Cleaning Thermostats..good Efficent Way?

[camerondownunder88]

Hi,

Well doing up my KE15 cooling system and I want to do it properly so I can make a WIKI article on it.

 

So one part I want to do is cleaning the thermostat. Now these are all tested and work. But are covered in crap :wink: What is the best way to quickly clean them?

 

can I grit blast them safely?

 

Pic below of the mess they are.

 

Cheers

Cameron

[Des]

We have a parts "washing machine" at work that spins things fast and uses hot water with some acid to clean parts. Cleaned out all the metal filings and redline oil from a diff center today and took the paint off my cam covers.

[WinKE55]

Yes, we have one of them too. Though I do not think we have.. Acid.. in ours. Though I am not too sure you maybe right. Though it gets very hot and steams up, using hot water spining it around to clean stuff. Though I don't think putting thermostats in the parts washer would be a good idea..

 

To be honest I haven't cleaned any yet.. but I would imagine water? Or buy new ones?

 

 

Our Ford Dealership just buys new ones..

[camerondownunder88]

Can you tell me the acid that is in it? I got access to a LOT of acids. And id rather not accidentally dissolve them..LOL

 

Also I'm just worried the grit blaster will damage the valves surface leaking water etc so it wont do its job properly.

 

But I have been told acetic acid (aka vinegar) will clean them up well. Is this true?

 

Cameron

[camerondownunder88]

Id rather not buy more as well I got like 7 of these bad boys all test and work at set temp sitting in shed just need a clean so id rather save my moolah..lol

[Des]

Yes its acid coz it took the polish off the floor at work and the fluid was only a week or two old. don't know what it is, Will take a look tomorrow.

 

Thinners might help ?

[love ke70]

for like 8 bucks or whatever they are...

 

looks like gasket goo or some such crap on them, bit of scraping and elbow grease would prob do it, stop looking for the easy way :wink:

 

for peice of mind i would replace, old thermostats when left to sit have a bad habit of not opening when you want them too...

 

*walks off muttering about stupid 1g*

[Teddy]

To be honest, if you have the themostat out for any reason, REPLACE IT.

 

For an item that is sub $30 for a gold plated one (lol), and the amount of motor peformance related with it; its not even worth trying to clean or fiddle with.

 

Genuine ALL the way.

[Rollaboy2608]

I have to concur here. The thermostat is often disregarded as an item you can do without, but personally I feel one that is working correctly is essential.

 

As aforementioned, just get a new one, and stop being stingey!!

[Teddy]

Maintaining the exact running temperature of a motor is one of the most critical things in relation to the motors performance; economy, efficiency & service life. I can't understand why anyone would just throw one out. When the motor is cold, all this cold water just cycling throughout the system and takes how much longer to heat up, not to mention how much longer the cars going to be running at an incorrect temperature resulting in longer time for internal components to reach correct operating temperature - eg. lack of piston expansion would be directly proportional to excessive bore wear, not to mention the rest of the components in the motor.

 

The most wear occurs on a motor (provided its in "good" condition) when its cold. Why on earth would you want to encourage the motor to run colder, or worse uncontrolled to a point all because someones too lazy to fix the cooling system /and or get a thermostat ?

 

:wink:

[Rollaboy2608]

its also one of the common causes for head gasket failure, because the coolant fails to remain in the heated areas long enough to absorb that heat, so the head in particular gets hotter and hotter even though the coolant passing it is cool

[Guest Sbox]

Deleted

Edited May 24, 2008 by Sbox