Stupid radiator question.

[jeryst]

It was pretty hot the other day, and I was letting my car idle for a longer than normal period of time. It started to heat up, so I figured it might be a thermostat or water pump, so I drained out some of the coolant in preparation for replacing the thermostat. I happened to look into the radiator, and noticed a bunch of crap in there that looked like insulation or carpeting, so I took it over to a radiator shop. They said that it looks like, at one time, the radiator was open and a mouse built a nest in there, and the crap has been slowly working its way through the radiator cores, plugging them up.

DAMN MICE!

So anyways, I had the radiator re-cored, but now I have a question. I'm afraid that maybe there is some debris inside the motor, and if I put the radiator back in and run it, the debris will just clog it back up again. I'm afraid that even if I flush the system with a hose, not everything may come out, and that eventually, some of it will get back into the radiator and cause a problem, so here is my question.

Can I put some type of screening over the radiator inlet, then put the radiator hose on top of that, to catch any debris that may come through? I could check it every day to see if anything comes through. Is there any type of filter that can be installed in a radiator hose to trap debris, like maybe from a piece of heavy equipment or something like that?

[b5blue]

I think I would flush the engine and keep checking it, you can always clean the rad. out by removing it and back flushing it later. 

[jeryst]

I think I would flush the engine and keep checking it, you can always clean the rad. out by removing it and back flushing it later. 

There's no way that stuff will come out with backflushing once its in there, because it does let water pass through it. You should have seen the old radiator. The cores were just packed full of this stuff. When I tried to pull it out, it just broke apart, leaving the rest in there. It was totally nasty, and I'm surprised the radiator had any kind of flow at all. I was thinking that maybe there is some type of large, construction equipment type fuel filter that could be placed in the radiator hose to collect any remaining debris.