I thought the same thing, but for $3.50 I figured I would give it a shot. I will naturally pull the lower hose to drain it.

At this point, i just see it being good for flushing out the soapy water and that's about it. We'll see tomorrow's results when I flush it again after the Cascade's been in there for 50 miles.

 

I always take off the lower radiator hose and backwash the radiator separately with the radiator cap on.

 

Even if it was during summer and you are probably safe, I would never recommend this as a good idea.

 

Iron + water= RUST!!!!

 

+1000.....rust will form rapidly in a iron motor running only water.

 

Latest Update:

I used the Prestone flush kit to flush out the soapy cascade water. It came out clear. I then put in Simple Green and let the Jeep idle until operating temp. Flushed it again, came out green followed by clear.

My heater was pretty pretty lukewarm. I started suspecting that the heater core was blocked up again.

So I disconnected both heater core hoses, and stuck my hose on the bottom hose and blasted brown goop for a while until it came out clear. Poured Simple Green down the bottom hose and let it sit for a while, then blasted it out.

I flushed the system with the Prestone kit, then removed the bottom radiator hose and there was soap in it, this leads me to believe that the Prestone flush kit doesn't really flush the whole engine. I then removed all the hoses and blasted the hose inside the engine until all the soapy water came out. Then I filled up with Distilled water and green antifreeze.

Conclusions:
1.) Prestone Kit doesn't really work, at least not for me.
2.) It's best to flush the coolant by filling and then draining everything, repeat
3.) I'm going to do this once a year so this doesn't happen again.

 

Latest update:

More brown goop, as if I've never cleaned it in my life. My heater works for about 2 days before it stops again. It just gets filled up with brown goop and I flush it out by removing both hoses to the heater core and jamming a hose under full pressure to clear it out. A giant stream of brown turd water comes out for 10 seconds and then my heater works great again. 2 days later, full of brown goop.

I removed the radiator again, flushed it clear. I just don't know where this much brown gunk is hiding. It's uncanny.

 

have you tried emptying your septic tank?

 

lol... oh my...

All joking aside, I have used the backflush kits for almost 20 years in every car I've owned or one where I've serviced it's cooling system. It is a very effective way to clear your system at home.

Seeing your latest post, you weren't running the backflush and the engine at the same time were you?

My Jeep had cooling issues when I first got it, and sludge. I installed the kit, as always and flushed it out a few times over the course of a few months after long trips.

(Un)fortunately, the POs damage was aready done and the plastic resevour tanks were leaking on the radiator so I replaced it and that ended all remaining discoloration problems for the past 3 years. Might I add, the PO was also using well water, just a thought.

 

oh, and I took the liberty of replacing the water pump since I was already in there at the time, along with the thermostat and found the PO had the gasket in backwards blocking the CTS and coolant bypass.

 

So, I read through all this thread, and I didn't see anyone post the fairly obvious question of -

Do you have a trans cooler?

If you do, the system can backfeed into the coolant, thus causing the milkshake. Usually it's the cooler line or bad o-rings.

 

I'm not sure how that could be possible unless the tank in the radiator that handles the tranny fluid developed a faulty seal with the rest of the radiator. That could get pretty ugly, but I've never seen or heard of that happening before.

 

I owned/ran a commercial fleet shop for 10 years, and we saw quite a few lots of the 90's Cherokees with this issue.

 

P.S. The XJ I just bought has the same brown milkshake, so I'll try to take some photos while I'm repairing it.

 

Just a tip for you. That brown gunk is the results of organic antifreeze breakdown. The new HOAT/OAT coolants will not protect a system that has rust in it,period. Flush it clear again with the Cascade routine. Let the engine run for at least 30 minutes with the cascade in it. Drain and flush,flush and flush. Get some distilled water and IAT (conventional green silicate antifreeze) Run that and monitor for brown color. If that happens repeat. The silicates will coat all the iron parts of your engine and seal the rust. After a year you can change back to the OAT antifreeze if you prefer to. Oat does not immediately coat engines with a protective anti-corrosion layer so that is why you end up in a endless circle. New clean engines from factory with air tight coolant systems are fine with OAT UNTIL their neglected.