Radiator Trouble

[bigtone]

AAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH

Yesterday, decided to get enough wiring together to start the engine up, now all the other mechanics are in place, and put water back in the cooling system, as we drained it all when we put the kenlowes in.

In goes about 3 litres, and we notice a pool of blue liquid appearing on the floor under the rad. It appears that where we've put the kenlowes in using the plastic mounts, one of the pipes has ben damaged, and is leaking

It's the original rad, we had it re-cored by Adrian last year, so don't really want to go to that expense again, but what are our options? Don't really want to go throwing radweld or bars leaks in to a clean system... What about solder - is there a good/easy way of doing this?

What a nightmare - 1 step forward, 48.5 back....

Tony

[John Mac]

If you can get to the damaged core to THOROUGHLY clean it and you CAN solder you may be lucky but I think it would be a tricky job to do and perhaps a bit too chancy.
I have used JB Cold Weld on a leaking radiator header tank and a petrol tank with complete success maybe worth a try but again you need to get all around the core to apply it and to clean it.
For a few pounds Rad weld may be the simple solution.
Best of luck.

[GreenV8S]

Got a similar problem from those plastic 'quick mounts' and I won't be using them again. (Mine took a little over a year to fret through the pipe.)

>> Edited by GreenV8S on Monday 10th March 12:43

[bigtone]

GreenV8S said: Got a similar problem from those plastic 'quick mounts' and I won't be using them again. (Mine took a little over a year to fret through the pipe.)

>> Edited by GreenV8S on Monday 10th March 12:43

Thanks for the replies folks. Supposing we can take the mount out, and find and repair the hole, and suggestions therefore on what we can use for the fans? What did you end up using Peter?

Thanks again, Tony.

[GreenV8S]

bigtone said:What did you end up using Peter?

The quickmounts were for a second fan. I've taken the fan off and I'm using the original fan. And lots of bottles of water until I get round to fitting the new rad, which will involve replumbing and new mounts etc. When I get round to remounting the second fan I'll use proper mounts onto the end tanks rather than through the matrix.

[davidy]

Tony

In my ex-Taimar, the Kenlowes were fitted to the chassis rail behind the radiator, not to the radiator itself.

From memory there were two L shaped bars for each fan, which I fitted to an upper and a lower chassis rail ro hold the fans.

Can't find any pictures at present, otherwise I could mail you one.

davidy

[John Mac]

Fitting the fan depends on the model. I have fitted some using Tie- straps through the radiator core and these worked well.

[davidy]

Found a picture, hopefully this works



davidy

[davidy]

Had a chance to sort it yet Tony??

davidy

[bigtone]

davidy said: Had a chance to sort it yet Tony??

davidy

Hi David - Not as yet, need to take it off, take the fans off, and try and work out how much damage there is to the core, which i'd like to start either tonight or on Sunday. I like the idea of the frame mounted on the chassis - we could get some angled aluminium and mount the fans on, then use some adhesive foam strip to form a decent seal with the back of the radiator, but we're still left with the damage already caused.

What would your views be on using radweld or barsleaks in a brand new clean system - i'd have thought generally a bad idea, but it does seem like an easy way around the problem.....

Thanks, Tony

[350matt]

I've got a suggestion although it is a bit of a bodge, ....
You carefully cut through the damaged vane at the damaged area with a junior hacksaw blade or similar, then using some long nosed pliers 'roll/fold' the vane back on itself (either side of the cut) a couple of times to seal it. Yes you will lose that vane but you get to keep the rad, also in my expierience this 'repair' lasts and if you were to solder it up you'd block that vane off in any case.

Best of luck

Matt

[minifix]

I've managed to solder a hole in the M radiator - still going strong after 4 years!

[bigtone]

Cheers folks,

I may well take it out tonight, and remove the fans (alloy now bought for mounting rack onto chassis...) to see what the damage is like, and how far inside it is. Mark, did you have to move many of the fins out of the way to get to the hole?

I'm guessing if it does get blocked with solder or JB Weld, or I bend the ends over, it won't affect the colling performance too much....??

Thanks again, i'll let you know how I get on.

Tony
www.tvr-3000m.co.uk

[minifix]

One core blocked won't make much difference, but if the hole is small the solder should flow on surfaces only. Just make sure that once the hole is sealed you don't keep pushing in more solder, as you can carry on like that for ages!
I was lucky that the core was the very top one, so I had to cut and bend the top sheet metal only. Moving fins is OK but keep it to the minimum necessary. If the hole is in the middle of the rad it may be really difficult to heat it - try a pen sized gas soldering torch.
Mark

[bigtone]

Well, I had a bash at sorting this out last night, and it seems to have worked (keeping fingers crossed.....)

I isolated the area where the water was coming from, and dropped some solder onto the leading edge of the tubes, where they would have been damaged by the ties for the fans going in, then topped up the system to normal levels, and low and behold, no water (still keeping everything crossed.

On the fan mounting front, i've got some alloy to make a mounting rack out of - I hadn't noticed before, but i've discovered four bolts, two on each side of the chassis, immediately behind the radiator on the angled vertical square section tube. If I mount them to these, the front of the fans will be within a few mm of the rad itself. To be finished friday night, a 1am finish this morning was enough...

Thanks to all for help and advice folks, i'll keep you posted. Diary entry on the site to be there within a day or so.

Cheers, Tony