Radiator Woes
Turbo Mini Forums

Instead of getting the EFI sensors wired up ready to try some form of Megasquirt controlled fueling, I've been held up over the last few weekends with a cooling system problem.

I got stuck in traffic in Boston on the way to work a few weeks ago. The fan came on, no problem. I checked the water about 150 miles later and the rad was dry - no water above the cores.

Then I noticed some water on the subframe. Rad weld did not work so took the rad off.





Now it looked like the rad was hitting the fan bolts - I wondered what the occaisional scraping noise was!

Anyway, I soldered up every bit that looked like it might leak. Put it back on the car last Saturday, leaving out one of the spacers but it was pissing out from the wing side after a hard run.

Took it off again this morning and found this:



There is a hole at the arrow.

I thought that as I had bought it at a show, it must be a cheap rad, but the new minispares one I got this week is identical.

I'm running a 13psi rad cap - I just wondered if this was causing too much pressure for the rad?

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Hmmm,

I've not had probs with cores leaking and i used to run a 15psi cap, i have now swapped to a 22psi cap and still no probs, although i do find sometimes in traffic if the temp does get high it chucks some water out (less so with the new cap) and ends up below the top of the core, so really i need an expansion tank.

could be worth trying to tig that hole up.... use a bit of mains core for the filler rod?

I should also add my rad is nearly in 2 peices as the surround has disitegrated... the core is currently supporting the header tank.... must get a new rad at some stage...

Hi,
I'm sure nowadays they're made out of alot thinner materials than they used to be, as the cost of copper went through the roof...
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Fair enough, I know not to bother trying if it ever happens to me now!