lost a zinc in the charge air cooler

[magna 6882]

Today i changed my zincs in my QSB 6.7 and they were in surprisingly good shape. The bad news was the forward zinc in the charge air cooler came un threaded when i removed the brass plug leaving the zinc in the forward cap. I ordered the gaskets to remove the cap and get at the zinc. My question is will the zinc just dissolve in time anyway? Am i wasting my time retrieving the zinc?

 

[Comodave]

No, it most likely will not dissolve. I don’t like to leave them inside loose since they can maybe bounce around. If the anode is still stuck in the opening you may be able to get it out. I had this happen and took the cap off an anode and ground off the threads on the outside of the cap. Then carefully threaded it onto the anode and then pull the anode out. I since use some thread locker on the anodes before they are installed.

 

[twistedtree]

The loose zinc can also obstruct water flow through the cooler, so it should get removed. I've had this happen too and it's a PITA. Sometimes you get luck and can somehow grab ahold of the zinc and pull it out, but other times you just need to take stuff apart and fish it out.

I haven't used thread lock on my zincs, but I do tighten them into the plugs. But that can have the reverse problem when you need to remove the old zinc from the plug and the threaded stub is broken off and stuck in there with nothing to grab onto.

 

[SteveK]

Too bad the zinc does not have a reverse thread into cap.