Hi all,

I have a 2000 durango 5.2 I bought not to long ago, The coolant was like mud. I dumped the coolant, ran water through the heater core and the radiator, pulled the thermostat, flushed, filled with water/coolant started it up and as I'm burping the system the water goes from green to mud.

Great.

last week I put a bottle of flush / cleaner in the system. for the past 3 hours I've pulled the thermostat, and lower radiator hose. Ran water through the radiator and the thermostat opening, Connected the lower radiator hose. Flushed the heater core, put the uppper hose back in without the thermostat, ran water both ways until it was clean, ran the engine with the water pumping through the radiator.

Put the thermostat back in to burp the system, with only water and the water is turning brown again.

What am I doing wrong?

who can I get all this crap out?

Thanks!

 

You aren't doing anything wrong, the system is just THAT dirty.

Grab a couple gallons of cheap vinegar. Run THAT in your cooling system. (with thermostat) Let the engine come up to temp, (it'll take a while) and idle at temp for 10 to 15 minutes. (no radiator cap please.) Then, disconnect the upper radiator hose, CAREFULLY, and route the discharge someplace away from the truck. (into a bucket, whatever.) As the engine pumps vinegar out the upper hose, add water to the radiator. Flush that way till the water no longer stinks like vinegar, and runs clean. The stuff coming out is going to be HOT, so, keep clear of it. (and keep little kids, and animals way as well..... not to mention the overly curious adults.......)

Once the water runs nice and clean, shut it down, let it cool, put it back together, drain some water, add some coolant. Drive it for a couple days. Check it again. If it's still ugly, do it again. Easiest might be to simply replace the radiator, pull the the thermostat, fill the engine with vinegar, (block the lower radiator hose, so it can't simply run out.) let is soak for a few hours, then flush it out.

Had the same problem on my old Astro van. It had been seriously neglected by a previous owner, and was a real bummer to clean out. Took several flushes over the course of a couple months to finally get the coolant to stay clean and green. (I replaced the radiator on the last iteration, as it had started to leak.)

 

Sounds good.

I guess I don't need worry about cold water going into a hot engine as it's running?

I was worried it might cause a head to crack or something

 

The heads are probably already cracked, half of that age are. They are easy to replace though, all bolt on stuff.

 

So long as you don't let it overheat, and you pour the water into the radiator, should be golden.

 

Okay, I added the vinegar and let it warm up and I noticed that it was spewing over violently.

 

Spewing over? Is the thermostat still in there? It may get a little funky till it purges the air from the system.

 

Spewing, gizer, something like that. Yes. Thermostat is in but the gasket is bad. I'm thinking as the thermostat opens, its sucking air through the base.

hopefully not a head gasket.

if it is, where can I get new heads?

 

Stay focused. Your mind is wandering all over the place. Finish dealing with the cooling fluid first. Head and/or gasket issues are not assessed by how much is blowing out of the radiator.

 

If you're "sucking air" via the thermostat, you'd have a bad coolant leak. I'd remove the thermostat and run radiator flush through the whole system. Final flush out should be with distilled water before adding coolant.