Thread: Soldering copper radiator tank

JJ Smith radiators Marrickville.

Having recently had the job of fitting a radiator to the 2A I came up with using cardboard to cover the radiator fan side when reinstalling it. This was to prevent fat hands and 🔧 spanners from damaging the radiator fins and tubes when fitting fan, just a thought.

> Having recently had the job of fitting a radiator to the 2A I came up with using cardboard to cover the radiator fan side when reinstalling it. This was to prevent fat hands and 🔧 spanners from damaging the radiator fins and tubes when fitting fan, just a thought.

That's a solid idea, definitely stealing that one - cheers.

Update time: I got it back on Friday, reinstalled it Monday night and so far so good. Thanks everyone who recommended taking it out, that was definitely the way to go. They pressure-tested it and found that the coolant release valve was leaking, properly re-soldered the top and bottom tanks with silver solder, and reinforced all of the edges of the pressing marks. Only $290. I was going to shop around but I told the bloke on the phone it was for a 1959 Land Rover and he said "the thick type or the thin type? I did one of those last week" and I knew I found the right person. Superior Radiators at Moorebank.

Anyway, one recommendation he made that I wanted to ask the audience about: he said I'd be better off running tap water with a corrosion inhibitor than actual coolant! His logic was that if I'm only running the car once a week or so, ammonia can separate out and start attacking the metals in the radiator. Now, I always thought modern coolants had corrosion inhibitors in them already - and the tap water recommendation really surprised me, I can't imagine the fluoride or calcium does it any good. Anybody got opinions on this? For the time being I've put coolant back in, but only because I had most of a bottle of pre-mix left.

I've always run Demin water with inhibitor in my vehicles here. It never gets cold enough in Perth to warrant Anti-freeze. Water has a higher specific heat and will generally give a better outcome if you don't need the freeze protection. I wouldn't run our tap water because it's almost too foul to drink un-filtered.

I do run the specified coolant at the specified mix in the D3 however, because it's a delicate petal and I don't want to tempt fate.

I'm not sure where the Ammonia would come from, but Ammonia certainly eats copper and copper based alloys.

Originally Posted by BradC

I've always run Demin water with inhibitor in my vehicles here. It never gets cold enough in Perth to warrant Anti-freeze. Water has a higher specific heat and will generally give a better outcome if you don't need the freeze protection.

I did a little searching after reading this, and you're dead right - that's news to me about the specific heat capacity. I'm in Sydney, so besides the vague possibility of the Blue Mountains in winter, I certainly don't need the antifreeze qualities. Demineralised water it is, cheers for pointing that out.

I had a little laser for a while. I lent it to a "mate" and he cooked it, then his diesel mechanic brother replaced the head gasket. It would cook if you used coolant, but straight water was just enough to keep it under control. I don't lend him things anymore.