Barnacle Buster

[Targojoe]

Has anyone tried using barnacle buster? I have an F 36 with twin for 440s in it. I was going to suck up 5 gallons of barnacle buster through the raw water impeller and then shut off the motor when the bucket is empty and just let it sit for 4 to 6 hours. I see a lot of suggestions telling me that I need to create some sort of flu but that would be impossible if I’m trying to clean the risers. Any suggestions? Anyone have any success with this?

[prowlersfish]

Its good stuff , I do like RydLyme better . Both will clean out scale and growth and will do a great job on the cooler and exchangers . It works much better if you re-circulate it . I have had great results on marine growth in the coolers . I have not used it to clean out rust but they say it will .

[comodave]

I put Barnacle buster in both of my engines, generator and A/C units last year. I saw a drop in temps on both engines, 5 degrees on one and 10 degrees on the other. I didn’t recirculate it just sucked it in and let it sit for maybe 6 or 7 hours then started the engines and flushed it out. Couldn’t tell if it did anything on the genset or A/Cs because no temp gauges but I figured it cleaned them out also.

[WayWeGo]

I used a small bilge pump in a 5 gallon bucket to circulate through the raw water side of my heat exchanger, and changed flow direction half way through. The heat exchanger looked nice and clean when I was done.

After doing both engines, I ran the leftover fluid through my AC pump and let it set for about four hours. Definite improvements all the way around.

[prowlersfish]

Remove the engine zincs before doing it . It will eat up the zincs and the move it eats zincs the less power it has to clean

[tonydelgreco]

Just did mine same as "way we go". I pumped it into heat exchange and out before circulation pump. That motor is running 15 degrees cooler. I used this as an interim fix as I plan to change out manifolds and risers next season. Running through the circulation pump is not a good idea as it may harm the impella.

Tony

[WayWeGo]

We have a Sun-Dure aftermarket closed cooling system that the previous owner installed. The raw water goes from the pump through the heat exchanger and into the exhaust elbows. The remainder of the system is running coolant, including the manifolds.

I had an interesting conversation with Bob from Beacon Marine about how this system works. Apparently, Chrysler used a dual pump on the raw water side and a single pump to circulate coolant. The Sen-Dure system uses a single pump for raw water and a dual pump for the coolant. Bob was concerned that the single pump might not move enough raw water as the Chrysler big blocks put out a lot of heat.

[Captrichc]

Does anyone have any pictures or a video link to post. One of my engines are running a bit warm. Twin ford 351 mercs. Heat exchanger was replaced on stbd engine by previous owner about 2 months ago.

[tonydelgreco]

If you look on YouTube and put in barnacle buster there are a few to watch. That is where I started, and made system specific changes for my 360 Chrysler's.

Tony

[Captrichc]

If you look on YouTube and put in barnacle buster there are a few to watch. That is where I started, and made system specific changes for my 360 Chrysler's.

Tony

Thanks tony. That's what I did as well. I saw the solution on amazon for about 80$ in the concentrated version. Does that seem about right? I was going to do a full flush but I might just flush the head exchanger and then brine the elbows over the winter.

[P-Dogg]

Why pay for the name brand, when BB is just 85% phosphoric acid? Asking for a friend....

[Captrichc]

Why pay for the name brand, when BB is just 85% phosphoric acid? Asking for a friend....

I didnt realize that was the case. May just look for the acid then

[WayWeGo]

Barnacle Buster claims to have corrosion inhibitors to protect the metal in your cooling system. I don't have any way to verify that, but decided spending a few extra bucks every couple of years was worth the added insurance.

Now, if I knew somebody who had access to a great testing lab...

[P-Dogg]

I went off their technical data sheets, and MSDS....

https://trac-online.com/technical-data

[WayWeGo]

Yes, that is the problem. Like most companies, they do not want to give away any of their secrets, so the technical data is vague and the MSDS only has to list dangerous chemicals. With the concentrate version being less than 50% phosphoric acid, there is another 50% of unlisted ingredients that are not hazardous, but not likely to be all water.