Bad news on my radiator

[belfert]

A local radiator place that does lots of large truck/industrial radiators picked up my radiator on Tuesday.

They called me this morning to say the core is shot.     When they rodded it out they found evidence that stop leak had been used.  They then found a number of tubes with pinholes in them.  A $300 or $400 radiator cleaning is now a $1625 new core.  (Core itself is $1300 plus $325 labor and other costs.)

The radiator place did say they could bypass te leaking tubes, but not sure I want less capacity.  I am heading over to the radiator shop to look at my radiator right now.

[TomC]

Have it done!  There is much more modern radiator technology since the bus was built.  Most likely your radiator was built with straight fins and large straight tubes.  Some of the new technology to look for is serpentine fins (just look at your cars fins), dimpled tubes, more tubes.  I went from a 5 row straight fin to a 6 row serpentine fin, and the radiator shop said it was 20% more cooling (just adding rows doesn't mathematically make it bigger by that amount.  Each row of tubes you add is percentage less because of less air flow. In my case the fins were so efficient that the extra row was the 20% mark).  Have the biggest and best core put in-you'll never regret it.  Good Luck, TomC

[RJ]

Brian -

Altho it hurts ($$$), IMHO you should bite the bullet and go for the new core.  Otherwise, you'll always be asking yourself if you did the right thing. . .

FWIW & HTH. . .

[H3Jim]

Now you have your final answer about why the overheating.  Have this done and don't worry about it again.  It hurts, but sometimes this is an exppesive hobby. Pay me now or pay me later.

[belfert]

TomC, I do have a Series 60 so heat rejection isn't nearly as big an issue as a two stroke.

Mine is a 1995 so hopefully I have fairly modern technology in my radiator.  I'll check out what they are proposing for a new core.

[gumpy]

I concur with everyone else. You just spend how many hours pulling the radiator from the bus. Don't waste your time and money putting a
shoddy, half-assed potentially leaky core back in your bus. You'll regret it when a new pinhole appears in another tube next week.

Cough up the dough and put a new core in it. That's really not that bad of a price, and you'll know it's in good condition from now on.

Don't waste your, or the radiator man's time. Get it done right, put it back in, and have peace of mind knowing it's the best it could be.

craig

[Dallas]

Since it's a Dina,
and it's 12 years old,
and MCI hates to support it,
and it has a funny lookin' door,
and it's not a real Detroit Diesel,
and it needs a radiator, water pump, tubes, hoses, this and that,

I'll offer you $50 (MAK board limit of stuff for sale), for it and haul it away.

Either that, or fix it and don't look back.

[TomCat]

Brian,

I agree, bite the bullet. I feel your pain, as a new radiator is in my future as well.

"Pay (me) now, or pay (me) later" ECHO  Echo  echo

Jay
87 SaftLiner

[belfert]

I went over to the radiator shop, looked at my current core after cleaning, and then paid them for a new one.  I spent about 10 minutes talking with the shop manager and he couldn't guarantee any repairs not to leak down the road.  There were only 6 tubes out of dozens leaking, but I would lose some capacity.  It was fairly dirty inside as well as outside.

The radiator with new core will be delivered tomorrow morning.  The new core will have slightly higher heat rejection than the old one.  They happened to have a core of the right size that had been in the storeroom for a while.

Busted Knuckle (Bryce Gaston) gave me the name of someone with a Dina parts bus who might sell the radiator, but I decided the costs of an unknown radiator, shipping, and testing the unknown radiator weren't worth it.  I decided not to even call him.

My cooling system will practically be all new by the time I'm done.

[wvanative]

Belfert, That was a smart move to go with a new core. Your engine will thank you and your peace of mind will thank you. Now when you are driving, those little gremlins won't be in the back of you mind, worrying you about the engine overheating.

[Busted Knuckle]

Busted Knuckle (Bryce Gaston) gave me the name of someone with a Dina parts bus who might sell the radiator, but I decided the costs of an unknown radiator, shipping, and testing the unknown radiator weren't worth it.  I decided not to even call him.

My cooling system will practically be all new by the time I'm done.

Shoot YOUR bus will be NEW by the time your DONE!   BK 

[Tony LEE]

Now might be a good time to review corrosion protection levels in the coolant

[muddog16]

Every time I read these posts about radiator cores, I tremble, I really got off easy when I replaced my core, being Prevost, I expected...............well "expensive" they knocked my socks off when they told me 400 bucks for the core....the Prevost gods were easy on me!  Belfert, compare that price for the core to a remanufactured series 60, it was cheap!  Like BK said its almost new!

[edroelle]

Brian,

I will add this post also to make you feel better about spending the money.

I can tell you EXACTLY what would happen if they closed off the tubes in your old radiator.
1.  Your cooling would be compromised in some situations
2.  After you had the repaired radiator installed, in the near future, you would have developed additional pinhole leaks, thus requiring radiator removal again.

This is similar to the air beams in MCIs.  I have heard many times where the beams were repaired to maintain a better ride.  Yet, new leaks occured because the metal was so thin.

You did the right thing.

Ed Roelle
Flint, MI

[belfert]

My radiator was just delivered back to me with a new core installed.  Everything is nice and black as they painted everything.  I hope to reinstall Saturday afternoon.

Yes, I will test and adjust SCA levels.  When I got bus it had no detectable SCA in the coolant.