Ok, pretty embarrasing to post this but here is the situation. I pulled my radiator to do some work on the car a few weeks ago and was re-installing it when my friend came over. He got under the car and grabbed the driver's side of the rad and I worked the passenger side up into it's home. He put the lower rad hose on while I put the upper on. I re-filled everything, burped the system and thought nothing more of it.
That is until I had it out on the road for the first time since doing this and I noticed I had no heat. I popped the rad cap a bit later and saw some stuff floating in the coolant. Figured it was strange so I decided to drain the coolant and see what was up.
To my surprise a bunch of chunks of shop towel (the blue disposible kind) spewed out into the drain pan. Turns out I had stuffed a shop towel in the lower rad hose barb to stop it from dripping and when my friend put the hose back on he didn't notice that the shop towel was in there...and in my moment of stupidity I didn't remember to tell him!
Anyway, I drained the coolant, pulled the heater hoses at the front of the intake manifold and flushed tap water with a garden hose through both hoses. I then also flushed tap water through both hoses on the water pump, and I pulled the t-stat but installed the t-stat housing and ran tap water through that way. All in all there was about 1/2 hour of water that I ran through the engine I would say.
I then re-filled and took it for a quick run down the road and back and noticed that I had heat again. A good sign! I did find when I got home that my t-stat housing was leaking coolant so I purchased a new gasket and went to install it last night. I cracked open the drain plug on the radiator to drop the coolant level and found a few pieces of shop towel again!
I then pulled the t-stat housing and found a few small pieces stuck in the t-stat.
So...help me out. Is there a method that I should be following to better flush the cooling system? Is there something I can put in the cooling system that will break the towel down and then allow me to drain and re-fill? Bleach, some kind of mild acid, diluted dran-o or something? How concerned should I be that I've completed plugged up the cooling channels in my block and around the head gaskets? Would taking the car to a shop where they can presurize the cooling system and push it all out be a good bet?
I'm guessing that this is something that doesn't happen very often...with my luck lately it figures it happened to me.
Any suggestions on how to fix it are greatly appreciated.
That is until I had it out on the road for the first time since doing this and I noticed I had no heat. I popped the rad cap a bit later and saw some stuff floating in the coolant. Figured it was strange so I decided to drain the coolant and see what was up.
To my surprise a bunch of chunks of shop towel (the blue disposible kind) spewed out into the drain pan. Turns out I had stuffed a shop towel in the lower rad hose barb to stop it from dripping and when my friend put the hose back on he didn't notice that the shop towel was in there...and in my moment of stupidity I didn't remember to tell him!
Anyway, I drained the coolant, pulled the heater hoses at the front of the intake manifold and flushed tap water with a garden hose through both hoses. I then also flushed tap water through both hoses on the water pump, and I pulled the t-stat but installed the t-stat housing and ran tap water through that way. All in all there was about 1/2 hour of water that I ran through the engine I would say.
I then re-filled and took it for a quick run down the road and back and noticed that I had heat again. A good sign! I did find when I got home that my t-stat housing was leaking coolant so I purchased a new gasket and went to install it last night. I cracked open the drain plug on the radiator to drop the coolant level and found a few pieces of shop towel again!
I then pulled the t-stat housing and found a few small pieces stuck in the t-stat.
So...help me out. Is there a method that I should be following to better flush the cooling system? Is there something I can put in the cooling system that will break the towel down and then allow me to drain and re-fill? Bleach, some kind of mild acid, diluted dran-o or something? How concerned should I be that I've completed plugged up the cooling channels in my block and around the head gaskets? Would taking the car to a shop where they can presurize the cooling system and push it all out be a good bet?
I'm guessing that this is something that doesn't happen very often...with my luck lately it figures it happened to me.
Any suggestions on how to fix it are greatly appreciated.
Worse things have happened I am sure. 
