Weather was so nice outside on friday. I took my car to goto school and I came back home. I parked my car and When I was about to walk away, I saw coolant slowly leaking underneath the car.. .. ... greatttt... I thought my lower hose was blown or messed up.. Through out my drive, water temp was solid 180f-190f. and there was no coolant buzz sound when I was driving.



Today I pressure tested the system and it wasn't the hose..




I don't know how this happened... but I'm glad this happened when the engine was off....

Coolant didn't leak while I was driving. That's for sure.. I checked my drive way and I didn't see a single drop of coolant ..

Now.. Is this fixable??? Did this happen to anyone else?? I had my koyo set up for atleast 4-5 years now and I'm really bummed out...




Please let me know..

ps: sorry about huge *** pic

 

do your fan blades look worn? if not, it might have been something else that the fan blades were driving. I didn't damage my radiator but once I turned on my fans and heard a metal clanging noise only when my windows were down. pulled everything apart and took a look. one of the metal tie downs from my rad had come loose and was being knocked around the radiator by the fans.

 

JB weld is your savior. Other than that I have no clue what to do. Ive never seen a fan do that before.

 

maybe something got in there? like a rock maybe? im in the middle of some stuff, including a new rad, and in the fans sitting on the radiator was a 10mm wrench that looked to have been there for a very long time. i kno ive lost countless tools and nuts in my 7s...that might explain it

 

I donno.. There are some (tiny) wear on bottom of driver side fan blade.. not much though..

This freakin suxs... So I guess I can just take it to a radiator shop and let them weld that up...

I'm so glad that this didn't happen to me on hwy or something.. Luckly i was at home and car was turned off.

so weird though..

 

That can be welded, why not?

 

try to straighten the fins out first with a tweezer then try to weld the rest which cant be pulled straight. if it doesnt leak, it shouldnt be severe unless your fans are still going beat it up again

 

I never had this problem before though..
I'm guessing something must got in there.

 

The radiator must be boiled out first to remove all the oily Antifreeze residual, then maybe the hole can be brazed/soldered shut. The old radiator shops used to just cut out the whole pass where a leak was involved.

good luck

 

Just use some Solder and it will be fine.. Then straighten the fines after to best that you can.

 

Have you tried calling a radiator shop and asking them if they can fix it? Be sure to specify that your radiator is aluminum, because it's tough to weld.

-s-

 

companies make special solder just for radiators they should have it any parts store or you could try a hardware store

 

I don't know about just "soldering" it.....

Maybe on brass/copper construction but on aluminum?

Regardless, as has been pointed out, you'll need to flush out the coolant before making any repair. What a pain! But you REALLY need to figure out exactly what caused the damage first, in my opinion. No sense fixing it, only to have it happen again!

 

Alumiweld?I have a few bars of this in my garage but have never found anything to use it on. It costs like $5 from summit i think. This seems like something you could try followed by a presure test.

If you dont want to worry about the weld afterwards maybe you could switch to evans coolant and reduce the pressure in the system to atmosphere.

Of course that is alot of work and would only save you $100 or so - maybe replacing it is the way to go.

I agree with others on this thread that it is likely something got caught in between the fan and the radiator so as long as it is cleared it shouldnt happen again.

Good Luck,

 

Buy a new radiator and fan assy. Patching is going to end in expensive hearbreak.

 

don't scrap it; JB it

 

That can be welded with no problems if you can find a talented welder. It will need to be clean and then cleaned again before it is welded, any contamination even close to the weld will cause problems. Call around to some Hot Rod type shops in your area, they should be able to recommend a welder

 

I had this set up for long long time.
This never happened to me before.. Obviously something got stuck. I'm gonna call around few radiator shops tomorrow..


sighi~

 

i don't know? we have soldered aluminum radiators before at the shop just use the proper solder. and also the more i look at the picture the more is looks like the fan blade came into contact with the rad. just look at the circular mark on the radiator then you can see where it came in to interferiece with one of the pipes in the rad, (have seen it happen to a lot of cars at the shop i work at) just my .02$

 

It'll take a pretty talented welder to fix that
I'm not sure I'd put that back into my own car

 

If you haven't already you might want to check for play in the fan... maybe its a wobbler and cut into the radiator because of it. To me it really doesnt look like some object got in there and did that, its too... circuler... a little piece of debre like a rock or something would have made a gash if it got stuck between the blade and radiator, that looks like the whole blade was incontact with the radiator.

as for fixing, i still think its fixable but once you put it back on again wiggle the fan blade and see if it can hit the radiator. But thats just me = )

 

do not try and weld it electronically, you will **** up the thin *** aluminium. I know I work in a fab shop. Take it to a radiator shop and have them torch weld or solder it. I had the same thing happen to me a few months ago, a bolt got chucked straight into the radiator.

 

Looks to me like you must have hit a really hard bump which caused one or two of the fan blades to flex mometarily and hit the radiator 2 times as it wobbled. I would not repair that radiator. I'd just get a new one and check your fan clearance. The cooling system is not something you want to just band-aid on these cars, you will be sorry you did later.

What kind of fan are you using?

 

stock

thanks GSR.. will do.

 

Good advise...
I repaired a Koyo and had to be very careful not to weld through the alum on runners

Good luck make sure you go somewhere really reputable and keep an eye on it after!