Ford Scorpio Forum - Print Page


    
      
        Ford Scorpio Forum
        (https://www.fordscorpio.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl)
      

        General >> Give/Need advice to/from others >> Easy Fix for your cold heater ! ! ! ! 
        
(Message started by: the_machine on Dec 22^nd, 2007, 2:41pm)

Title: Easy Fix for your cold heater ! ! ! !
Post by the_machine on Dec 22^nd, 2007, 2:41pm

Hi guys.
I'm not saying this will work for all of us BUT it worked on my cossie 24V

Cold heater?
dreading taking out the dashboard 2 days work?

try CAUSTIC SODA to FLUSH IT!

Buy the caustic soda granules from B&Q, Home-base etc

What I did was to get my hands onto the pipes at the bulkhead in the engine bay, the pipes that connect into and out of the heater matrix. Its tricky on space but you can get to them. Undo or remove the pipe clips / hose clips and fit garden hose onto the metal pipes that enter bulkhead. Use two lengths of hose and a funnel. keep one end of tube high up above the bonnet height and then pour highly concentrated caustic soda into the funnel and wash down with water. The aim is to create a u tube effect with the two pieces of pipe. You then let a little through by lowering the other tube back below bonnet height . At same time add more solution until you think the matrix is full of solution. You will prop hear it fizzing and bubbling.

BE WARNED

THE CAUSTIC SODA WILL DESTROY YOUR SKIN AND EYES|!

I SPILLED A BIT ON MYSELF AND IT TOOK A LAYER OF SKIN OFF AND ALSO MELTED MY FINGERNAIL!!!!!

OUCH

so please wear silicon gloves and goggles.

leave for as long as poss. overnight or at least 3 hours.

then get a garden hose and flush out at mains water pressure

THIS MADE MY HEATER MATRIX WORK FULLY AGAIN!!

ITS BEEN WORKING 3 MONTHS NOW STILL OK!!

hope this helps some people

maybe if you see other threads on heater matrix problems refer them to this post?

Peter

Title: Re: Easy Fix for your cold heater ! ! ! !
Post by strebor on Dec 22^nd, 2007, 2:57pm

If it burns you hand will it not destroy the matrix ?
where can I buy caustic soda mines freezing

Title: Re: Easy Fix for your cold heater ! ! ! !
Post by the_machine on Dec 22^nd, 2007, 3:11pm

no it cant burn metal. You buy caustic from b and q or homebase etc. look in the aisles where they have the household cleaning stuff. Mine was a B and Q brand. The caustic disolves all the sludge. use a about a tea cups worth of powder mixed in with hot water. (it disolves in hot water quicker) PLEASE WEAR GLOVES! AND GOGGLES. IF THAT SPLASHES IN YOUR EYE YOU ARE FCKD! It worked on my matrix. I was freezing till i did this.

Title: Re: Easy Fix for your cold heater ! ! ! !
Post by Matt on Dec 22^nd, 2007, 4:39pm

hi peter,

keep an eye out for water leeks, it may not harm metal but the heater matrix has a plastic end piece, sounds like a cheap easy fix though if the acid doesn't melt the plastic

Title: Re: Easy Fix for your cold heater ! ! ! !
Post by Snoopy on Dec 22^nd, 2007, 5:39pm

Caustic soda should NOT affect plastic . It does attack aluminium though!

Title: Re: Easy Fix for your cold heater ! ! ! !
Post by the_machine on Dec 22^nd, 2007, 7:17pm

Hi Guys, well it was only in a few hours, then flushed and replaced with blu-col.
I think it will be fine! its not cheap easy fix actually lads cuz all your doin is shufting the sludge! ok if there is actual limescale or stubborn deposits, yep you need to swap the matrix. its a try it first and see job b4 you do the dreaded matrix swap!!

ahhh shall we do it on boxin day for a laugh!??

i dare someone to annoy the wife and start doin a major job boxin day!!!!

Title: Re: Easy Fix for your cold heater ! ! ! !
Post by peteHull on Dec 23^rd, 2007, 1:21am

on 12/22/07 at 16:39:58, Matt wrote:

hi peter,

keep an eye out for water leeks, it may not harm metal but the heater matrix has a plastic end piece, sounds like a cheap easy fix though if the acid doesn't melt the plastic

Caustic soda is not an acid, it is the absolute opposite ie alkaline. it is brilliant for removeing grease and paint etc however it WILL eat away at the alumimium matrix fitted to scorpios.
We used to soak truck fuel tanks in a caustic bath, it removed all the paint and grease and even ate away any solder which was on them. We used to make pressed aluminium number plates back in the 70's, if we made a mistake we used to chuck them in the caustic bath to get rid of them so the boss didn't find them, it would take about and hour for there to be no trace left..... Hope you cleaned your matrix out good and proper... :-/ :-/

Pete