Ah it never rains it pours... on the way to a fireworks party tonight (its Nov 5th - Bonfire Night in the UK) the radiator decided to blow up. The plastic end tank ruptured around the house outlet.... great! Got it recovered although it only just fitted on the bed of the wrecker.

Anyhow, has anyone else seen such a catastrophic failure of the plastic end caps before? The Haynes books say I can replace these end caps with new ones - looks like I need some special tools. Is it worth it or shall I just get a new rad?

Also looking at the parts lists I see two options for my truck:
W/ a/c, W/ super cooling: F2TZ 8005P
W/ A/C, W/O super cooling: F2TZ 8005E

How do I tell if I have supercooling? I have A/c & I have a transmission cooler on the drivers side of the Rad.

Just hope I ain't nackered the motor....

Simon.

(I did try to upload some pics but it looks like the system is busted... "Webmaster, fetch ya toolbox" LOL)

 

You are better off just getting a new radiator. The time and expense of replacing the end caps yourself especially considering how vital the seals being set properly is just makes the process approach the level of "silly" in my book.

Does yours have the "tow package"? This would include the auxillary transmission cooler, quad front shocks, and a FOUR core radiator. The "super cooling" setup was part of the tow package and may have been optional without the tow package. The four core radiator is the real indicator here. The standard radiator is only a TWO core if you can believe that. My 92 had the tow package with the four core. My jaw almost hit the upper crossmember when I opened the hood of the 93 and found this dinky two core thing in there! Naturally, I swapped since the radiator in the 92 was only 6 months old and it wasn't fire damaged. The aux. tranny cooler was swapped in too.

 

Looking at the rad in the pic I'd say its only a 2 core. I have a towbar and what looks like ford wiring (its a round socket with a cap with a ford logo ratehr than the usual 4pin trailing plug). The tranmission oil runs through the rad on the divers side but there is no discrete separate cooler for the transmission. Would supercooling be marked anywhere on the vehicle? I don't see anything on the VIN sticker to indicate so.

I bet the 4 cores are a lot more expensive than the 2 cores!

Regards


Simon

 

ah ha... the pic uploads are working today!

 

I see two cores. they looked corroded up. If ya tow anything can't hurt to get the 4-core it's only $50 more. Mine cost $155 at a local rad shop it didn't have plastic tanks. I could of got one w/plastic for $115 but I figured I tow a little 14' aluminum boat/trailer and I have put a ton of gravel back there before 3 times no problems. I also replaced my original plastic tanks for $80 and it wasn't hard but just annoying time consuming for such a simple job.-Bob.

 

Yep, two it is. Obviously the choice is yours, I just don't like plastic tank radiators in the first place. (My 69 Cadi had a factory four-core that was made entirely of brass and it was still going strong in 1992). Like slickerthanyou said, if you get to towing or any serious climbing around with it, you might consider the four-core while you are in a position that requires something drastic be done to fix it. I will warn you that the fan shroud for the four core is quite a bit narrower than the one for the two-core unit. The two-core shroud wont' fit if you put the four-core in there. But, its not a vital component either.

 

I have a Flex-a-lite electric fan on mine so the shroud isn't an issue as its not fitted.

Am going to phone some suppliers today and see what price they want....


Simon