DIY Radiator reconditioning
I've been having some heat issues on the ol' slant for the past few months and have determined that I have a flow problem..(stays cool in traffic and gets hot on the hwy)... Short of buying a new radiator or having mine professionally "fixed" I decided that I would tear into an old 19" radiator that I had kicking around to see if I could fix it (how hard can it be right?! )....
Tools needed:
Solder sucker
propane torch (with a heat gun as an optional heating source to bring the temp up before using the torch)
plumbers solder
Solder flux
small flat head screw driver
Wire brush
fish tape (used to clean the tubes) or something to run down the tubes to clean them.
The process was as follows:
1. Remove mounting flanges (torch to the top and bottom where they wrap around the top and bottom tank.)
2. Remove as much paint as you can from the tank flange with the wire brush. burning paint is bad for you!
3. Heat the top tank with the torch and use the solder sucker or unsoldering wick ( I actually turned the radiator upside down so the solder would just drip out once melted, but I still needed to use the torch with the wire brush to get the last little bit out. Also try not to heat the tubes as they may come unsoldered from the top. After you remove the majority of the solder from the top tank seam I needed to hang the radiator a few inches off the ground by the fill hole while heating the whole tank with the torch and a heat gun to get the core to "fall" away from the top tank.
The picture is what I found when the top tank was removed.....
out of the 32 tubes shown, only 10 are fully open and some are completely plugged.... AND this radiator cools the car just fine while in traffic!!! ( I had this one in the car before I switched back to the 22" )
I haven't snapped a pic of the cleaned cores yet but some were actually plugged with solder and not from the unsoldering process. ports 7,8,9 from the left on the bottom.
As for the reassembly it should be as simple as fixing a copper pipe in your home! but I'll post my findings after tonight. I have to put the upper hose port back in because it fell out from the heat unsoldering it.
I've been having some heat issues on the ol' slant for the past few months and have determined that I have a flow problem..(stays cool in traffic and gets hot on the hwy)... Short of buying a new radiator or having mine professionally "fixed" I decided that I would tear into an old 19" radiator that I had kicking around to see if I could fix it (how hard can it be right?! )....
Tools needed:
Solder sucker
propane torch (with a heat gun as an optional heating source to bring the temp up before using the torch)
plumbers solder
Solder flux
small flat head screw driver
Wire brush
fish tape (used to clean the tubes) or something to run down the tubes to clean them.
The process was as follows:
1. Remove mounting flanges (torch to the top and bottom where they wrap around the top and bottom tank.)
2. Remove as much paint as you can from the tank flange with the wire brush. burning paint is bad for you!
3. Heat the top tank with the torch and use the solder sucker or unsoldering wick ( I actually turned the radiator upside down so the solder would just drip out once melted, but I still needed to use the torch with the wire brush to get the last little bit out. Also try not to heat the tubes as they may come unsoldered from the top. After you remove the majority of the solder from the top tank seam I needed to hang the radiator a few inches off the ground by the fill hole while heating the whole tank with the torch and a heat gun to get the core to "fall" away from the top tank.
The picture is what I found when the top tank was removed.....
out of the 32 tubes shown, only 10 are fully open and some are completely plugged.... AND this radiator cools the car just fine while in traffic!!! ( I had this one in the car before I switched back to the 22" )
I haven't snapped a pic of the cleaned cores yet but some were actually plugged with solder and not from the unsoldering process. ports 7,8,9 from the left on the bottom.
As for the reassembly it should be as simple as fixing a copper pipe in your home! but I'll post my findings after tonight. I have to put the upper hose port back in because it fell out from the heat unsoldering it.