Remind me how to clean my radiators

[Scott & Heather]

Finishing up some final hoses and lines on the engine today and will hopefully be rolling engine and transmission back into my bus tomorrow. Once it's in and I've hooked everything back up, I want to pull my radiators before filling the system with coolant and clean them and replace the gasket material which is leaking ever so little. Two questions:

1. Can I clean the inside of the rads with automatic dishwasher detergent? Is that a thing? I will have them out  and on the ground so of course they will be cleaned and rinsed before reinstallation.

2. What material should I use to make the gaskets for the top and bottom?

[luvrbus]

You can buy the cork tape off Amazon, problem is most places sell it 100 ft rolls ,my local NAPA cannot get the tape anylonger he wants to sell it by the sheet and you have to much waste,a little tip when making the bolt holes in the tape is use a drill bit the right size and turn it backwards and it makes a nice clean hole beats a hole punch

[lvmci]

This worked on mine, lvmci...

[freds]

I have seen the Bus Grease Monkey use a long zip tie to rod the radiator in his videos.

[David Anderson]

Scott,

I pulled mine of my eagle 10 back in 2006 and had it cleaned by San Antonio Radiator Works.  That was 14 years ago.  You might consider having it done by an industrial radiator place near you.  They will clean it, reassemble, and pressure test.  At least check for pricing. 
David

[Scott & Heather]

Fred, no offense at all intended but I don't give any credence to anything Scott Crosby/bus grease monkey says. Just my thoughts.

That being said, I'll have to come up with the cork tape...and I can't find a rad place locally

[DoubleEagle]

Fred, no offense at all intended but I don't give any credence to anything Scott Crosby/bus grease monkey says. Just my thoughts.

I guess this means you won't be contributing to his go-fund-me page to raise money for a concrete pad so he doesn't have to work "in dirt" any longer.