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Title: The bad news (Heater) ... And The Good News Post by Malcolm73 on Dec 18th, 2008, 1:23pm My car is a 24v Ultima with climate control – 82,000 miles. A year ago my car heater was only blowing warm air and I attempted a flush using a bottle of proprietary radiator flush. After three miles the dashboard temperature gauge had gone off the scale and I spent the remainder of the day trying to remove the foaming coolant from the cooling system. There was some improvement and I had hot air but the last couple of weeks have proved that my heater matrix is not delivering enough heat. I have attempted, but failed to add a line drawing taken from Ford “Service Training –V6 24v Cosworth cooling system” which shows how the water circulates From key on coolant from the cylinder head, as the stat’ is generally closed, goes to the heater matrix via a Z shaped rubber hose, through the matrix, out through another rubber hose, to the oil cooler, to the pump, and engine block. The heater matrix therefore has initial call on hot water. I am no car expert but that is what is shown in the diagram. A year ago my initial attempt at clearing the matrix meant that I relied on flushing the whole system, not a bad thing, but it was frustrating, took a lot of time and proved to be unsuccessful. This time I purchase a small pump from Machine Mart (Order code 060220450) for £12.91 which is designed to be driven by an electric drill and coupled this to pieces of garden hoses using 2 off four inches of copper pipe glued into input and output of the pump. If anyone tries this also very tightly bind the output with insulation tape to stifle any leaks as the pump which has a sealed rotor and can deliver high pressure. On the output side after 18” of garden hose I inserted 18” of 15mm copper pipe and converted an old 2 bar radiant electric fire so that the copper pipe was only ¼” from the heat (Anyone concerned with Health & Safety should not be reading this!). Jubilee clips must be used throughout as water pressure can be high. A bucket acted as a reservoir for outgoing and incoming flushes as follows. Hot water, hot water with fairy liquid, more hot water flushes. Surprisingly only a minute quantity of debris came out, probably a gram. The water was replaced with Holt’s two part Radflush (£6.00). Bottle one was mixed with 4” of hot water and circulated by the pump held in the three jaw chuck of my lathe at 1050 R.P.M.for the recommended half hour. The flow was very fast and the chemical flush changed colour. The matrix was then flushed with more hot water and then Holt’s bottle two was used followed by more hot water flushes. No further solid debris was flushed out. Yesterday I set both climate controls to Hi, rotary dial to auto’, and air distribution to dashboard. I inserted a thermocouple just inside the air vent and set off covering about 13 miles. I could not hold my hand in the hot air which had some temperature variation due to engine speed. The lowest was 65 C but generally 70 to 76C. The cabin temperature was extremely hot. I can give a few extra tips on setting up but do wear eye protection as a kinked hose can release a spray of hot chemicals. If my heater fails again I will put a new post on the forum. 73’s Malcolm |
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Title: Re: The bad news (Heater) ... And The Good News Post by mindofitsown on Dec 20th, 2008, 9:26am Sounds like you had fun doing this :D! So in essence, the key to your success was hot solutions under high pressure? I don't have an issue (yet!) with my heater matrix but have noticed I have to turn it up by 2 degrees or so to get the output I used to get so I guess it won't be long. Do you happen to have a diagram of your set up? |
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Title: Re: The bad news (Heater) ... And The Good News Post by Malcolm73 on Dec 23rd, 2008, 11:26am Hello Mindofits’. No, it’s not a fun job and it took some time to set up but I avoided numerous drain downs to clear the system of foaming radiator flush. The tricky part of the job is disconnecting the hose clips and hoses behind the 24v, but remote hose clip pliers simplify the work. This tool is expensive and may not be in the average D.I.Y. tool kit. After your post I obtained a faulty Ford focus heater matrix, probably not much different from that fitted to the Scorpio and it also has seven finned ’U’ tubes. I have cut into the plastic, exposing the holes leading to the seven finned tubes. The diameter of each hole is about 5.4mm, therefore the seven tubes have an internal input area of about 160 Sq. mm. The 15mm O.D. domestic copper water pipe has a similar area being about 150 Sq. mm With my pump set up the rate of flow returning to the bucket was easily seen, and it was very fast out of a piece of 15mm copper pipe. I also tried reversing the pump but water flow was severely restricted as what was formerly a delivery pipe under pressure was now sucking and the much longer garden hoses involved collapsed. I am not claiming any success, only reporting what I did and what happened. I may still have a problem. The incoming cabin air had a feint smell and still has a smell and I suspect that my 12 year old matrix may have a leak. I will try an anti bacteria spray and change the paper filters or I could try pumping radiator seal through the matrix, or ultimately I may still have to change the heater matrix. Sorry, I do not have a drawing of my set up but 15mm copper pipe is ideal for connecting to the input / output of the rubber matrix hoses, garden hose, and for converting my pump to take garden hose. There was no particular reason for flushing with detergent or for using Holt’s Radflush, and high pressure may or may not have helped. I believe that engine coolant is pressurised to about 12 P.S.I. which enables the engine to run hotter and more efficiently, but engine coolant pumps are only designed to maintain circulation, not to provide much pressure. The whole job was an experiment and the source of tepid air was tackled directly. Regards, Malcolm73 |
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