[Sca-cooks] Radiator repair- long

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> So, do you need to separate or whisk the egg first or just break it and
> dump it in?

Haven't a clue- not one of the emergency remedies I've been taught.

> How would the pepper work? Does it have to be whole or ground?
>
> Stefan
> --------

Ground. What the idea is, as with most stop-leaks, is that whatever you use
will clump as it starts to pass out of the radiator, rather like hair in a
bathtub drain. Hair isn't a problem, as long as it's in liquid and
circulating, but it clumps and blocks drainage as the water in the tub
escapes, until the pressure from the escaping water holds it against the
outlet. Similarly, the egg or the pepper or the stop leak will clump up at
the hole in the radiator- most stop leaks are designed to harden after being
heated and exposed to air.

While it usually works fairly well if you've got a new radiator, when you
have an older radiator, it tends to have an equivalent to hardening of the
arteries- in other words, many of the passageways for the water/radiator
fluid will have narrowed, just as cholorestorol plaque will do with
arteries. It's seldom a problem in the engine block or the hoses themselves
because the passageways are pretty wide, but in order to cool your water, it
needs to be placed in the smaller passageways attached to the aluminum fins
in the radiator proper. If you've got a lot of sludge build up, these
passageways narrow, and eventually will block up, particularly if you have
something in there like a stop leak, and you'll blow a hose.

Best thing to do if you have an older car, is to backflush the radiator
occasionally, and to keep a good quality antifreeze in there (they're
designed to help keep plaque from building up) and not use a stopleak unless
it's a dire emergency. After using stopleak, backflush the radiator, and
refill it with fresh water and antifreeze, and you should be good to go,
once the leak is fixed.

Leaks aren't usually hard to fix, either, as long as the leak is somewhere
you can get to it- say, in the main body, where a twig has gone through.
About all you need to do is pinch it shut, with, say, some needlenose
pliers, and put a bit of solder on the mess. If, however, you've got a
REALLY old radiator, most of the metal will be fatigued to the point where
all you can do is replace the radiator core.

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....