sand coming out of coolant impeller area?

Classic Goldwings

Help Support Classic Goldwings:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

83gl1200

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 26, 2014
Messages
266
Reaction score
0
Location
Portland or
So I am about to put in a new water pump... I remove radiator and dump water I had in there, and decide to flush engine with a hose before taking engine apart. With hose stuck in top radiator hose connection I find sand and some black chunks of junk came out with the water from impeller area. Wth?

I kept flushing with the hose until it appeared clean, but should I do more flushing with chemicals or? This has me concerned that unless I get it perfectly clean it will ruin my new water pump I'm about to put in.
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=128872#p128872:1y2wq4mv said:
83gl1200 » Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:09 am[/url]":1y2wq4mv]
So I am about to put in a new water pump... I remove radiator and dump water I had in there, and decide to flush engine with a hose before taking engine apart. With hose stuck in top radiator hose connection I find sand and some black chunks of junk came out with the water from impeller area. Wth?

I kept flushing with the hose until it appeared clean, but should I do more flushing with chemicals or? This has me concerned that unless I get it perfectly clean it will ruin my new water pump I'm about to put in.

Your main concern is theses particles restricting the performance of the radiator and causing overheating. It may be worth having a radiator shop clean your radiator professionally..
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=128874#p128874:1lzemi3a said:
Ansimp » Tue Aug 19, 2014 3:41 pm[/url]":1lzemi3a]
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=128872#p128872:1lzemi3a said:
83gl1200 » Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:09 am[/url]":1lzemi3a]
So I am about to put in a new water pump... I remove radiator and dump water I had in there, and decide to flush engine with a hose before taking engine apart. With hose stuck in top radiator hose connection I find sand and some black chunks of junk came out with the water from impeller area. Wth?

I kept flushing with the hose until it appeared clean, but should I do more flushing with chemicals or? This has me concerned that unless I get it perfectly clean it will ruin my new water pump I'm about to put in.

Your main concern is theses particles restricting the performance of the radiator and causing overheating. It may be worth having a radiator shop clean your radiator professionally..

Radiator is off, and i flushed it before this job. Nothing weird came out of the radiator itself and it appears clean from what I could see.

Whatever this stuff is, its not in the radiator, its in the engine sunk to the lowest spots in the coolant system it seems.

More flushing ahead I guess. But the front engine cover and radiator are off now, no oil in it, so can't run it.
 
Did you back flush the radiator?
In my experience it is always hard to figure out how blocked a radiator's tubes are unless you have the tank off and can look and see the blocked tubes, it is also the best way to clean these tubes.
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=128878#p128878:2f9lbi9h said:
Ansimp » Tue Aug 19, 2014 3:54 pm[/url]":2f9lbi9h]
Did you back flush the radiator?
In my experience it is always hard to figure out how blocked a radiator's tubes are unless you have the tank off and can look and see the blocked tubes, it is also the best way to clean these tubes.

I don't know what back flushing means, sounds like you are describing taking the radiator apart. If so, no, when I flushed it before I just put a hose in the top and flushed out the bottom while radiator was off the bike, and turned it uopside down and flushed from bottom to top. Never saw grit come out.

I see more black grit stuck to where the impeller shaft goes. Maybe this grit is from the impeller seal itself breaking down. Impeller was way past needing replacement, very very wobbly. Could be parts of the impeller wore off against sides being so wobbly.
 
Back flushing would be forcing the water in the outlet ( in thus case the bottom) and hopefully flushing out the particles that are stuck in and on top of the tubes which us what you did when you turned it outside down and back flushed it :good:
I would still take my radiator to a professional shop if you want to be sure that it is performing correctly. I have back flushed radiators that appeared good and only after pulling the tanks and finding that out that sometimes as many as half the tubes were blocked. :(
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=128886#p128886:3dr29kgj said:
Ansimp » Tue Aug 19, 2014 4:08 pm[/url]":3dr29kgj]
Back flushing would be forcing the water in the outlet ( in thus case the bottom) and hopefully flushing out the particles that are stuck in and on top of the tubes which us what you did when you turned it outside down and back flushed it :good:
I would still take my radiator to a professional shop if you want to be sure that it is performing correctly. I have back flushed radiators that appeared good and only after pulling the tanks and finding that out that sometimes as many as half the tubes were blocked. :(

Oh OK, thanks. How much should a radiator shop charge to clean/check it? Might just want to replace it if it cost too much for them to touch it. I see them very cheap on eBay all the time when looking for other parts.
 
Down here we can pay up to a $100. The ones on eBay are they reconditioned, new or secondhand?
The advantage of having yours done is you know what you have and most shops won't charge you if it is unusable.
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=128889#p128889:1qf45ulj said:
Ansimp » Tue Aug 19, 2014 4:34 pm[/url]":1qf45ulj]
Down here we can pay up to a $100. The ones on eBay are they reconditioned, new or secondhand?
The advantage of having yours done is you know what you have and most shops won't charge you if it is unusable.

OK, well I don't have that kind of money now so that's out of the question. Bike has drained me already, nothing left. I couldn't afford the water pump and seal kit, spent money I shouldn't have just to get them anyway.

I'll have to take my chances. Maybe I can fill and soak it with some chemicals myself and flush it more and cross my fingers.
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=128891#p128891:1q10297a said:
dan filipi » Wed Aug 20, 2014 9:46 am[/url]":1q10297a]
Would still be a good idea to take it to a local shop and have them check the flow at least.
Usually they won't even charge for that.
+1
If your bike does have a tendency to run hot even after the new water pump etc I would then be inclined to suspect your radiator. As it is not that big of a job to get the radiator out you could wait until funds permit if there is a problem, just remember that when you are riding to adjust for any deficiencies in the cooling system.
 
OK thanks. I haven't ridden this bike yet, it was bought as a fixer, so I don't know how well the cooling system works. After fixing lots of other stuff and replacing half the stuff on the bike I just got it running with a vw carb, had to bypass the fan switch it didn't work. No guages on the bike either so can't say if it was running too hot in the driveway. I'll have to put the guages back on temporarily just for the temp guage. (If that even works,no idea)

Much flushing ahead...
 
Grit came out with the oil too, and it seems the water pump bearings desintegrated. Must have rusted to bits and failed big time. Outer bearing race came off like it wasn't even attached, much grit there, and at least a couple ball bearings are visibly missing from inside the water pump. What a mess, now how to flush the grit and crap from the oil areas of the motor is my next question... Can't just take a hose to that.
 
I flushed my 1200 with diesel just using a couple gallons. Let the drained stuff sit, strain and repeat a few times. Hopefully the "sand" is corrosion from PO using straight tap water. I have seen the innards of some where the corrosion reminds me of barnacles at the ocean, the stuff you see on some faucets where people have hard water. It crumbles easily. These would by gravity and flow end up there.
 
thats not sand, its likely aluminum oxide from within the engine casing.
You need to pull off the thermostat housing from the block. There will be a 10mm tube that runs throught waterpump to the thermostat. this is the bypass to allow some flow prior to thermostat opening. I will bet its clogged.
also suspect there will be corrosion within the thermostat housing.
 
[url=https://forum.classicgoldwings.com/viewtopic.php?p=128927#p128927:17tz8uj6 said:
joedrum » Wed Aug 20, 2014 5:17 am[/url]":17tz8uj6]
nothing like the flow of water in large volume to get it flushed ..i my view it beats 2 galions of anything

Are you suggesting I flush oil passages with water? (Maybe you missed where i explained there was also grit in the oil.) If so, then how do I get rid of all the water before putting oil back in?

I was scrubbing the front engine and impeller cover casing last night and there was rust where the impeller seats and indeed the impeller was so loose it was rubbing against the aluminum cover. Big obvious wear marks in the aluminum. My "sand" was probably bits of rust, pump bearings, aluminum shavings and chips off the bakelite impeller itself. Even though my case is a 1200 the impeller was Bakelite.

I'll take a look at the thermostat as soon as I figure out where that is and how to get to it.

Diesel sounds like a good solvent, engine has a fair amount of sludge too which needs something to clean it out, but I bet that will loosen a lot of dangerous grit. Maybe I should flush, then assemble, then run it with oil/atf, and drain again before wasting new oil again.

I can't believe what a costly mess this fixer has turned out to be. Absolutely everything has been a problem.
 
Top