the flow. Anyway this reinforces Don's mantra, oxygen and saltwater is disastrous. It also shows the need to properly winterize with fluid in the cooling jackets not just a system drain when left laid up. I wonder why my block and head did not scale out over the winter.

[Flagman101]

On my overhaul, i poped the freeze plugs out. Cleaned the manifold real good.
But instead of putting new freeze plugs i used 1 inch diam rubber plugs, like you have for drains on small boat.
I hope they resist the heat. If yes a $4.99 canadian each its a nice cheap mod to have acces to clean and winterize the manifold.
If the dont hold i will re-install regular freeze plugs.

[67c&ccorv]

Originally Posted by Flagman101

On my overhaul, i poped the freeze plugs out. Cleaned the manifold real good.
But instead of putting new freeze plugs i used 1 inch diam rubber plugs, like you have for drains on small boat.
I hope they resist the heat. If yes a $4.99 canadian each its a nice cheap mod to have acces to clean and winterize the manifold.
If the dont hold i will re-install regular freeze plugs.

Flagman, unless the rubber on those plugs is made of Viton I don't think those plugs will withstand the heat generated by the A-4?

If you don't have a shutoff valve at your through-hull fitting I think your boat will flood and possibly sink!

I would be very cautious about using that type of plug in your motor.

[msauntry]

Freeze plugs are like .89 cents. Pop em out and for cleaning and put in new ones as often as you like. I'd agree with not using rubber plugs for this.