Has anyone used the ready lime (not the brand name) to descale their outboard

[Chris1956]

I pumped this stuff thru my motor for 4 hours. I am not sure it made a difference. Any other opinions?

 

[rolmops]

Next time, just use a few gallons of vinegar with salt added. Does just the same and is probably even cheaper. I usually just try to fill up the cooling system completely and let it sit for a couple of hours to get it to soften the calcium inside and then I run the engine to rotate the stuff. Then I give it a good flush.

 

[Pmt133]

I used the one that starts with an R on my diesels and inspected the heat exchanger before and after and it worked great. Diluted HCL would probably also work as does vinegar but I had it on hand from work and figured why not.

 

[Chris1956]

Gee, I am not sure how to fill and seal the cooling system of an outboard. I doubt vinegar will do anything. What is the purpose of the salt?

 

[dingbat]

I doubt vinegar will do anything.

Calcium is very susceptible to acidic solutions. White vinegar being one of them.

Lots of commercial descaling products on the market. We use this to clean buildup out of our aluminum coolant housings

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[rolmops]

Next time, just use a few gallons of vinegar with salt added. Does just the same and is probably even cheaper. I usually just try to fill up the cooling system completely and let it sit for a couple of hours to get it to soften the calcium inside and then I run the engine to rotate the stuff. Then I give it a good flush.

A solution of 2 parts of vinegar and one part of salt makes hydrochloric acid also known as HCL which is a very powerful calcium dissolving acid

 

[Chris1956]

You realize that vinegar and salt mixed together is not HCL, right?

There are 10K perpetual motion machines on the internet as well. Those are crap as well.

 

[Pmt133]

I mean technically you get a very very dilute amount of HCl but the reaction heavily favors the reactants. There are much easier ways to make HCl if one was so inclined...

The added salt maybe increases ionic strength of the solution a little. Which might help. But you can dissolve a seashell in vinegar as is so it probably isn't needed... just time...

 

[Chris1956]

It is more useful to add a bit of garlic and onion powder and some oil to the vinegar and salt mix and pour it on your salad.

 

[Pmt133]

I put it on chips

 

[Lou C]

I thought of using this or barnacle buster in my old inboard, I don't have cooling problems though, so haven't tried it yet. Any risk of damaging gaskets, either head gaskets or exhaust elbow gaskets?

 

[topgun3690]

Any risk of damaging gaskets, either head gaskets or exhaust elbow gaskets?

That's a good question, was getting ready to ask the same.......

 

[Chris1956]

Of course, the maker of the ready lime product says it will not damage gaskets and rubber parts.

Dangar Marine did a test where he soaked corroded cylinder heads and other parts in vinegar, salt-away and 20::1 HCL. The HCL solution was the strongest and it did not damage an impeller he soaked. The Ready Lime product is likely less damaging to aluminum, gaskets and rubber than HCL.

Dangar Marine's conclusion was that the vinegar did nothing and the Salt-away did almost nothing to clean the parts. The HCL did a much better job cleaning the parts, however, even he did not recommend using HCL as it is potentially pretty dangerous to both humans and motors.

 

[tpenfield]

I have run a 'descaling' solution through my outboards, as well as the heat exchangers on my I/O engines. Barnacle Buster is a descaling solution, but there are many other brand names of product.

 

[dingbat]

Any risk of damaging gaskets, either head gaskets or exhaust elbow gaskets?

The short answer is no.

HCL and sulphuric acid (“pickle juice”) has been used as a cleaning agent in steel production for years.

Aluminum and titanium are more reactive. Actually built a system for a customer to measure/monitor the material as it passes through the pickling process. Use speed and temperature (acid) to control how much material is removed