DS Radiator Flushed
The vinegar flush I tried yesterday removed a lot of silt from the DS radiator. Each of the bottles I captured the old coolant in had a fairly decent layer of sediment in the bottom the next day. Despite the flushing, the radiator still looked dirty, so I used the bottle of Wynn radiator flush as well. It also removed a fair amount, although not as much as the first go with the vinegar.
My new thermostat is still on order (I ordered the 75c), so I took the car for a test drive (just using plain water) and it is better. Instead of staying near the top of the normal range, the temperature gauge stayed at around 2/3, and when it did go high it was able to come down faster. The radiator and top hose were also much cooler using the infrared thermometer.
Looking down into the radiator, the core seems more of a silt colour than bare metal, so I may consider another flush before I refill with distilled water & coolant.
the lesson from this is that using proper coolant with regular changes is important. Rainwater will just end up with a lot of silt in the system. The DS radiator is marginal in the hot Australian climate, so making sure that the system is clean is vital.
Update, 2019: I have since added a supplementary electric fan like the Fuel Injected model.
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