'93 3.2 sounds like a train- mice in radiator?

[carterh]

My '93 3.2L has been sounding more and more train like (think shika shika shika in relation to rpm), and the last time I drove it the heat climbed up (usually at 'a', went to 'o'). I turned the interior heat on high and the temperature immediately dropped.

Today I took a look at the coolant reservoir and saw this:



Up close it almost looked like mouse droppings...

What course of action do I need to take to get all this crap out?

 

[typhoon5000]

You could try something like this:



Which involves replacing all of the coolant as well.

To me, that looks like course sand and aluminum filings, but it's hard to tell .

 

[carterh]

Definitely no metal in there... The car had been stored for a few months, so I am guessing mice might have stockpiled feed in there.

 

[Off Road SHO]

That almost looks like some form of Stop-leak material. Whatever it is, get it all flushed out of there (including that overflow tank and associated hose) and replaced with a 50/50 mix of good antifreeze.

There is a professional radiator flush that was only sold at the Chevron stations. I think it was halted because people weren't reading the directions and leaving a portion of it in their system, which of course leads to corrosion big time. Boy howdy did it ever clean well. The first drain almost came out like soup. Wish we could still get that product.

Tom