Question about Prestone Super Flush.. could it have damaged my engine?

Figit090

Fastest mk3 GT4 1/4 mile!
Jan 7, 2006
1,835
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Humboldt County
I was in the process of running Prestone super Radiator Flush through my cooling system when i ran out of time and had to put the car away before running it through for the reccomended time, and ended up leaving the water/chemical solution in overnight instead of the 10 or so operating-temperature minutes it suggested...

when i started it up the following morning i drove it up the road and back to warm it up and just as i was pulling up to park where i was working the exaust starts puffing white smoke and now i'm tearing my engine apart because of a BHG...

NOW.. weather or not the junk caused or just uncovered an already failing gasket i'm not sure... but i'm worried about what it did to the rest of my engine.

the stuff contains Sodium Citrate (68-04-2) for anyone who knows their chemicals and it has no warnings of leaving it in the car for extended periods of time, but a friend of mine mentioned it could have harmed internals such as the water pump...but i need to know for sure, he was kinda vague and may have been referring to another type of cooling system flush chemical that is much more harsh.

if anyone could help me on this...i need to know if this could have damaged parts of my engine now while i'm working on it or i won't have the willpower to tear down the engine again if i find out it did damage when i start her up for the first time in over a month.... it won't be pretty....:icon_evil

based on what my logic tells me i would figure it hasnt damaged anything but the mere idea that it COULD have, makes me ask. (it does mention that much longer running times may be needed if the cooling system is different than conventional types..i guess some have caps on the overflow resuvoir instead of the radiator... and there is no warning against long times of leaving it in the system...but still)

thanks!

-Figit
 

koulee

New Member
Oct 11, 2005
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It is designed to remove deposits, scales, calcium build up, etc. It is possible that there was enough gunk loosened at the same time to have caused a clog in the system that caused your car to overheat.
 

Figit090

Fastest mk3 GT4 1/4 mile!
Jan 7, 2006
1,835
1
36
Humboldt County
i wasn't running that long it was nowhere NEAR overheating.

My car puffed a little bit of white smoke on startup but it's cold here and every car does it so i couldnt tell if it was burning antifreese.. it may have already been blown.

before all this my temp gauge spiked a few times, a couple on the highway and then two or three times on the way to school...but it still ran ok so i kept driving it...waiting for either a decision on just doing the BHG job or waiting until it happened.

but yeah..i tested it twice to see if it was consistent and the car ran fine until it ran for a minute or so and then started chugging like a beefy musle car at idle ....any extra gas and it sounded sick...so i pulled her in and shut down... :(

I'm not so concerned as to if it caused the BHG (i am curious though), i'm mainly worried that it could have damaged something...i dont know what parts are exposed to the fluid in the engine so i cant tell if anything is at risk.... like some kind of rubber seal or gasket... metal even..i dont know.