Best Of

And, a few pictures of my corrosion cleaning experience.  I found nothing that hasn't been encountered here in the numerous (and incredibly valuable) sources posted before. 

What did strike me was how some of the hoses were tortured onto the ends of the convectors.  This is the passenger side convector.  It seemed to be actually bent and pushed onto the stub.  Everything worked against the hose: the little window the hose runs through from the rear convector locks it in a strange orientation, and the last few inches of hose has to be "pressed" onto the stub.   I intend to widen the little "window" back there for more hose room.  I'm going to put some spacers with longer screws to simply move the convector off the wall just a small quarter of an inch to allow the hose to take a straight shot onto the stub. 

This is the rear convector, driver's side.  The stub end going into the Alde tank was completely clean, just marked from the hose, maybe?  The hose out from the Alde check valve needed cleaning.  This was another hose that was manipulated to reach the proper position on the stub.  This one may be lifted just a bit to relieve the pressure on the hose. On the  passenger side of the rear convector, both stubs had the "ordinary" corrosion.

The Alde check/non return valve was corroded at both ends.  The side closest to the air bleeder valve had more corrosion, which made it difficult to remove.  (More on this in the "Changing out the Alde Glycol thread.)  I had cleaned the other stubs with scrubby pads, a bit of vinegar and baking soda, and finally a few strokes with a Dremel wire brush.  I wound up with the valve over by the kitchen sink, and realized Barkeeper's Friend is my go to aluminum cookie sheet cleaner.  It made very short work of the corrosion after slathering on a paste.  The pic below was just the BKF and a scrubby pad.  I used a minute with the wire brush to smooth things down.  My other stubs looked like the check valve after cleaning.  You can see the "wearing" on the aluminum, but none of mine were close to breaking completely through the structure.

There still seem to be more bulging spots in some connections.  The ones I can easily get to are the two hoses coming out of the expansion tank.  There are hose clamps there, but I'm not exactly sure what they are holding together.  Simple aluminum connectors?

I did not expect the corrosion in some spots to be so "goopy".  I know it probably meant that glycol had sat there for some time still in a liquid state, and the "goop" would eventually turn into the hard knobs that had to be ground off.  There was conversation in this thread about the Loctite and Permatex Gasket Sealant.  Is this "goop" and flaking we have seen in the past results of the gasket sealant deteriorating?  The sealant mixes with the glycol and turns into this paste?

And, last:  there have been some FB posts discussing some owners experiences with the corrosion cleaning.  One thread I looked at the other day has a comment about the hoses themselves.  Mark Turney pointed out they are simply ordinary EPDM heater hoses.  Maybe I remember one owner changed out a hose.  I wonder if the "forced" hoses, if replaced with something with more flexibility,  would be a good solution for a proper installation.

I will button this all back up in a few days with conformal coating and extra hose clamps.  I'm on the fence about the silicone shrink wrap so far.

I'm taking a Tab Yoga Merit Badge for this activity.  And I want to thank all the owners out there who contributed to this thread who gave me the confidence to do this work.