Just found it this morning, on the passenger side, I have a drip about every second. The only bad thing is that I have to start a 400 mile drive in about a half hour. Dont have time to fix it now, I will just have to keep it full till I can get home.

I was just wondering if anyone else has ran into this issue. If so, what did you do? replace radiator? oh well, talk to you guys later tonight when (if) I get back to fargo.

Later, Josh.

 

the plastic side is probably the problem.

do not use any kind of quick sealer.

sometimes the crack expands and slows or stops the leak when driving.

do not open the radiator cap when hot.

fill the expansion tank and keep water/antifreeze with you and you should be fine.

 

I replaced mine a couple years ago with a new one for just under $100. It is a fairly easy job. Hose off your driveway if you spill antifreeze.

 

If the leak is between the plastic tanks and the core, you can replace the gaskets. Ford dealers have 'em. RTV compatible with aluminum and plastic works fine too.

If the plastic is cracked, there are plastic sealers/glues you can use from the *inside* if you have the tanks off.

If the leak is from the core, determine if the tubes are worn thin in which case replace the radiator entirely. If it's jsut a small puncture wound, silver solder with a 100W soldering gun (not an iron, a weller GUN) will do the trick or you can use "muggy weld, alumalloy or durafix" rods or silver solder with a torch. use lots of flux and clean the tube to be sealed VERY well.

 

Well, I am back in Fargo now, made the trip fine. Barely lost anything. I was in a hurry this morning and I didnt clarify that it WAS between the plastic and metal side.

I lost very little, but when I started it up this morning it was leaking pretty good, I will keep an eye on it. Quicklook, why don't you recommend stopleak or anything. I used some on the power steering on my '70 Mercedes and it worked fine. care to clarify?

Thanks, Josh.

 

any stop leak you use in the radiator may plug something you do not want it to plug.

big difference in stop leak in power steering and stop leak in the cooling system.

 

I used stop leak a few years ago and still haven't changed the radiator. 170,000 on an inline 6 that stays at the right temp. I will be getting a new rad soon though, $110 and peace of mind.

 

That stop-leak stuff seems to cause more trouble than it fixes. It puts all these floating granules into the coolant. It can clog up places where you don't want it to. I don't recomend it.

 

My brother punctured his radiator when we were changing his water pump a few weeks ago. We had heard that same thing about he stop leak type additives you can put in the coolant (about how it can plug up things you don't want plugged), so he tried a radiator repair putty. Stuff worked AWESOME. I think it was made my JB Weld and you basically just press it onto the punctured fin and give it some time to dry. It hardens to a ROCK. He tested it on the bottom of a coke can first and it welded itself to that can so hard we couldn't PRY it off. He's driven over 10k miles now and still has that stupid piece of putty attached to his radiator with no problems

EDIT: I believe this is the stuff that we used, or something similar:
http://jbweld.net/products/jbstik.php

 

These radiators break at the plastic to metal connection. This is not just a ford problem any car that has a plastic-metal connection can and probably will have this problem. I put about 4 out 5 radiators in my old 85 grand am that saw 273K and only 2 water pumps in that time!!! The po put in the first one and the first water pump The water pumps are normal in hot and dusty AZ, five radiators is not, grrr, stupid plastic.

Mine is leaking too on my ford here in mn It seems to seal up when driving and leak when sitting lol. Every week I check radiator level and reservoir level but radiator is always full, every day or day I drive it I check reservoir level and add as needed.

Don't worry about it too much, just keep coolant in it until you can afford a new one. When you get a new radiator make sure you flush the system first to make sure any crap in there doesn't clog up your new radiator.

P.S. The stop leaks for radiators don't seem to work on radiators with plastic-to metal where the leak is in that connection, they seem to work more on the metal parts. I know cause before the last radiator on my pontiac, two things of bar stop leaks and no stoppage!!! So, don't waste the money and potentially clog up stuff its cheaper to replace coolant or the dumb radiator.