Little weep from my radiator

[Reinhardtius]

Folks, I let my BJ75 sit for nearly two months, started her up, and noticed a little puddle of coolant coming from pass side bottom of the radiator. Darn.

I can take it to a rad shop and have it patched up, but do I have another option....to replace it?

The factory part is NLA:

RADIATOR ASSY
16400-58160

 

[OGBeno]

Radiator shop. Or customer unit. Either way, pay to play.

 

[CharlesHS]

There are aftermarket aluminum radiators available for about $300.

 

[Reinhardtius]

There are aftermarket aluminum radiators available for about $300.

Are they any good? I saw those on eBay.

 

[FJBen]

I haven't heard a lot of great things about the ebay radiators. Usually seems like the mounts break off and quality just not as good. I was able to get mine repaired, which I believe is the best way to go if they can fix it.

 

[FJ73Texas]

When I had to replace the OEM radiator in my FJ73, the ADRAD branded radiator was basically an exact copy of the OEM and bolted right in. Problem is that they are based out of Australia so getting them stateside is an challenge.

 

[coldtaco]

Where are the inlet/outlet located? Maybe a picture. Not familiar with the 3B. I might have something for you.

 

[Reinhardtius]

Where are the inlet/outlet located? Maybe a picture. Not familiar with the 3B. I might have something for you.

OK, thank you.

I'll snap some photos later today. The truck is down at the dealer (*queue horror film music*) having a stuck slave cylinder bolt taken out of the transmission.

 

[Reinhardtius]

@coldtaco The inlet and outlet are on the driver side. The “hole” is on the bottom left (passenger side). This is a LHD truck.

Here is a photo of the streams of coolant spitting out after a very short drive from the Toyota dealer to the house (less than 3 mins drive).

 

[FJBen]

Looks like a very easy fix for a radiator shop. Provided the rest is good and pressure tests fine I would do that.

 

[CharlesHS]

Looks like a very easy fix for a radiator shop. Provided the rest is good and pressure tests fine I would do that.

I agree with FJBen about having the radiator repaired. Here in the PI; I had my radiator repaired 3 times before it was fixed.
I decided to purchase a new radiator from Japan since the installed factory radiator is the original and was run on straight water for years.
The next time the radiator leaks... I will install the new one.

 

[coldtaco]

What I have will not work, the upper piece keeps leaking, metal too tired? Mine is for a 2H so inlet/outlet are on the right side. The core is basically new staggered 4 core. I would see if a rad shop can stop the leak but the metal may be too tired too.

 

[colby1979]

A good rad shop can recore your unit, all they will reuse is the upper/lower tanks and side mounting brackets. I cant really tell from the pics, is it leaking at the seam or from the lower tank?

 

[Reinhardtius]

It leaked from three cracks in the lower tank corner.

Repaired at rad shop for $40.

Can someone explain why the tanks cracked? Do I need to start saving for an aluminum rad?

 

[Gun Runner 5]

P.M. Inbound

 

[FJBen]

It leaked from three cracks in the lower tank corner.

Repaired at rad shop for $40.

Can someone explain why the tanks cracked? Do I need to start saving for an aluminum rad?

View attachment 2074670

View attachment 2074671

Coolant corrodes metal. It also affects metal depending on the type. Cast, forged, stamped, aluminum. How much it corrodes depends on the pH of the coolant. Once you start going down the pH levels, you can start going down the Cavitation path:

Cavitation-pitting is caused by vapor bubbles formed when the piston strikes the liner during engine operation. The energy generated during the combustion process and the side-to-side motion of the piston causes the liner to vibrate at a very high frequency. The liner moves away from the coolant fast enough to form vapor bubbles. “The vapor bubbles collapse against the liner surface as the liner moves back into the coolant. The implosion of the vapor bubble against the liner surface produces a very high velocity jet of water. This water jet removes material from the liner surface. The jet of water acts on the liner surface with a pressure exceeding 15,000 psi. This process repeats again and again, resulting in liner pitting.” Similair cavititation is happening to the water pump area,


What you are experiencing is just old metal and good ol' corrosion. Cavitation happens on all diesels, and probably isn't a bad thing to get test strips to make sure the pH levels are correct to help corrosion as well.

 

[Reinhardtius]

Thanks, folks.

I do not know if anyone can answer this with evidence from personal experience. If so, I'd like to hear from you:

I'd be a fool to reinstall this rad if it could crack while I am driving, and lead to an overheating 3B. That would be awful foolish if overheating it could fry my little 3B with only 43,000 miles.

If I get another radiator crack, and empty the rad, and the temperature hits the red, how likely will I be to destroy this engine? Can I just immediately shut down, cool down, and replace the radiator? Or am I F-ed to have overheated the 3B?

Speculations are welcome, but I'd especially like to hear from folks who've overheated under these circumstances and lived to tell it.

 

[FJBen]

Well, technically any radiator can crack and cause overheat issues. Lots of non-OEM radiators leaking, especially some of the plastic top ones. Hoses are a big concern as well. 1 split and good-bye head gasket if you aren't watching. (thats what happened to mine with the PO)

Being that the 3B is iron head/block it's tougher than say an aluminum head/iron block setup.

The temp gauge on these are more like suggestions on what the temp actually is. Getting a real gauge will give you a much better and faster idea of whats going on. With a good gauge, IF you have a leak or something you will probably watch the temp rise faster, unless you have a full on blowout of the radiator and it dumps everything out.

With 43,000 miles, I'd bet corrosion from sitting for long periods of time caused this. There are replacement radiators from ADTRAN out of Australia, not sure of the price. For me, with that low of miles, I'd just find a new radiator, flush all the cooling and replace all cooling hoses. With it fixed, I'm sure you will be fine for awhile, I just wouldn't personally drive it on long trips pushing it hard until I felt comfortable about it.

 

[Gun Runner 5]

In a lot of cases by the time the factory gauge indicates a problem you really have a "problem" and that's one of the reasons I've installed high quality temp gauges on virtually ever Cruiser I've owned.

 

[coldtaco]

If you read through my build thread you can read about my rad problems. My upper rad cap I think was just experiencing metal fatigue. I agree with Charles about installing a good aftermarket water temp gauge. I was quite surprised at the temps I was seeing compared to the factory gauge. That is why I get to replace the head gasket even though it is still young.