Decided to "clean" my radiator two days ago. As you can imagine, the lighting inside the engine compartment is not great. In the past I have sprayed the inside and outside of the radiator with a mixture of simple green and water, let it sit for a few minutes and then spray it clean with a water hose. The inside of the radiator is what can get "gunked" up with a rear facing radiator. In the past when I was cleaning it I was not really "seeing" how dirty it was. Two days ago I finally saw how much gunk was there, and probably had remained there from my past attempts to clean it. The build up was mainly around on the outside of the fan circumference, and, therefore, harder to see. I had to take a putty knife and gently scrape off a 1/4 inch layer of gunk (most of which I think resulted from the exhaust leak I discovered after our Creede trip, and was never completely cleaned out). This would explain why I have been seeing temps runs hotter than normal when climbing (on the flat the temps were normal). I would estimate that the surface where air was able to pass through was reduced by about 40%!!! I then mixed in extremely hot water with the Simple Green and reapplied it several times before spraying off. Much better, but still some left, so I am going to buy some degreaser at Auto Zone and see if I can get the rest of the residue off.
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