DIY Radiator reconditioning

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player1up

player1up

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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.

IMG00503.jpg
 
Well the radiator went back together and does not leak so far, I had to rig up something to pressure test it but could only put about 6psi into it with a bicycle pump before my rig started leaking. So I'm a go for this weekend for the one in my car. here is what it looked like after I cleaned the cores. (I did straighten the openings before putting it back together) The solder I used was the lead free plumper's solder from home depot (430* melting temp)

Over all, the hardest thing was getting the top tank off without damaging the flange too bad. :)

IMG00504.jpg
 
That's why I think its sorta funny whenever some posts about over heating. They spend a lot of money replacing water pumps, thermostats, hoses, belts, putting on electric fans, etc. when the problem the whole time is their radiator looks like the before pictures. I have always believed that the radiator is the first thing to be addressed and then try elsewhere.
 
WOW! That's a major improvement there. I'm now tempted to find a radiator to tear apart and recondition for myself...or just to be able to tear apart/reassemble something.
 
dusterdon said:
That's why I think its sorta funny whenever some posts about over heating. They spend a lot of money replacing water pumps, thermostats, hoses, belts, putting on electric fans, etc. when the problem the whole time is their radiator looks like the before pictures. I have always believed that the radiator is the first thing to be addressed and then try elsewhere.
Click to expand...

yeah, It's the old nickel and dime problem, no one (myself included) wants to spend the $$ for the radiator but they WILL spend the same amount on 10 different parts to TRY to fix it......I just have no money to start with.. Mine has been eating at me for a while, keep in mind that this crappy flowing radiator was NOT causing the car to over heat, it was just causing it to run hotter at speed than in traffic.

All in all it cost me $12 for the solder, flux, and a soda at the depot..and some :clock:


pharmboy said:
WOW! That's a major improvement there. I'm now tempted to find a radiator to tear apart and recondition for myself...or just to be able to tear apart/reassemble something.
Click to expand...

Hell yeah, Improvement AND I got to tear something apart!!! :toothy10: It's my nature... a couple of weeks ago the wife dropped our 6 month old digital camera and since it was ruined anyway... I though I'd take it apart..... WELL I learned that the capacitors for the flash bulb will SHOCK THE EVER LIVIN CRAP out of you even after the battery has been removed for a day. :shock: and yes pharmboy, I "know" disaster in the biblical sense :lol:
 
I had a Cordoba that started to overheat but I was out of town every week ( truck driver ) during the weekdays. One Sat. I pulled the rad. and looked in and spotted some tubes stopped up. I was going to take it and drop it off in front of the radiator shop with a note but decided to try something. The worst thing that could happen was to cost me more money.
I rigged a holding bracket to keep the radiator upside-down about 1" off the concrete ( did this on the porch for comfort ). Placed a garden hose in the bottom hose (now on the top ) and started the water. I then used a rubber mallet to tap on the radiator every where I could without damaging it. I was shocked at the crap that came out on the floor. Put it back in and tried it. Problem solved.

One other thing I did that probably didn't help was I mixed baking soda in water and poured it in and kept the water flowing for at least 10 min. That was an effort to neutralize any acid that might have built up in the system.
 
Ive always wondered if you could put some CLR in your radiator with clean water and run it a few days and flush it if that would help
 
but I read that CLR attacks the solder in the radiator. If that is the case, you don't want to go down that road but it sounds like a really cool idea.
 
What did you use to clean it with and how much are you charging? LOL

Looks great!
 
Well, I pulled the 22" radiator on Fri night to see how bad it was, and it was worse than the 19 pictured at the begining of this thread...
IMG00506 (Small).jpg

Sorry the pics are so crappy (Phone camera),.... see explination in my last post...

Tarr, That is also a good low buck suggestion, but if I'm going through the trouble to remove the electric fan/wiring/radiator...etc, I'm going all the way into it.

Daredevil, I tried that first, and it did knock a lot of junk out of the radiator, but I was too scared it would leave me with swiss cheese to leave it in there for very long.

Rumblefish, It's all mechanical cleaning, wire brush and a fish tape to run down the tubes....

I know it's not brand new but it gives me some time to save up for the $400 griffin radiator.. :(
IMG00508 (Small).jpg

IMG00506 (Small).jpg


IMG00508 (Small).jpg
 
Player 1 .Do the racers still hang at colonial plaza on 50 on sat nights looking for races. I grew up in Ocoee 30 years ago.
 
daredevil said:
Player 1 .Do the racers still hang at colonial plaza on 50 on sat nights looking for races. I grew up in Ocoee 30 years ago.
Click to expand...

Wow man 30yrs is like a lifetime ago. :-D 50 is a big stretch of road, I'm in east orlando (W of speed world), but it's the same, always a crowd somewhere looking to get into trouble. There used to be the stunt bike thing down on orange ave. I took the Vmax there once just to see what it was all about, and never before have I seen so many psychos in one place.. except for bike week. The tuners have taken over, turbo charged anything zipping around waterford lakes.. even a couple of kids killed by stupidity :( most drivers but also some pedestrians. :angry7:

It's good to see you're still with us after IKE :cheers:
 
Eric_S68 said:
Nice Job Matt ! Comon over! I got 3 for you to practice on ! LOL !
Click to expand...
Don't worry it's not hard just time consuming.... but I did learn how NOT to do it :lol:

Hey, I might be heading out that way (space coast) this weekend for some parts. I might just give you a call.

It's amazing how bad the problem was with showing only minor signs. I do notice my temp gauge moves more now, but that is probably from hot coolant flowing past the sender. All I know is that before I cleaned it, (with the radiator out of the car) I could fill it with the hose in the top of the radiator and it would overflow the top with some flow out the bottom ... and now..put the hose in at full blast and it all flows out the bottom.
Again, I understand that it's not new and it will corrode again at some point but I figure I should get a year or 2 more out of it.
 
Excellent post Matt! I say sticky this in the tech archive. This is the kind of stuff that helps all us marginal budget DIY types!
 
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