Radiator repair

[steveG]

Currently over in NZ at the folks place. My sister turned up tonight in her Hilux, and within a few minutes it had left a nice puddle of coolant on the driveway.

Turns out she hit a decent sized pothole on the way out, and the radiator has moved enough to punch the dodgy mount from the trans cooler installation into the front of the radiator. Small damage limited to a couple of tubes.

I've got access to the damaged area, but need to do some sort of repair in the car, that will likely need to last for at least a few weeks.

Whats the best thing to do. Pinch the tubes off a bit and seal with something?
Metal epoxy, or silicon?
I dont have anything here apart from a bit of bathroom silicon, so will probably drive into town and get something better, so will have a reasonable choice as to what I get.

Any help appreciated.

Steve

[dirt worshiping tree hugger]

Clear the fins off the tubes for a few cm on each side of the damage and cut tubes with sidecutters then grip with long nose pliers and fold right over as far as you can then flatten by crimping with pliers. repeat 3-4 times. Repeat folding and crimping operation on all cut tube ends. Please note the cooling capacity of the radiator will be reduced. this repair may hold for a long time 3 years now on my car in WA heat.

[steveG]

Unfortunately I dont have the access to cut fold tubes. Damage is level with the bottom of front chassis crossmember and about 15mm behind it, and I dont have sufficient tools to remove the radiator.
I've cleaned it up as best I could and stuck a big gob of epoxy putty in there. Will see how it goes shortly.

Steve

[slug_burner]

One repair I had done after a pin hole in a tube. Cut tube, crimp tube, fold tube back, use oxy and solder to block end of tube, roll up out of the way. Can also cut the tub up close to the tanks and pull the tube out of the tanks and solder the opening in the tank.

A bush repair involved striping fins away from damaged area and then filling with metal epoxy. I suspect any two part epoxy would do to get you out of trouble.

I have heard of but never seen the egg and pepper trick done.

[steveG]

Good news - the epoxy putty seems to be doing the trick so far.
Hopefully it lasts until she gets it fixed properly ....

Steve

[Blknight.aus]

dump at least 2 egg whites in there as well so that if the epoxy lets go shes got something to act as a back up. When she gets it repaired properly it'll want a full flush.

[steveG]

dump at least 2 egg whites in there as well so that if the epoxy lets go shes got something to act as a back up. When she gets it repaired properly it'll want a full flush.

Thanks Dave. Did consider doing that but since she's only really doing short trips around town at the moment I decided not to as I was concerned about it costing her more to get fixed.
She's under strict instructions to it fixed promptly, check for green puddles before and afer she drives it, and coolant level each morning. And no towing horse floats!

Steve

[Blknight.aus]

it wont cost her anymore to get fixed with the egg whites, not if you're using a decent repair shop anyway, the places I use and reccomend do a coolant flush with any major work.