Radiator drain leaking

Drained the radiator on my 98 and now when I close the drain it still seeps coolant. Is a goofy dang designed deal if you ask me. Tried to clean it by spraying some cleaner up in there and working it open and closed, but no luck. I t is down to a slow drip now is all.

Is there a replaceable seal in there or something? This is Nothing like the one on my older XJs.

I made up a special wrench insert to tighten and loosen that thing, what a pia place to put it. You migh want to pull the rad out and get a closer look at it, when I fought with mine I'm suprised I did not damage that POS plastic thing. What I did was get one of my ratchet box wrenches and made a plastic insert with a slot cut in it that fit over those ears.

From what I remember of my factory radiator.... with plastic tanks and aluminum core.... the drain was plastic and was sealed with an O-ring.....
Have to agree..... the factory plastic radiator always amazed me how cheaply made it was.... but it did keep my engine cool !!!

Both tank seals on the factory radiator would weep when the outside temperature approached 45*. Replaced the factory radiator with a GDI 3 core and then with a Modine HD 2 core..... Kept the GDI 3 core as a spare.....

Just replace the factory radiator with a Modine and be done with it....

Charles

Fixed it last night, so I thought I would post this for anybody else who may search on this subject in the future.

This style of radiator has a right angle driain on the passengers tank. The knob on the end turns one full turn on a fast thread that moves it out about an inch in that turn. Asside from the plasic tanks it is a nice radiator with an aluminum 2 row core with decent sized tubes.

When turned all the way out at the correct position you can give it a tug and it will pull all the way out. On the shaft there are two o-ring groves. Mine they were both broken after being disturbed. This made the drain leak after I closed it. Just grabbed an o-ring assortment a friend had and put some new ones on. I cleaned all the surfaces with brake cleaner before reassembly and leaks are gone.