As some of you may know, I have an all-trac celica that has been nothing but a pain in the *** since I bought it, and I am now trying to sell it, and I am fixing up all the little problems with the car so somebody may actually want to buy it.

I bought magnecor wires to replace the tired stock wires, replaced the cap and rotor, replaced a set of bosch platinum plugs with 4 miles on them with some $30 NKG platinum plugs, cleaned the intercooler out, and this is all in the last couple of weeks. It now runs like a bull...very strong (its no 951 though), but I have a new problem with it:

There is a pin-sized hole on the very top of the radiator that squirts coolant all over the bonnet whenever the car warms up. I would like to know what the best way to fix this is. I don't want to mess with stop leak since I have heard nothing but bad things about it. Is there a chemical bonding agent (epoxy, etc.) that I can use to plug the hole on the top of the radiator? It is miniscule, but will eventually drain all of my coolant. Help, please. TIA,

 

A good rad shop would easily be able to weld it... assuming that it is not one of the plastic end tanks. If it is plastic, try JB Weld.

Oh yeah, nice use of bonnet. Love those GB auto terms: lorrie, saloon, boot, tyres, etc.

Firestarter

 

I have not tried this but I would think if you can clean the area where the leak is and keep it dry for 24 hours I would think a good quality epoxy would do the trick.I would try cleaning with alcohol or acetone then apply a thin film of epoxy,let dry then sand and paint black if thats the color.

 

If the hole is in the end of the radiator, not the fin, you may want to try to drive a self-tapping screw into the pinhole with form-a gasket goop on it. I would be more confident about a mechanical, rather than a chemical (epoxy) bond. Also, you don't have to mess around with drying out the radiator first. Good luck.

Thaddeus

 

Ribs, I'll second Firestarter... if by 'top" you mean the upper tank, and thus easily accessable, it'll be simple & cheap to get a professional braze / solder repair done at a radiator shop.

This is assuming, of course, that the tank is brass & not plastic.... in which case I'd go with clean & dry, then epoxy.

Jim, or there's chewing gum....

 

Thanks guys. Its the upper tank (its at the very top of the radiator, dead center...its actually a small crack about 1/2 long, with a squirt action like a small squirt-gun out of the crack), and apparently the radiator is plastic(?), but where the crack is it seems to be made of aluminium (pronounced aah-loo-men-eeom). Here is a picture of the nasty spot I shot off a few minutes ago with my dad's crappy digital camera:



Circled in red is the cracked area, but unfortunately it isn't visable because of the flash/low light. It looks like aluminum, correct? Here is a shot of the whole engine bay, in which you can also see the funky spot on the radiator, and if you were ever wondering what a 3S-GTE motor looks like, you can see my dirty example of one (these motors also power the japanese GT racing 700 HP toyota factory supras, albeit *slightly* modified)



One option I have is to find a radiator out of an ST182 celica GT-S and slightly modify it to fit my all-trac, as per this procedure. I would rather just get this radiator fixed as it cools very well when it isn't spewing antifreeze. Thanks again for the help, and let me know what you think (and if I can try that JB weld, where I can get it, and what shops would otherwise be able to weld the radiator for me).

 

If it is AL get it welded up at a shop. Simple job but don't leave until you get the car good and warm & make sure it doesn't still leak.

JB Weld is good stuff made out of epoxy that has some sort of filler in it. They claim you can repair engine block cracks with it, but I'm not so sure about that. My experience with it locking up some studs and what not has been good. You can get it at hardware stores but I wouldn't use it if you can get this welded for a reasonable cost.

 

If it's aluminum, get it welded, if it's plastic, the JB will work - if you clean it well enough and let it cure. But spray a little semi gloss black on it and sell it fast before it heat cycles much. It will open up again eventually.

 

Hey Ribs,

Notice the Brass colour of the upper tank?

Tada! Its Brass.....take some sand paper, clean the crack area, scuff it up...get a propane torch, some flux and some solder...brush some flux on the area, get it warm and melt on some solder....I know you dont want to spend any money.

This is a very easy repair...I think you can handle it...

Hint: for a little more realism drop your pants in the back a bit for that 'plumbers crack' thing....LOL

Good luck slick...

 

Yep that brass will solder right up, be sure to get it really clean in the crack area before you go there...........to solder it.

 

FYI guys the JB weld only lasted a few weeks on the plastic radiator in my Acura. I went to a marine store and bought "marine tex" (i think) two part epoxy. That lasted about 4 months. I then tried the marine tex with some fiberglass cloth. that lasted 3 days, and the radiatior cracked where the patch ended.

I think the patch didnt expand or contract at the same rate as the rest of the plastic.

My crack was at the base of the spout for the cap, right at the right angle bend.

the cheapo radiators (150) are all metal. the expensive modine (210) is plastic. Needless to say i am a masochist and have only the finest in my car.

As I keep the marine tex in a handy place (like i'll have the car in 8 years), I wish you good luck!

 

All right...I called around to a couple of places, and only 1 place was willing to fix the radiator, and they wanted $80 to do it (almost as much as I could get a new radiator for). They said they would use flux and solder to fix it.

I think I can do this myself...but I have never played with (or owned) a blow torch. I have no idea what flux is either. I don't know what kind of solder to use. Can anybody clarify the finer points of this? It seems easy enough...so...where do you suggest I get the flux, solder, and blowtorch from? Is there anything else I need to do besides sand and clean the area I am going to patch real well, brush the flux (what ever flux is) on the area, then use the blowtorch to melt a strip of solder over/around the crack? TIA,

 

All right...well...as soon as I went into sears to find a blow torch and was looking over the different solders they had, I saw one type made for non electrical applications, acid flux core, 475 deg. melting temp, for tools, radiators, and other automotive applications. I figured this is the stuff, so I bought it and a $12 propane torch. I cleaned the bad spot up real well with sand paper and then steel wool to remove the metal dust, swabbed it down with a wet cloth, dried it, heated it up with the torch, melted the solder on it, and it kept missing the crack. I melted all of the solder off, and tried a couple more times until I got the solder to stick over the crack and formed a small mound of solder...exhibit a:



I cleaned off the solder with a damp towel after it cooled to remove the remaining flux, and now I am anxious to see if I fixed the leak. I am going to go rock the car for a couple of hours to see if it leaks...hopefully it won't. Thanks again guys...I hopefully did in 10 minutes with $17 worth of supplies that I get to keep what the radiator shop would have charged me $80 to do (that is what they quoted me and explained they would do pretty much the same procedure). I'll let you know if it leaks again.

 

Argh!!! Damn...after I fixed the big leak at the top of the radiator, I noticed 2 or 3 more small leaks dripping along the fins in the radiator core . Looks like its time to get a new radiator. NTM there was 1 small drip out of the solder job I did . At least there is no squirting and no risk of getting sprayed in the eyes with boiling coolant (happened to me yesterday), and the car is at least drivable without loosing all of the coolant in 10 minutes (it should last at least a couple of hours I am guessing). Well, thanks for the help guys...I am going to ask the celica guys where to get a new radiator. At least I have a torch now .

 

Good deal dude. Now you learned somethin new. Next you'll be soldering random things together..LOL

Sounds like a new rad is in order.

Good luck slick.