Radiator Mounting bad - fix or replace and Heater Pipe gasket (1 Viewer)

[South Texas 97]

Both the left and right side top mounts on my radiator have de-soldered themselves!
PO shows a replacement of the radiator at 260K miles in 2013. It is a brass radiator, based on the top cover.
Should I get it fixed or replace it with a new radiator - my feeling after some research is to remove it and get it fixed by a specialist radiator shop. Recommendations/feedback welcome

I will be doing the water pump/o rigs and all hoses anyway. some hoses are spongy, other small hoses on the engine are quite brittle. but I cannot find the P/N for the heater pipe gasket.

I have been looking for the gasket, it appears to be copper

is it safe to re-use this gasket, or should it be replaced - if so, where do I find this on the parts diagrams - in fact this entire pipe/hose assembly I cannot find, including the "T" near the firewall and the small hoses, do we replace these with suitable sized Gates hose?

 

[Spdstr280Z]

If the tabs came off, I would be worried about the rest of the radiator. New Koyo or CSF and new mounting isolators would be the direction I would go. The gasket there is a normal gasket, maybe someone used some copper RTV at some point.

Jason

 

[South Texas 97]

Asked and answered at least on the heater pipe assembly
I found this part number after a lot of digging around and image searching under heating & Air Conditioning Water Piping
Gasket 15785-66010

Thanks, Spdstr280Z, the guy at the radiator shop told me he would pressure test and check it in detail, for less than 100USD. Full rebuild would be more, so I figure it is worth a shot.
I have ordered new top and bottom isolators - bolts don't appear to be too rusty - so they should be ok.

 

[Spdstr280Z]

Cool, sounds like a good radiator shop, they seem to be few and far between these days. Gasket sounds correct, I remember being confused about the quantity in the full kit, and this is the same one used at the block to oil cooler.

Jason

 

[ToothDr]

I would not waste my money on a rebuild for that after market radiator. Install a new OEM TRad radiator and replace any hoses as needed. New radiator is approx $390

 

[Kernal]

No hijack intended, just sharing my experience when the same thing happened on one side of an all metal CSF radiator where the side mounting bracket tab that wraps over the edge of the top tank had come undone.

My local radiator shop no longer had anyone who could re-solder radiators
so I did it myself, but to be clear, I'm not an expert in soldering,

I used silver solder and a MAP gas torch after cleaning the area well with Emery paper to remove the paint and light oxidation, then a brass brush to get down into the crevices, some Carb/Brake cleaner to remove any oil, then the garden hose and CRC foaming degreaser on the entire radiator followed by rinsing it all off.

Preheated the area and touched the solder to the metal at the joint while keeping heat near the area.

IIRC I mostly focused on the oval hole in the tab figuring it was put there for a reason?? When I attempted to put solder around the outside edge where it meets the top tank some of the solder ran off. The factory soldered top tank seam also started to melt a bit but it rehardened no problem with a little extra heat directed to that area. The end result wasn't as clean as a factory job, but good enough IMHO.

Then took the radiator to the AC/Radiator shop (who didn't have anyone who could solder radiators) to do a flow/leak test and it came back fine. While there they offered me a job, really, if I wanted to come in part-time to solder radiators as they had lost the guy who'd been doing it for 40 years. I declined. I don't think my soldering skills were anything other than lucky super-novice first-time borderline acceptable, the shop was just desperate.

Trivia: the paint I used was Duplicolor Engine Ceramic Gloss black but it did not turn out glossy as the local weather was 60'F with 65% humidty when the radiator was painted. IME this paint seems to be sensitive to humidity much higher than maybe 50% as I had the same thing happen to a small part which I had to repaint inside the house and it came out fine.

FWIW I checked with Duplicolor before using this paint to ask if it was OK to use on a vehicle radiator, ie: that wouldn't be too thick to affect cooling efficiency, they said no, it would not decrease heat transfer if applied as directed and is a good paint for that application.

Having said all that, if money is no object, new TRAD radiators are nice. Purpose of posting this was just to show that the side bracket can be re-soldered IME.

Here's a photo:

 

[leonard_nemoy]

If your doing all the work of removing the radiator you might as well just install a new OEM radiator. Than you could take your time and get the old one repaired/rebuilt and keep it as a spare.

 

[Kernal]

^^^Agree^^^. But then money often has to be factored into the equation and swapping a radiator is just a few hours of work at most. I'll likely swap the repaired "free" CSF radiator (which saved $450 over a new radiator) into my 96 FZJ80 that has a damaged radiator. FWIW.

Problem with spares I've discovered; you rarely need them and they take up a lot of space.

Forgot about the $100 charge to "inspect and test" the OP's radiator; that's highway robbery, they'll likely "find" a leak and end up charging you as much of more than a new aftermarket radiator, or half that of a new OEM radiator.

If it isn't leaking now, and you don't manhandle it (don't let the brackets bend too far away from the core), you can resolder those brackets yourself IME and put it back in service.

 

[South Texas 97]

Thanks for the feedback Kernal. Well written and clear explanation.
will let you all know what gets done, with photos of course

 

[ChaseTruck]

Just FYI - on advice of several of my friends in AZ, we went with a TYC radiator for the S/C'ed '93, 2 years ago. The '93 lives in AZ, and the TYC was a significant improvement in cooling over a 4-year old Koyo.