Radiator Acid Soak / Bath (Muriatic Acid)

[227167_1454181677]

So I tried a lot of things. I tried running 20% vinegar with water, I even tried around FORTY DROPS of muriatic acid  along with water. Keep in mind, the drops went directly from a syringe straight into the rad that was about half full of water. The rad is a double 140mm and even after letting the forty drops with water sit for around 7 hours, I was not happy with my results. This is after I attempted a weak vinegar mix, boiling water, a heavier vinegar mix... Improvement was there but way too slow. After all of the above, the first image below was the result. Still tons of discoloration and corrosion...  So finally I said F*** IT. I grabbed the jug of acid which has a 29% acidity level, and I just dumped it in... straight. Nothing else. I let it sit for 30 seconds, poured in just a splash of distilled and shook for another 30 seconds... I wish I did this a lot sooner because you can't argue with the results. Previously the liquid was coming out clear or with just a slight blue tint. After the acid bath, it came out black. I'm so happy with the results, but keep in mind, I can easily see this damaging your rad if you're not careful. There's no way it even sat in my rad for more than 2 minutes. I imagine this could easily eat a hole in one of the copper walls if you're not on top of it. Here is the before and after. Keep in mind, the before is still AFTER I tried vinegar, boiling water, and drops of acid with not much success. 

 

[W-L]

3 minutes ago, 227167_1454181677 said:

-SNIP-

Well goodbye oxidation, last photo looks brand new basically! 

 

Just a tip though if you have trouble getting it bright and shiny as long as it's copper a heavily saturated salt and vingear solution is really good at cleaning it, however that does seem like an unusually stubborn as vingear is usually more than enough. 

[Julian5]

Thats a bit savage on your rad mate, Filling my rad with vinegar works fne for me and the cpu blocks and keep in midn Im running a mixed metal loop with tap water.

[227167_1454181677]

Just now, Julian5 said:

Thats a bit savage on your rad mate, Filling my rad with vinegar works fne for me and the cpu blocks and keep in midn Im running a mixed metal loop with tap water.

Yea, I really don't know why my case was so stubborn. I didn't want to do it and devoted all of yesterday trying to do this the "Right" way. Hopefully next time I don't have to resort to these measures, but yea, I just wanted to share my success story, even if it was a bit dangerous. 

[Eddie Current]

I wouldn't advise anyone to use Muriatic Acid and I hope that all works out good for ?(227167_1454181677).