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New 3 core radiator issue?

Mudderoy

Mudderoy

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Katy, Texas
Recently (last 4 months) I replaced my radiator. I was getting the standard 210 out of it, then I started seeing 225 if I drove on the freeway for about 5 minutes.

It would never go above that and when I slowed down the temp would drop to 215 or so.

No leaks, fans were working fine, I dunno.

Today I got to work and noticed some lime florescent green liquid coming from the front of the Jeep.

I popped the hood and I could see coolant coming out and falling to the ground.

After work I limped home. The leak was much worse now.

After letting everything cool for awhile I went out and removed the efan to see if I could get a better look. I filled the radiator with water and I was about to go start the engine to increase the coolant pressure, and see where the leak was coming from.

Before doing that I looked down in that area and this is what I saw...

Jeep_radiator2.jpg


Now I'm no expert, and I'm from the South, but wouldn't this be considered a "BAD" thing?

:cry:
 
:doh: You most likely nicked it putting it, it might be a factory defect but probably not. EZ fix, just solder it or have it soldered. They get nicked right in that area when you put the fan back in. How do I know this? I did it myself, that's how. Fix it & CAREFULLY reinstall it.
 
Last edited:
at least it didnt happen the day AFTER... changing parts AGAIN the same or next day because of your own mistakes REALLY SUCKS, at least you got 4 months out of it.
 
xcm said:
at least it didnt happen the day AFTER... changing parts AGAIN the same or next day because of your own mistakes REALLY SUCKS, at least you got 4 months out of it.
Click to expand...

You're not kidding. Very first water pump I ever did many years ago leaked after pressure built up. I nearly shot the car. :flamemad:

:tear: :bawl:
 
Maybe Im not seeing it right but that doesnt look like a 3 core to me. Anyway, where did you get it? I would look closely at it and if you cant see any indication that you damaged it putting it in, give the vendor a call and see if you can return it. It should have some kind of warranty against defects.
 
radiatorbarn.com. I don't believe I did anything to damage it. They have sent a replacement, it'll be here Friday.

It's a CSF, I think I remember that correct.
 
Now take that radiator out, solder up the hole and sell it off to a buddy for cheap :D
 
swbooking said:
Now take that radiator out, solder up the hole and sell it off to a buddy for cheap :D
Click to expand...

Nice thought, but it is going back to radiatorbarn, they are swapping it out.
 
Ok the tropical storm that hit Florida last week has delayed the shipping of my replacement radiator. It was supposed to be here today.

I had a thought. Could something be over pressurizing my cooling system and causing leaks in the weak points?

I'm going to take my old all metal 2 core to have it clean and repaired (if necessary) tomorrow. Then I'll have the choice of getting the XJ up and going and changing the 3 core later.

If they find a small leak in the 2 core, which I suspect they will, could I just be having an issue that I haven't found yet?
 
OK I found the problem. It looks like the efan was rubbing on the fins. Not the blades of the fan but the efan housing that sits up against the radiator.

Jeep_radiator3.jpg


If you look in this picture you'll see a nice line where the paint has been rubbed off and in one fin you can clearly see a oval shaped hole.

Since I am running the stock original efan I consider this a manufacture defect. When they built this radiator they needed to be sure it would clear all factory items.

I'm going to moto the efan housing before I put the new radiator in.

BTW, I took my old all metal two core to a radiator shop the other day. $55 they said it had a flow problem and a couple of leaks. So now I have a back up radiator. That usually means I won't have any further issues. :confused1
 
:peace: That is exactly how I damaged my CSF radiator in my 95. I trimmed the fan housing & that solved the problem. I also cut about 1/2" off the excessively long overflow tube & flared it to keep the hose on.
 
I just inspected mine today before I put everything back together. Luckily I didn't have the wear you did on yours. Glad you got it figured out though!
 
Thanks guys. Hey do any of you know where to get that ahhh sheath that goes around the radiator? It looks like a heavy plastic, flexable, but it borders the radiator. My guess is that it forces the air into the radiator fins, instead of letting it go around it.

Mine is torn and has a gapping area on the passenger's side. I was thinking about using something that would handle a couple of hundred degrees to patch that side.

Any idea what I'm talking about?
 
I took a picture of the front of my XJ. I marked the torn covering that goes around the radiator sides in yellow.

I'm thinking the radiator shop that replaced my OEM radiator must have torn it years ago. I didn't notice it until I changed to the 3 core radiator back in May.

Jeep_radiator4.jpg
 
Well the replacement radiator showed up today, at 8PM!!! Anyway I got it installed and used the duct tape as suggested to fix the shroud.

I took her for a nice 70 mph run on I-10, I guess about 5 miles. It was dark and cooler out so it never got to 210 while I was on the highway. After I got off and was sitting a few traffic lights it warmed up coming close to 210.

Anyway I'll see what it does on the way home tomorrow. It should be in the 90's by the afternoon.

I think the next thing I may try is a bigger transmission cooler. We'll I'll wait and see what the temp is during the heat of the day.

Thanks guys.
 
Are you pretty sure that the fan rubbing caused those leaks? The reason I ask is I bought a 3-core from radiatorbarn a few years ago, at a time when a lot of us on the board did the same, and there was a very high rate of factory errors. I remember some people found chunks of loose solder floating around inside the radiator.

I think the brand then was GDI, and that they switched to CSF for that reason, but I understood that the quality problems continued. One guy said the two were both in Mexico, probably across the street from each other and when GDI's business fell off, all the same people and machines just moved over to CSF.

Anyhow, I guess we can't complain. For $100 or so, as long as radiatorbarn swaps out the defects, it's hard to beat. And the 3-core helped fix my cooling problems.
 
92xjsp said:
Are you pretty sure that the fan rubbing caused those leaks? The reason I ask is I bought a 3-core from radiatorbarn a few years ago, at a time when a lot of us on the board did the same, and there was a very high rate of factory errors. I remember some people found chunks of loose solder floating around inside the radiator.

I think the brand then was GDI, and that they switched to CSF for that reason, but I understood that the quality problems continued. One guy said the two were both in Mexico, probably across the street from each other and when GDI's business fell off, all the same people and machines just moved over to CSF.

Anyhow, I guess we can't complain. For $100 or so, as long as radiatorbarn swaps out the defects, it's hard to beat. And the 3-core helped fix my cooling problems.
Click to expand...

I guess you can never be certain without testing, but if you look at the picture...

Jeep_radiator3.jpg


You can "kind of" see in this picture what was clearer to me. There are 8 spots where the paint and the metal were worn down. The only thing that was anywere close, and on this axis was the efan housing.

Counting from left to right, you'll notice that the first one looks like it is coming close to going through and the third one is a hole. By the way this is a CSF radiator.
 
Yeah, looking at that picture I think you are right. I guess I'd better inspect mine, just in case. I know they're different brands, but they do both seem to be the cheap versions and worth watching.

Still, mine has held up well - I went back and looked, and I bought it in Nov 2002, almost 6 years ago. Not bad for $99 shipped. And it did make a definite difference over my old one, although of course I was comparing it to a well-used 2-core and not a new one.

Hope yours solves your cooling problems.
 
Ran 210 most of the way home at 80 mph. Then it got a little above the 210. It wasn't an overly hot day though. It wasn't squirting water like the last one so that is a big improvement.
 
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