1957 Ford Country Sedan mocha silver V8 4dr wagon

[mustang6984]

"citric acid"....HHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....how many lemons do you need to squeeze to get enough to do the job? 

[djfordmanjack]

You could make some nice dozens of gallons of lemonade from it, as I used 1-1/2 pds. it is food supply. here in Europe we use it to make jam or bakery. it is natural crystallized citric acid and you can get it at every supermarket. Talking from my experience it doesn't harm solder or brass nor cast iron.
If any of you should doubt its effects, here's my decades old water pump after removal. except for a few rust spots left in the middle, it's all bare metal cast iron again ....wow !

[djfordmanjack]

I treat the engine to a lot of heat cycles while the acid is in there. Heat is the most important thing to make it happen.
Backside of all is that it dissolves lime and rust, even where it's useful. old scale seals the waterpumps, and acid bath makes them leak A LOT. the old water pump is gone for good. luckily I had a refurbished unit on the shelf, Unfortunately my 312 project engine hasn't a new waterpump left now...
the freshly painted pump looks terrible on the old survivor. Trying to find a rebuild kit so I can seal my old pump and put it back to where it belongs. First test cruise the new water pump seems to be all good. temperature is down at least 15 to 20 degrees.

[hiball3985]

G, they are making new Y block pumps, Chinese like everything else, I have about 8000 miles on mine now with no problem.

Can we have your formula for the citric acid, how much crystal to how much water?

Did you catch any mosquitoes?

[mustang6984]

You could make some nice dozens of gallons of lemonade from it, as I used 1-1/2 pds. it is food supply. here in Europe we use it to make jam or bakery. it is natural crystallized citric acid and you can get it at every supermarket. Talking from my experience it doesn't harm solder or brass nor cast iron.
If any of you should doubt its effects, here's my decades old water pump after removal. except for a few rust spots left in the middle, it's all bare metal cast iron again ....wow !

Interesting...never would have thought about it. YOU are  WORLD of information sir!!! I will keep that in mind down the road.

[djfordmanjack]

Jim, let's see how big the bugs caught in the net will be, once the net will be removed. come to think of it, now that is called debugging an engine....
I used 1-1/2 pds of crystal citric acid for the estimated 15 to 20 quarts of coolant. I mix and shake it in a seperate 1gallon can, so the crystal desolves nicely before putting it in the radiator. don't forget to open the heater and flushing 5 or 10 times afterwards is mandatory, with engine idling, hoses off and heater on. I leave the acid in the car for 2 days.
Most probably it only removed a small percentage of the heavy rust and scale inside the block and heads, but at least it worked some. engine seems to run cooler, but I have not highway tested it yet.
I am waiting for the NOS 2bbl carb to arrive from Mass and looking forward to see how well it will run with that one.
Generally speaking this summer will need to see a break from the 57 wagon, as too many other things have been pushed aside over the last months. I will take the CS to a few local cruises and car shows this season, but no further out of country trips for now. It still needs things adjusted and improved, which is totally ok with a 60 year old car getting back on the road after decades of neglect.

[hiball3985]

Thanks G, I'll only be doing this as an experiment on the old radiator I removed from my Mustang so nothing lost to try. I have no issues with the 57.

As a side note: I'm sure you are tired of filling the cooling system and dealing with the air that gets trapped in the engine that turns to steam and has to belch out. If you remove the heater hose from the manifold first, then start filling the radiator until water comes out of that outlet it pushes about 90% of the air out. Then slip the hose back on while continue filling. I also did this to the Mustang yesterday after installing the new radiator. Then you only have a few small bubbles to work out and you don't get the volcano  I apologize if I'm preaching to the choir again, us old guys just don't have anything better to do at times..

[djfordmanjack]

Jim, when you have filled the radiator with citric acid. I'd put it in a sunny place for several days, so it can really heat up. Heat is the key to success with acid.
I am not having problems with trapped air, as I don't top off the radiator at the first time. just enough to let the engine idle and add later on.
For the first time in weeks or months the 57 is simply parked without a to-do list for the next day. Phew....
Need a few days off or they'll have to send a psychiatrist...

[mustang6984]

Jim, when you have filled the radiator with citric acid. I'd put it in a sunny place for several days, so it can really heat up. Heat is the key to success with acid.
I am not having problems with trapped air, as I don't top off the radiator at the first time. just enough to let the engine idle and add later on.
For the first time in weeks or months the 57 is simply parked without a to-do list for the next day. Phew....
Need a few days off or they'll have to send a psychiatrist...

Not sure the rest of us will be able to survive a summer without you posting "stuff" on this car. I have learned/gotten ideas from much of what you have done. Inspiration has been flowing due to your stuff sir!!!

[RICH MUISE]

that last pic............now we know why your avatar pic is with sunglasses,lol.
Great stuff, good ideas, excellent posts. Thanks Gunther!!

[djfordmanjack]

Not sure the rest of us will be able to survive a summer without you posting "stuff" on this car. I have learned/gotten ideas from much of what you have done. Inspiration has been flowing due to your stuff sir!!!

Thanx for your praise Hugh. much appreciated. really satisfied with how far the wagon has come and I won't be able to keep my hands off the 57 for much longer than a week anyways

Rich, a few days off the project will get my eyes straight again hopefully hahaha.....

[hiball3985]

Thanks for the advice G, I'll have to wait, it's actually cold here right now and I won't do it under my shade tree 
You do know it never ends. I installed the new radiator/thermostat in my Mustang and took it for a test ride and she runs nice and cool now. At the end of the ride the brakes started pulling to the right, rear brake cylinder is leaking  I remember when all this was so much fun, not so much anymore.

[djfordmanjack]

There's always something wrong with an old project car, unless you start driving it daily. They just want to be driven and out in the wild 
So we started the week right away with a 7 am Monday morning cruise, taking the boy to school. 

[djfordmanjack]

So I wasn't supposed to work on the wagon during summer months right ?....well....

After doing some more cleaning and trying Jim's trick with a net in the radiator hose I drove the car for 20 highway miles and it was cool, but then started overheating very quickly. obviously dirt and debris clogged the net, but glad I got the dirt filtered from the coolant instead of clogging the radiator core. next time will use a larger piece of net.


Another friend and good tip later found myself whacking out the freeze plugs, which one of them had developed a slight leak anyways.
No wonder dirt, rust and scale were trapped up to half of the rear freeze plugs. coat hanger, pressure washer, coat hanger, pressure washer...aso. what a dirty job! 6 hours and taking showers twice later it's looking good. I know that this will never clean out all of the sludge and debris from the lower corners, but at least it's something. Mabye 5 or 10 % more cooling capacity will help.
Further proof of how citric acid works, the cylinder walls are bare metal cast iron in the water pockets.
















another oil and filter change shows even more sludge and debris collected in the old filter.

[mustang6984]

UGH! That is some kind of grody! I pulled the freeze plugs on the 390 I am planning to put in my Courier...and it too was full of ugly in between the cylinders. Comes from people not taking care of their babies I guess!
Yours is looking better now. Soldier on sir!