Paseb

Hi all,

after reading a bit on how to remove the bumper cover and radiator, i finally get into it and was able to remove them. I had a coolant drop from the rad

Bumper cover took me a big 5 mins and the rad at least 1,5 hour.

I couldnt remove my wheel so it was a little hard to work the stuff behind the rad.

i have a picture of the fixed radiator, hope it will hold up, i will do my test today.

question about it, could i put only the hose to see if it still leak, or i better put the rad into his place?

Macster

The real test of a repaired radiator is that it holds pressure, coolant, when hot. If you can replicate these conditions with the radiator out of the car that's one thing. if not... put a short length of hose on the bottom hose connection. Clamp the loose end of the hose shut with some vice grips.

Put another short length of hose on the other fitting. Fill the radiator up with water tipping/tilting the radiator to make sure all air pockets are removed. Clamp the other hose's loose end shut.

Put the radiator somewhere out of the way and observe it for say 24 hours to see if you can see any fluid sign. Not a perfect test: no pressure; no heat (which can cause expansion and cause a repaired radiator to leak again at the repair; but at least it might save to the trouble of having to remove the radiator again if it has a leak this test would have found.

I'm surprised you just didn't replace the radiator. They are not cheap, but not real expensive either. A repaired radiator may not be a cheap solution if the repair doesn't hold.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Paseb

my concern is, can i put back the radiator and test fit the radiator with regular coolant, or i need porsche coolant??

let say, i fill the coolant tank, start the car and let the coolant comes to the rad and see if it leaks or not.

then, stop the car and remove *normal coolant* an put *the good coolant for a boxster*


thx for all the replies macster

Macster

If you want to test the radiator in use, then you can flush out any remaining old coolant with tap water then fill the system with just distilled water.

Be sure the cooling system free of air pockets. This can be tricky absent a neat gizmo that pulls a vacuum in the cooling system then pulls in coolant from a reservior to fill the system.

Once the system is bled and full of water you can run the engine get the engine hot. You can know how hot by the radiator fan behavior: Radiator fans should kick on at 212F and turn off at 205F.

Let the engine idle until the radiator fans come on. (Be sure the A/C is off.) To get the fans on you may have to run the engine speed up to 1500 or even a bit higher. Let the fans come on then go off then raise the engine speed again until the fans come on a second time. When the fans come on again shut off the engine. This will have the cooling system build max. pressure from the heat load the engine has built up.

However, even if the radiator is leak free after this, all you know is the system is currently leak free.

A repaired radiator can develop a leak at the repair point at any time. From just the first time it is subjected to heat/pressure to many many cycles after this. Some of course may never develop a leak.

But if you are happy with the system's fluid and pressure integrity then after the engine cold siphon out some water from the coolant tank, as much as you can, maybe a gallon or so, then replace the water with a similar amount of Porsche anti-freeze.

A problem with the above is just a gallon or so of anti-freeze may not provide sufficient protection against freezing where you live.

The cooling system holds around 4 gallons of fluid so just adding a gallon of anti-freeze is going to leave the engine a bit light on freeze protection.

I hate to have you drain all the water out again and add a 50/50 mix of anti-freeze/water once you have all the air pockets out, cause you have to remove the air pockets all over again.

But if you need the freeze protection 50/50 anti-freeze/water provides you gotta do what you gotta do.

Or if you have a lot of confidence in your repair, just flush the system and fill the flushed system with a mix of 50/50 Porsche anti-freeze and water and ensure all air pockets removed and test as I described above.

If the system shows signs of a leak, you can catch the fluid and when the engine cold drain the remaining fluid into a clean drain pan and fix the leak and refill the system with the fluid you captured and retest until you have a leak free cooling system.

Sincerely,

Macster.

Arick

Hi,
I do not know what area in Montreal you live in, but usually, radiator repair shops should be able to do a pressure test on a Rad. I live in the western part of Montreal and know at least one good place, if it can help?
Eric