I have determined that there is a mouse nest in my cylinder block. Is there any chance that muriatic acid will take care of that issue, or does the engine need to be baked/hot tanked to resolve the issue?

any and all opinions/thoughts welcome!

{edit: I just read enough about Muriatic acid to change my mind... Not gonna play with that stuff.. still open to ideas on how to get the block passages clean}

Thanks,
Jase

Use a very small kitten?

Seriously, this is going to depend on exactly what the mice built the nest out of. Muriatic acid will attack rust, but I doubt it would do anything to sticks, cloth, or leaves at any concentration I'd want to work with. I'd probably first try flushing this out with a garden hose - just see if the force of the water flow will take it out.

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Matt Cramer
1966 Dodge Dart turbo / EFI project

Thanks Matt.

I will go looking for a very small kitten as my first attempt!

might try and rig up a hose to some 1/4" copper tube, to direct the flow and be able to bend it to shape?

If you have the side cup plugs out, water pump off and the water jacket drain plug out you should be able to do a through flush. I would use a pressured washer if you have that available to you. Perhaps get the crankcase in the back of a pick up truck and take it to one of those manual car wash bays.
Be sure to dry the machined areas afterwards, including the internal
oil lines, maybe spray some light oil on them.

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Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Yes I would like to find a way to get pressurized water flow to flush the block out. Pulling the core plugs is a good idea as well. More access, and more ability to see if it is getting clean..

Before it is disassembled this should get a lot of stuff out, for you especially the water/ compressed air blasts. Just a suggestion.


I bought a jeep with the 4l I6 that had bad cooling problems. With radiator out (for replacement, but also for access) I removed the thermostat and hooked an adapter to one radiator hose that allowed me to connect a garden hose and an air line with valve. I would allow the block to fill with water then hit it with short bursts of air. You should have seen the crud blowing out the other radiator hose! Repeated till it was fairly clean then swapped hoses, lather rinse repeat. (Also went both ways through heater hoses) When I couldn't get anything more out I hooked up a "radiator bypass" I made from pvc pipe. (90 each end, t in middle open stub sticking up) filled the engine with water and added some phosphoric acid, started the engine and let it run till it got good and warm. Then I shut it off till it cooled down and restarted it, ran till starting to boil (the pvc joints started to fail) let it cool till I didnt burn myself as I flushed with the adapter again. Got an unbelievable amount of rust and crud again! When it finally ran clean both ways I replaced the water pump and thermostat. The block behind the water pump had no trace of rust! Put in all new hoses and radiator (old one had blown a tank off) No further cooling problems.

This is probably extreme unless your system is very bad, but it WILL get things clean.

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Dave

1977 d-200 crew cab ex-army pickup wants it's /6 back
1962 Valiant 2 door, 170, three on the tree
1972 d-100 parts truck
80 volare wagon now a parts car

Bleach or lye will dissolve organic material (twigs, fur, etc.)

Not sure what it will do to cast iron.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Bleach should be fine. Lye might hurt the metal, but I would not think too badly. Maybe test a chunk of cast iron first in lye.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

OK, no one asked the dumb question... how did you determine that? Visual? Odor? Some other magic? In a forum like this, explanation of these sorts of discoveries has the potential to really help someone else who never considered a rodent as a potential threat. A nest under the hood is one thing. But inside the engine? In a non-air passage? This spikes the curiosity.

This engine apparently hasn't been in use for quite a while, so it's bone dry of all fluids...? Based on all your comments, it must be related to a coolant passage, but I'm trying to picture how/why any critter would find it attractive to swim through ethylene glycol (or even water) in order to build a hunting lodge... so it's gotta be a barn storage story of some sort. We eagerly await.

- Erik

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Lots of early Valiants and Barracudas have crossed my path.
Also a handful of other toys for variety now and then.

Good to know. I've been picking away with a coat hanger, but the places I can not see, are a mystery.. and concerned that some back corner, will not get the water flow necessary to float the junk forward. I am not familiar with Lye other than knowing it is or was used in making soap, and it is a bit nasty if you get it on you.. Will go do some reading and see what seems like the best step.

I really like the idea of dissolving organic matter that could cause a warped deck, or worse... so I am open to opinions as to what direction to focus.
yes a barn storage issue.. actually the radiator was what was inhabited... and I am guessing both the bottom and top tanks... I found the top tank nest... Well I found both nest, but the second one was not found until the cotton stuffing had migrated into the engine block...

I guess no one really talks to their machinist and sees how an engine block is cleaned... it's not just hot water and steam...

Lye/soda ash/ Sodium Hydroxide/solid drano is caustic (a base, the opposite of acid for the non chemistry/science crowd)...
this is used in the hot tank solution in your machine shop to prep and clean out the block...it will remove grease, oil, road grime,
and rust....(and most organic items in your drain...)

Will work fine on cast iron...you cannot use it on aluminum or alloys as it will eat them for breakfast.

If you do plug the block and run a caustic solution through, you can neutralize with vinegar if needed (any excess acid will chew up the last of the rust in the coolant passage).

FYI.

Nice info, DI. I suspected that base/lye would be fine, but did not know without reading/confirming. Base/lye dissolves organic material very well, and is used to clean nasty organic-coated glassware in chem labs.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

As per nuttyprof reply, I used water and compressed air to flush my Aussie V8 last weekend and was stunned at what came out. I disconnected radiator from hoses, removed thermostat, reinstalled thermostat housing and rigged up garden hose to top radiator hose and compressed air to one of the thermostat housing inlets. I ran water at higher pressure initially to see what would come out - not a great deal. Then I filled block (just put hand over lower radiator hose) and hit it with short bursts of compressed air (only set around 35psi). Ridiculous amounts of crud come out!

Put it all back together with a new water pump and ran on demin water for 3 day powercruise #77 event and car ran really well temp wise and the colour of the water was only barely merky. Will flush again soon, but the results were better than expected.

Good luck!

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Love cruising in a bare metal Val!

It's amazing the crud the air/ water blast gets out!

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Dave

1977 d-200 crew cab ex-army pickup wants it's /6 back
1962 Valiant 2 door, 170, three on the tree
1972 d-100 parts truck
80 volare wagon now a parts car

Won't dissolve a mouse nest, but will get an engine block spic and span without creating toxic/hazardous waste: molasses.

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Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.