radiator leak :(

[apollas]

So I filled up my koyo radiator today with fluid thining Im going to finally run the car out of the driveway until i noticed there is a small leak on the radiator itself near where the lower radiator hose connectes... It was most likely due to my intercooler pipings vibrating against it.

Is there a way to fix leaking radiators? My leak is equivalent to small droplets of water dripping...
Modified by apollas at 11:30 AM 12/17/2007

[gawdzilla]

make sure its not the lower hose connection first. you might be able to get it welded if it is the radiator...

stay away from those radiator "stop leak" products. they'll clog your water passages.

[govtworkhorse]

[apollas]

i went back and inspected the radiator today, it is a edefinite puncture from my hose clamp...grr

as for welding it someone else also suggested jb welding too. how stable is it after the weld?
Modified by apollas at 9:13 AM 12/14/2007

[Joe]

you sure its not leaking from the hose? its kinda hard to break through a radiator with a hose clamp

and dont jbweld it. go to a shop that can weld on aluminum and have them tack it closed IF it actually is a radiator leak.

[apollas]

ya it is for sure a puncture, it was from the 10mm bolt that was on the clamp. i hear welding can fix cracks no prob, but i dont know bout the hole aand the hole is no bigger than the end of the bolt

[Kansei240sx]

If you want a temporary fix and its small, crack an egg or put some black pepper in the radiator cap. Once the car heats up the pressure will force the material of your choice up against the crack with pressure.

Whatever you do, dont use STOP LEAK products. That possibly the worst possible thing you can do to a cooling system. Quick steel MAY, and i say MAY hold up against the neck on that. if it does its good to go for quite some time.

[Bronze MFP]

how is an egg any better than those stopleak products? they're all going to clog your water passages!fix the problem right the first time, don't jeopardize your swap for a cheap fix.my god people...

[Joe]

how is an egg any better than those stopleak products? they're all going to clog your water passages!fix the problem right the first time, don't jeopardize your swap for a cheap fix.my god people...

THANK YOU

****ing ghetto *** people.

[apollas]

alright, so it sounds like im gonna go with the aluminum welding route. is the aluminum welding route considered as a temp fix or can it be long term?

[Bronze MFP]

thats as long term as it gets minus buying another radiator all together. now if you don't move your intercooler couple where it doesnt hit your radiator, then anything you do will only be temporary

[BoostFab]

i dont even see why this post have gone this long. your only right thing to do is take out and have it welded properly. and sandwich something betw the radiator and the interdcooler bolt so it wont happen again. geez people.

[s14 2510's]

these radiators are held togeather by nothing other than soder. I would just clean the aria up and put some flux on it. Then use a sodering pencil and melt some new soder on that spot. I make industrial radiators for a living. this is what i would do. It olney holds 20psi max. We have to pressure test our radiators to 350psi to see if they dont leak.

[apollas]

do you guys know about how much pressure runs thru the radiator on average? and its peak?

[shally2186]

JB weld works...not sure how long tho....DO **** RIGHT tho and just get it welded..then u won't have to worry about it again

[BoostFab]

these radiators are held togeather by nothing other than soder.

koyo are tig welded.

JB weld works...not sure how long tho....DO **** RIGHT tho and just get it welded..then u won't have to worry about it again

if you want to go cheap and diy route; get jb weld and a piece of metal to cover the hole. and put bunch of jb weld on between and over the piece. it will work. i had it on my stock radiator for years, never had a problem.

[apollas]

Good to hear you had experience with jb welding Boostfed...I am not very experienced in welding materials but the JB weld you guys are talking about are the ones that comes in tubes @ your local store correct?

[shally2186]

yea it comes in two tubes..u mix them two together about half and half and put it on...for a faster cure tho use JB quick..it cures in like minutes..i actually have my rad JB welded now and no problems..

[Kansei240sx]

THANK YOU

****ing ghetto *** people.

lol, i never said it wasnt ghetto. I was just saying you could do it. I've never done it myself, but it works.

An egg is easy to clean out of a cooling system compared to stop leak products which DO fix leaks, but they also fix the leaks known as the coolant channells int he heater core and radiator which ARE essentially small leaks.

You are on edge too much man...ctfo. :P

[shally2186]

oh yea..u can get it @ home depot or lowes

[s14 2510's]

What hold all them fins in? They just float there for the fun of it. the fins are held in by soder. Its a no brainer the end tanks are welded on. But we were not talking about the end tanks. I just never trust epoxy ive always had it crack and leak over time. At max a radiator sees 20psi. Fix it the way you want but the way i fix them you would never tell it had a leak. Dont weld it your just going to burn up all the fins around it.

[Kansei240sx]

The fins aren't going to burn up. The only way i can see them getting damaged is if you were stupid and tried using acetylene welding on it. With a TIG or MIG, welding aluminum is a lot quicker and accurate depending on the welder.

Every radiator i've ever had leak on me, i used quick steel for a fix to keep me going for a week or so until i could buy another actual radiator. Solder has a possiblity of working but most of the time that **** ends up being really flimsy anyways. I'd just say just ditch the koyo aluminum and get an SR20 style radiator thats made out of copper or even another aluminum one that doesnt suck. The problem with RB and KA radiators is that they have the inlet and outlet on a drop flow radiator on the same side above and below each other. The fluid in some cases becomes stagnant not allowing the entire radiator to see near full efficiency. SR or VG radiators Go from one side to another top to bottom, but are still drop flow radiators.

[Bronze MFP]

on average the cooling system will see up to 1bar (14.7psi) of pressure. with pressures like that i'd have to sayegg fix = failjb weld = failsolder = fail

[BoostFab]

What hold all them fins in? They just float there for the fun of it. the fins are held in by soder. Its a no brainer the end tanks are welded on. But we were not talking about the end tanks.

you meant brazed. if that's what you are referring to, the core is brazed, and the end tanks are tig.

apollas: this thread is useless w/o pics. post one of the exact location of the leak.

[Carl H]

wait, am i to understand that a worm gear clamp ate thru a cast al end tank?

[apollas]

you meant brazed. if that's what you are referring to, the core is brazed, and the end tanks are tig.

apollas: this thread is useless w/o pics. post one of the exact location of the leak.

ya you got it, ill take pics tommorow of the radiator and post

[s14 2510's]

you meant brazed. if that's what you are referring to, the core is brazed, and the end tanks are tig.

I braze industrial radiators for HVAC units for a living. Koyo dosnt braze there radiators. When they make the cores of Koyo radiators they dip them in soder to hold the fins in place. The fins are real thin to begin with. I had a koyo for my rb20 swap with a hole in it. I fluxed the spot and melted a small amout of soder onto the hole. I took the pencil and melted it around the hole for a while to get the flux out from under it. Then i put 2 more layers of soder on top. We have a 5000 gal tank at work to pressure test the radiators we make. We test all our hvac units at 350psi in 105f water. After I patched the radiator i took it to work and brought it to 40psi with a regulator and it held for 30 min just fine. Patch your radiator how you want. I was just telling you how i did mine and its held fine so far. My hole was in the middle of the radiator. I didnt wreck or melt any fins or cooling passages repairing my rad. One could probly weld the hole shut if they didnt care about wrecking fins to fix the hole. I have used soder to repair ditbike radiators that get small leaks. If the holes in the end tank just weld it.

[BoostFab]

Koyo dosnt braze there radiators. When they make the cores of Koyo radiators they dip them in soder to hold the fins in place.

i'm not trying to get into an debating show down with you, but the fact is Koyo, Fluidyne, and amongst other performance aluminum radiators are NOCOLOK-brazed; go figure...

[apollas]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2...1308/

I ran a hose through it today and it was leaking from there for sure

[nizmo zilvia]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2...1308/

wtf is this garbage? i cant see anything.