Which was my initial thought after reading Mike E’s posting. The aluminum head would/should show signs of pitting from oxidation of the aluminum, given the amount of the deposits. Which begs the question, has anyone looked at or removed the aluminum heads from an engine block that shows these deposits ? SD
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No, but I have seen both types of white deposit on my engine:- crystalline under the hose joints and at the water pump; powdery on the manifolds.
kind regards
Marek
I had similar deposits from my original V12 after sitting for 30+ years - very much like Mr Crawford.
I first discovered my problem when removing the water pump - it was locked tight. I freed it by getting a large turkey pan and cooking it in a few inches of water on top my shop stove.
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Heads and block were hot tanked and still needed me to dig out some of that crap from around the cylinder liners with a long screwdriver and paper towels
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In the few occurrences that I found of that kind of gunk in cooling systems, the only reliable method I found to get it all out, was long and laborious mechanical removal.
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Steven
You will hear about bad experiences and horror stories about pulling the heads. However, I used four pullers and got both of my heads off in a couple hours one afternoon without incident. Maybe it was just beginner’s luck, but with four pullers it makes it possible to pull the head up slowly and evenly. The real problems come if the head starts coming off crooked and jams on the studs.
Good luck
from Craig’s feedback, it seems that the deposit is desicated coolant, and hot water is able to soften it.
Of course, you’d need some hhuge turkey pan to cook a V12, but could vapor / very hot water help to shift it ?
And the link below appears to confirm (?) that degraded anti-freeze is the culprit. A 5 minute worthwhile read…
SD Faircloth
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To deal with the deposits I did boil some of the coolant-gunked parts like thermostat housings in a big pot of water on a hotplate and did find that it helped, but not as much or as quickly as I had hoped. I still needed to do some mechanical removal after 1/2 hour or so. I do not think it would be possible to pump enough super hot water through the block of a non-running engine to have much impact on the deposits there.
Craig, I see you referenced me as “Mr. Crawford.” That is very nice and respectful, but it mostly just makes me feel really old. 
Rod
Hey! we’re all on the same train – just have seats in different cars
(*) that’s cuz I couldn’t remember your log-on name and was too lazy too search for it
(**) feel really old - it beats the alternative but each day I reconsider the benefits
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More likely you were pulling heads from an engine owned by somebody who knows the value of regular coolant changes. That makes a BIG difference.
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