Using Cascade powder as a coolant system cleaner?

Yesterday afternoon I made a run to the auto parts store for a few things I needed in replacing the rad hoses on my Challenge Riviera. One of the things I wanted after getting a look inside the radiator was a coolant system cleaner/flush. It was pretty dead inside the store so the clerk was being excessively 'helpful' instead of just letting me browse around and find what I wanted at my leisure, and when I said I was looking at coolant system cleaners said, "Oh, you should just put some Cascade powder and water in it and use that to clean it."

I'd never heard of this- and don't have any cascade at home anyway- so I got a bottle of actual coolant system cleaner, but in doing some searching it seems that this is an actual thing.

Have you guys had any experience with this? If so, what's the proper way to do it?

Remove entire cooling system, place in dishwasher, run on sterilize pots pans and heated dry.

Or did you mean in the car.

That I can only guess.

After a mechanic friend of mine flushed his D-max cooling system with a small amount of CLR in water with excellent results, I did the same thing. I made sure to run LOTS of fresh water through it to make sure it was totally rinsed out, then refilled with DeathCool. That was a year ago.

So...to answer you question, I have no idea if Cascade works. But CLR appears to.

I have heard of a shop that did that. This was one of those things that my professional mechanic friends said that someone told them that some other shop did, and that was in the 80's. So, it's not a "new" idea. Still not sure it is a "good" idea. Just it's been done before.

DO NOT DO.

5 years ago, that might or might not have been OK. But now, modern post-phosphates dishwasher detergents will eat aluminum alive. Seriously, that E36 M3 will start corroding anything and everything aluminum in the system.

while you are there put some very Fine Sand in the Oil,It will keep it Shiney Clean inside too.

Not Not NOT!!!

Duke wrote: **DO NOT DO.** 5 years ago, that might or might not have been OK. But now, modern post-phosphates dishwasher detergents will *eat aluminum alive.* Seriously, that E36 M3 will start corroding anything and everything aluminum in the system.

As a kid, I remember my parents blamed the pitting on our table knife handles (which I believe actually were aluminum) on dishwasher detergent, and that would have been in the late seventies. Maybe this is one of those early things one learns as "fact" that wouldn't stand up to adult scrutiny. Regardless, it sounds like reality has caught up.

My 2012 Honda CRV has extremely poor Heat. The Honda fix is the flush the heater core with a 50/50 mix of water in CLR for 45 minutes using an external pump to circulate the water. Then to flush thoroughly, then recirculate freshwater through the system for 45 minutes and flush again. The Honda dealer on the small fortune to do this I did not take them up on it I'm going to give it a try myself once the weather warms up. I have the technical service bulletins with the instructions so I know it's something that Honda has done quite often.

Your mileage may vary.

Ok, I'm a seasoned appliance tech. I can tell you the main ingredient in ANY dishwashing detergent is bleach, DO NOT PUT THAT IN YOUR ENGINE. EVER. Also, don't call me or my workmates out to "fix it"!

Also, they took phosphates out of the soaps, that's why modern DW's have to run 3 hrs to clean your dishes. Many detergent also contain a rinse agent, similar to rainX.

Good to know that my skepticism was well-founded.

GTXVette wrote: while you are there put some very Fine Sand in the Oil,It will keep it Shiney Clean inside too. Not Not NOT!!!

When I had a Honda CX500, one of the warnings I had about how not to maintain the bike was to make sure that your antifreeze did not have any very fine sand in it to scour out rust. Apparently a lot of formulations really do this for antifreeze. And it's pretty bad for Honda water pumps.

Vinegar?

I've heard of Dawn being used in cooling systems to get rid of oil from leaking coolers.

I've used white vinegar a few times on GMs that were fouled by deathcool. The results were so-so, a lot of nastiness came out, but it still looked pretty disgusting after being rinsed out and refilled.

I'll try the CLR if I have to do one again.

I once used Cascade and the dishwasher to clean a set of Caddy wire wheel covers, wife got home before I took them out......I'll never use Cascade again for anything!!!

In reply to Dirtydog:

How did they turn out?

If I remember correctly, pretty good.

Did it on a couple cars;

C230 Kompressor had stop leak poured into the system to fix a cracked expansion tank, powdered cascade dissolved into boiled distilled water and then idled to temp, flushed out with hose and a couple drain/refills of distilled water. Did ok. Been a few years now, no apparent issues from coolant system.

MX-6, coolant was grungy so I figured it was worth a shot, distilled water and cascade powder, idled to temp and then drained, flushed with hose, filled and drained a couple time with distilled water. Didn't seem to do much. Did the prestone flush some time after that since it was still pretty grungy looking and the results seemed to be better.

Had a B18B1 on the stand and wanted to make sure it was cleaned out after finding the drain plug packed tight with crud. Removed what I could manually, did some internetting and CLR was said to be too strong so I used Bar Keeper's Friend with hot water and let it soak, probably would have been more effective cycling through but got some more stuff out, not much though. Passages were probably clean aside from the drain plug hole.

I'll most likely stick to the prestone cooling system cleaner from now on, the extra work of dissolving the powders isn't worth it to me + personal results not being noticeably better.