I poked a hole in my rad. Can it be fixed?

While re-installing my clutch fan, I poked a hole in one or two of the fin tubes. Can this be fixed? or am I gonna be replacing the the radiator?


Thanks

If the holes aren't too big you should be able to fix it.

Recently I put a small screw hole in mine. I fixed it using J.B.Weld.
First drain the radiator well below the hole, wash clean and dry radiator. I used the air compressor to help dry between the fins.
Next I used masking tape to tape off an area about 1 inch square with more tape to make a "pocket" to keep the J.B. in place.
I used a plastic hypodermic syringe with a short piece of plastic tubing on the end to direct J.B. into the taped off pocket with hole.
Mix J.B. and fill syringe, it is quite thin and wants to run. Force it through the fins and add more tape to keep it in place while it hardens.
I pulled off the tape the next morning before the J.B. was fully hardened and let the radiator sit empty for another day.

It's been over 6 months in So. Cal. summer heat with no problems at all. Don't worry about loosing cooling area as it's probably less than one square inch.

Mike

In the 'old days', lol, we'ed just stuff a piece of potato into the tube opening. Smaller leaks fixed with a tablespoon of coarse pepper, and/or one egg white. However, these days you must decide other measures now. So far, the preceeding replies seem good enough. I'd consider in addition.., to first clear away some heat sink from the problem hole.., and 'pinch' the open tube hole with a needle nose pliers. Not all the way through, (thereby shutting off any flow through the tube), but just enough to permantly shut the edges of the hole down to be closed flatly, and tightly. Thus you have only restricted 1/4 up to 3/4 of the tube still allowing tube flow. Then use some epoxy system as already described, on that dried out spot/area. LOL, people look at my many 'patched' areas of my OEM radiator, and are somewhat shocked. If you go to any marine store, you should also find an epoxy that likes water, i.e., can be used around wet holes, i.e., quickly fixing a 'sprouted leak' such as a radiator on the side of a road. Maybe someday I'll get around to buying a new rad.

Any decent radiator shop should be able to plug it.

I did this same thing with the rad on my MJ a while back - I just got some high-heat and chemical resistant JB-Weld and gooped it into the area where the hole was. I had no problems from it afterwards.

old_man said:

Any decent radiator shop should be able to plug it.

Click to expand...

Very true!
I have a two piece fan shroud on the 4.0 made of overlapping halves held together with a couple of sheet metal screws, great if you ever need to change the water pump or fan. Well, one of the screws was a bit long . . .
I already had the shroud and fan off and was ready to pull the rad. when looking at the trans cooling lines, I decided to give J.B. Weld a try.
First time I didn't use the syringe and tube to force the epoxy far enough between the fins.
Second time was a charm. And I'm getting really good at draining the radiator without spilling.

Mike