Radiators

[chevdog]

Just thought I would pass this along - this is my third time to use www.radiatorbarn.com to order a new radiator thanks to a road puncture on a 3 year old Olds [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
I ordered the radiator early this afternoon and it will be delivered via UPS tomorrow. That's pretty good in my book.
Price was $65 less than my cost at a local auto parts and this is for a new GM unit.
The last two times, the radiators were brand new, OEM quality, direct fit, and worked great. I fully expect this time to be no different.

[Pat]

Nick, You must be getting pretty good swaping out that radiator by now. You must have it down to something resembling a pit stop.

What is a "road puncture?" Sounds like something a tire would sustain? Is it from gravel, debris of some kind of big bugs, or what. Also if your experience is typical, I might want to buy stock in the radiator company.

Pat

[chevdog]

oops - I did not explain very well. The last couple of times were for other cars! I would burn this car if this was the third radiator.
Road puncture in this case was a small screw that got lodged between the electric fan mounting and a cross tube of the radiator. Wore a pinhole in the aluminum tube- go figure. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
I've learned that the aluminum tubes are not worth trying to fix, so here comes the new radiator.

[TimSullivan]

Your timing is excellent. Just was going to start pricing a radiator for my pickup. I will check locally tomorrow after a quick look at radiatorbarn.com tonight.

[Pat]

chevdog, Way back in the early eighties when I was doing consulting I worked on a portable battery operated welder project. Having marginal to mediocre welding skills, we hired a welder to demo my prototypes one of which was a TIG unit that would regulate down to 5 amps with a sllider control under your thumb on the torch. This welder was an ARTISTE. He could have repaired a hole in that aluminum tubing like you describe so that it was as good or better than new. This guy could butt weld double edged razor blades. He was truly amazing. He was a parapalegic Viet Nam vet working from a wheel chair and was the best welder I ever saw. If he told me he cold TIG weld a broken ballance staff in my dad's pocket watch, I'd have accepted it as gospel.

Pat

[chevdog]

Pat, I know what you mean. I've known a few craftsman like that along the way and they really stand out from today's mediocre fix-it guys. I did consider and look into getting it repaired, but no-one could really ensure that that the fix would do the trick. Since it's a pain to pull the unit, I thought the odds were better if I just installed a new one. Hopefully I'll just have to do the job once. It's the wife's car and you know how that goes - MUST maintain reliability [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

chevdog, I certainly understand your motivation. For me safety and reliability are the PRIME DIRECTIVES for a ride followed by economy of operation and repair and then appearance. I had a flashback to one of our Baja adventures where we ran a branch into the radiator of a '67 Ford Pickup. Pinched the hole with needle nose and tossed in some kind of hot cereal, finer than oatmeal which sealed it fine for long enough to make it back to civilization a couple days later. Even held pressure with the radiator cap on. We went places where a failed vehicle was beyond inconvenience and into life threatening. I had entirely too many adventures, puctuated by radiator/cooling system problems. Probably why I cling to my air cooled VW dune buggy (street legal). So far it has NEVER stranded me for any reason.

Pat

[chevdog]

Just a little update - radiator went in today - truly a direct GM factory replacement unit. New hoses at the same time and it looks like once again the folks at radiator barn came through. I also want to mention I'm not affiliated with them in any way - I just think that they do a good job.

[Hank]

<font color="purple"> some kind of hot cereal, finer than oatmeal which sealed it fine </font color>

For a dozen or so years I drove a '56 Chevy wagon as a daily driver, and consequently developed a good relationship with the local radiator shop. Had a custom-made heater core at one point that was not too awful much; the shop just soldered the tanks back onto the new core and I had heat again. For a radiator replacement, however, I just went with a stock Chevy one ('68 I believe).

Any rate, to quit rambling, the radiator shop folks told me that black pepper was a very good temporary leak stopper.

[Pat]

Chevdog, Congrats on the radiator job, I just love it when something is a straight forward R&amp;R since I see them so infrequently. Seems like I virtually never get a simplel straight forward repair. I bought a lifetime warranty replacement alternator for my Ford Diesel. Price was only a few $ more than the regular warranty model. In 5 years the truck went through 6-7 alternators. It wasn't an electrical system or regulator problem it was faulty alternators as far as I could tell since the regulator got changed a couple times , just 'cause. I only put 4-5 of them in while I had it but sold the truck with a fresh alternator to a good friend who has continued the ritual. I replaced the 6 port fuel valve for the dual tianks 3 times and my but continues that ritual asl well. I got pretty good at oppening up the alternator and rotating the case halves with respect to each other as my application mounted differently. Got pretty good changing the valves too, luckily I had good clearance under the vehicle. My latest thrill was having my Gear Vendor's Over/Under Drive go out. I did the R&amp;R, smashing one finger and eventually losing the nail. Unfortunately the speedo drive broke trying to pull it out of the core and a new one was $50 + tax + shipping BUT I needed the truck so I installed th unit with the hole plugged up and retrofitted the speedo drive a week later. The bad news was that there was a tight clearance neccessitating the use of a right angle adaptor (that is what I borke) but I had to pull the aux tranny OD out to put the speedo drive in. Oh yeah, They didn't tell me about shimming the splined shaft so that was another R&amp;R. I was beginning to get pretty good at swapping the OD unit too. It is but a fond memory. The nail is 75% regrown (smashed just before 4th of July) and the OD works great. They gave a discount on the replacement unit and $500 for the core. Seeems the unit worked with the Ford Power Jokes, and the GMC/Chevy iron but the torque/powr pulses from the Cummins were apparently much more brutal and they had a high failure rate in that application. They did a little upgrading to fis the problem, Nitrided gears and parts and a lot of little clearance issues.

By the way, I like your '57. I was never a Chev guy but had a good friend who had several '55, '56, and '57 models from station wagons to hardtop coups. I got to know my way around a 283 pretty well. My most fun Chevy momemt was driving down a little used dirt road and coming on a '56 parked in the middle of the road with the owner and two of his buds passed out while the designated driver had walked to the nearest farm (couple miles) to get a gallon of gas. When we arrived on scene, this guy was walking around and around the '56 Chev trying to find the gas cap. He was prying on the rear lisc plate, looking in the trunk, and on and on and on but didn't have a clue where it was. My Chevy collecting bud and I both new the "secret" and when we showed the guy he said he would have never found it if he spent the whole night looking. I personally thought it was a real practical and clever location. Didn't have to bend over as far as the ones with it behind the lisc plate.

Pat