[DeTomaso] A new 56,000 pound Pantera tool

[robert stewart]

A couple of weeks back John Taphorn and I were looking at the rad which is out 
of my car. The rad is a fairly new Fluidyne.  Given that the pipes off the rad 
are straight it was easy to see that an accumulation of RTV, rust and assorted 
unknown crap was clogging the rad.  


The Rad had come out of a car with a newly rebuilt engine (which blew before I 
got it) and water pipes that were rusted beyond belief.  Initial attempts to 
remove the junk included the use of long needle nose pliers, a magnet and 
connecting the rad to a garden hose.  The first two helped remove a decent 
amount of junk but not enough.  The garden hose was pretty useless as it 
couldn't generate enough pressure.

Then JT suggested a fire hose.  So off we went to the local fire station. The 
guys at the fire station couldn't have been more helpful.  They pulled a hose 
directly off a fire engine and we connected it with a piece of green stripe hose 
with a couple of clamps. The fire chief did caution --- if that is blocked up 
real bad the pressure might knock you off your feet. So with John and I 
clutching the rad they cranked up the fire engine.  With the first gust of water 
(thankfully we were still on out feet and not our butts) a large amount of crap 
came out off the rad. Water continued to flow and we got the worst of it out. I 
will probably hook it up backwards and put a filter on the get the rest of it. 


The guys at the fire station were fantastic to find the time and effort to do 
this.  Just one more tool to consider when working on a Pantera. - I believe a 
fully loaded fire engine weighs about 56,000 pounds.

Rob