PINE-FRESH

Now you might notice a weird tip for this issue, which suggests using Pine-o-Cleen. Let me tell you the story behind that. Many many years ago, when Holden Camiras were running about, I had a one come in that had a sump full of mayonnaise.

I knew not to immediately assume that it had a blown head gasket – there may be another cause, so do your due diligence. We checked it multiple times and were positive the head gasket was fine.

So I duly f lushed out the cooling system and the engine, put it all back together and the next day it had oil back in the cooling system. The customer was okay but not really happy. After spending the next four days and wasting copious amounts of oil and coolant, I was beginning to pull my hair out.

I contacted quite a few people and ended up talking to a mechanic who was getting on a bit by then. He said, “Mick, take the water pump off – the problem will be there.” I explained there was nothing wrong with the pump and it was working perfectly. He told me to have a look. So off came the pump and we discovered that behind it Holden had decided to fit an Allen-head plug into the block. Cavitation had eaten away at it and there was the leak. Unbelievable.

So I rang him back to say thanks, we’d fixed it, but we were having so much trouble f lushing the remnants of the oil out of the cooling system. He said, “Mick, go buy yourself some Pine-o-Cleen.” That was 35 years ago and I’m still using it today. In fact, I keep a few bottles on the shelves.

I don’t know how or why it works. It has to be original ‘brown’ liquid and you throw it in with the coolant, let it run around for a week so the oil emulsifies with the coolant, then change it all over. It doesn’t hurt anything, your heater smells ‘pine-fresh’ for a while and it works a treat.

Okay, is there a chemist out there who can explain that one to us? Drop me a line via uniquecars@aremedia.com.au