Posted by Gordon Maney on Wednesday, May 29, 2002 at 6:32AM :
In Reply to: Coolant Conundrums posted by Sean on Wednesday, May 29, 2002 at 0:37AM :
Yes, jacking it up is good, but if you are using the garden hose kit, you will succeed in flushing it all out anyway. if you did not have the kit, you can fill with clear water, run it again, drain, fill, run, drain, ad nauseum... until it runs nice and clear.
The wire is, in all probability, core wire. Cores made of sand and resin, often reinforced or connected with thick wire such as you describe, occupy the spaces intended to be hollow in the finished casting. The water jackets, for example.
After the casting cools, the cylinder block is shaken, literally, with a machine, and the sand, and hopefully, the wires, will come out the core holes (that are later filled with core plugs.... you call them frost plugs).
Sometimes pieces of this wire do not come out. I admit to not having been in an automotive foundry for years.... maybe today's precision castings are using a different core material that does not utilize the wires, but when I was young, this is how it occurred.
Do the best you can to get it out, and don't worry. It has been in there the whole time....
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