Power hose? for flushing engine

[Hantsdave]

Hi Folks

I will soon be stripping down and rebuilding an original Stag engine to replace the knackered Rover lump that came with the car I bought earlier this year.

I have found the many threads on the subject of coolant and flushing of great interest and I was wondering if anyone has ever used a power hose, rather than just a normal hose with regular water pressure, to flush out the block/heads.

I imagine that el sludge and his friends would find the force hard to resist. I can't think of any obvious damage that could be caused perhaps apart from seals at the water pump, but with care I recon it could be effective.

Any thoughts mes amis?

Thanks

David.

[DJT]

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David,

If you are stripping the block, then use of a power hose in all the passages and openings should do any harm. It all depends on how far you are going with the strip. If the block history is unknown I would recommend stripping out the water pump, jackshaft and all core plugs and giving it a complete clean. This way you wil be certain that any sludge or casting sand is removed. You can get all the oil passages squeaky clean, and ensure that a rusty core plug isn't going to blow sometime soon. This is thebest chance you will have and you don't want to have to do it twice.

Dave

[Chris810]

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Just to put the sand into perspective locally a member has analysed cooling water out of a number of stags, whilst chasing a different problem (see a write up in your magazine soon ) and in ALL cases casting sand was present in the samples tested Including my own car which gets flushed out every 2 years and was flushed out removing a large amount of sand when I bought it some 20 odd years ago. so get flushing it is tenacious stuff!

[Sheepdip]

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I would hesitate to power flush an engine again.

I did this to my stripped engine, power jetted away at all the crevices (including mine), let it dry and found a red sort of dust in all the bores. Presumably sand from the water ways that had been sitting quite happily for 25 years until I dared disturb it. My worry was where had the sand now gone? Ended up thoroughly washing with degeraser and a hose and praying :shock:. In future I'd use a garden hose and nothing more.

[Chris810]

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I would not power flush unless the engine is down for a rebuild I did however have a drilled plug from the side of the block which took a hose when screwed in, mains pressure is quite enough thank you