Anyone had any success doing this and actually getting the sludge off the inside of the inside plastic.

Your favorite cleaner and gravel.

 

Shake, shake, shake.

You might want to find out why it is there. I am not seeing any sludge on a 14-y.o. car.

Edited June 13, 200916 yr by avk

He did that already. He just did a HG job.

 

 

When you shake, shake, shake don't forget about the pinhole in the tank.

 

Letting it set in the laundry tub full with cleaner helps. I usually do it with the gravel in there and shake it every so often for a day or so.

 

I pull the overflow when I send the rad out to be flushed on HG jobs. I also try and keep a few already cleaned ones around. Currently I have 3 in the laundry tub. Shook them this morning when doing laundry.

[...] I pull the overflow when I send the rad out to be flushed on HG jobs. [...]

A good point -- if the coolant reservoir has a lot of sludge, the rest of the cooling system might also, and need some attention.

Sorry for not clarifying, Dave is correct, I am just wrapping up a HG job. The resevoir is actually a good progressive indicator (for me at least) of oil buildup in the coolant and probable HG failure so I want it as clean as possible. I believe I changed out every seal and gasket I had access to. Drained the coolant completely. Very last thing before final coolant fill to radiator is to clean this tank. Then fill crankcase with oil, connect battery & hopefully it will work.

 

14 years with no sludge isn't that unusual for a Sub. Well actually now thinking about it, I heard the problem is with mainly 96-2006 and more so the phase 1-most problematic, then phase 2's. 14 years would mean you have 94 which was before that generation of HG's. Consider yourself lucky.

 

Thanks for the responses.

It's a 1995 2.2 l. The 2.5 looks like it was a market-driven redesign.

It's a 1995 2.2 l. The 2.5 looks like it was a market-driven redesign.

 

I have only driven the 2.5L and test drove a WRX SXT which really moved, but too pricey and too much to insure. The one thing I like about the 2.5L is the it has decent acceleration and not too bad on gas mileage. Are all the 2.2L's SOHC's?

Are all the 2.2L's SOHC's?

Yes, unless there were DOHC versions in Japan, but probably there weren't. They did produce 2.0 engines with DOHC heads.

Edited June 14, 200916 yr by avk

Update:

 

Got the resevoir cleaned before engine install yesterday by using mineral spirits, clean 5/8" gravel, shook it up, drained out and flushed with hot water. Then used a bunch of fast orange as this stuff works the best as a grease cutter. Shook with gravel & hot water, drained, then used paper towels to clean out residual sludge on inside walls with a long screwdriver, worked good.