So a friend of mine bought a late 90s GMC Jimmy for 800 bucks. He knew it had a coolant leak when he bought it. He tried to fix it on his own, several bottles of stop leak, and he threw them away so I have no idea what kind. Then he noticed the thermostat housing was cracked, thats where the leak was, and proceeded to snap one of the bolts off. Then he calls me.
So I have to drill and tap an aluminum intake manifold. But also had the joy of telling him his radiator and probably heater core are trashed. The rad is filled with this sticky red looking mud. All the cores are clogged. And its in the block, cannot flush it out of the block. Any ideas what would help loosen it up in the engine and flush? I’m leaning towards he just killed his car but wondered if anyone had any ideas before I tell him.
Thanks in advance!
Ugh...man that sucks. I'm not sure you're going to be able to clean it all out. You'll definitely have to disassemble the entire motor down to nothing and try cleaning it out by hand. But I don't have high hopes just to be honest. I think that engine is done.
So your friend decided if 1 bottle didn't work, more would be better. omg. 😱 All that goo stuff has got to come out. Probably would be easier with the engine out of the car. Something that should've had a minimal cost to fix has turned into a very expensive mess.
Yea, he paid 800 bucks for it. I certainly ain’t doing all that work friend or not. He can go buy another beater before I start taking the engine apart. Just didn’t know if there was any solvent that might be pushed through the block to help. I tried gas, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone just on the red stuff that leaked and coated the firewall and it didn’t budge. It laughed at me.
A call to a local shop that rebuilds engines might have some ideas, if they don't have any recommendations, the engine might be FUBAR.