This is definitely a downer

I bought Fluidyne off a member and after installing it and going on a drive, I noticed it was leaking.

It might be the lower radiator hose, I don't know for certain, but it's coming from that area.

My main concern is, when I feel the top portion of the radiator, it's hot to the touch... but when I feel the bottom portion of the radiator like where the drain plug is, it's not quite as hot... just warm. Are these the symptoms of a clogged radiator? It should be uniformly hot right?

The driving temps seemed higher than when I had the stock radiator in, around 92 average with light boosting here and there. Car hasn't overheated, and when the fans come on the temps would slowlllly go down but it doesn't seem as efficient as it should be for some reason.

 

damn man, that's shitty. check the radiator hoses first. Im not sure about uniformly hot but the bottom on my Koyo is def. hot to the touch. maybe just flush it out real good. hope the fix comes cheap and easy. subscribed..

 

Uh?the radiator removes heat from the coolant,hot water goes in the top hole and cooler water comes out of the bottom hole.

 

^ that's what I thought too, but I didn't think the bottom portion could be that much cooler... especially when the top part is hot to the touch

 

You may have air in the radiator. If you have a loose hose, when you shut the car down the cooling system contracts and you get a vacuum, which can suck air into the system. Double check that all your clamps are uber-tight.

 

Could the air pockets make the bottom end colder? I'm not sure if this is how the radiator is supposed to be, or if it's a problem

anyone feel like getting their car up to operating temps, shutting it off and then feeling if the top part of the radiator is noticeably hotter than the bottom?

 

hmm, interesting dilemma. i had a similar problem when i installed a new koyo.

temps got higher than normal and worse than my stock radiator.

2 reasons.

1 was i had air in the system.

2. were the old oem hoses that were seeping coolant out under pressure or operating temps. i could never see or tell if they were leaking when the car was cold and the hose on the manifold had a loose clamp, i could see the coolant bubbling out but the coolant was cool to the touch.

so i burped the system and topped her off (took 2days) till finally the coolant stop settling and shes been running way under the 1/2 mark from the temp gauge ever since. never got that low with my stocker.


other thing you can do is invest a little time and remove the radiator and flush/pressure test it. hopefuuly it something simple and you didnt get scammed =/

good luck either way breh.

 

IMO, yes. Air pockets can make the WP not be able to circulate the coolant as fast as needed for good cooling, or at all. Either will result in the coolant flowing so slowly in the radiator that the inlet will be hot, while the outlet is cold.

So, I think that your 1st step should be to eliminate any leaks and then burp the system to eliminate any air pockets. If this doesn't fix the problem, THEN it is possible that the radiator may be clogged.

 

Look into getting a Lisle funnel, it will make your life much much easier

 

ill warm mine up in a sec...

 

Thanks for all the help...

@BlackHearts - Did you have to get a new clamp for the loose hose? I'm hoping mine is the same problem and the leakage is just from a clamp, presumably the lower radiator hose...

I'll have to pick up this storied lisle funnel too

 

if youre buying new clamps I would recommend the type the have the bolt to tighten them up, not the shitty factory ones with the springs you have to use pliers to try and take off. makes work a lot easier.

radiator is def. hot. on both top and bottom. i have my whole front end off so its easy to reach and feel.

 

Another thing to look for relating to leakage at the hose/fitting joint is to make sure that the radiator and hoses do not have rough deposits on their sealing surfaces. The surfaces must be smooth and clean to seal.

I have also had trouble with cheap screw-type clamps where they would bind up in the screw before the hose was clamped tight enough to stop seepage. McMaster-Carr sells some really nice Stainless steel screw clamps (smooth band with rolled edges) that do not have exposed thread slots on their ID and clamp really well.

Dave

 

I was able to pull off the undertray and warm up the car to check for the leakage. Once the temps got to around 80C, I saw a bit of steaming come up so I looked around, and at the lower bottom driver-side corner of the radiator, there was a small pool of coolant around the fins:




None of the hoses are loose and I didn't see any leaks from them. Guess it's over now, huh..

 

Yeah looks like your gunna need a new rad if you've confirmed the spot. You might be able to do a temp fix until you get a new one. When did you finish w/ finals? i was stuck here cuz i had a 1 PM one...

 

I finished finals yesterday night at 9pm and came back right after.

It's not a huge leak, but a leak is a leak in my book. The entire bottom row of fins, about half the width of the radiator, is moist...

I bought this radiator from fastrx7man for those that wonder, some whack *** crap

 

I had coolant deposit there also. Turned out the rad hose was leaking slightly from the hose clamp under pressure and leaking down the side and back of the rad till the bottom row where it accumulated.

A radiator shop will be able to pressure test the system correctly or pull the radiator and bring it over to them to test the rad.

 

yes bought all new clamps, called constant-torque clamps from breeze clamps(family friend works there).

and used t-bolt clamps on the ends of the radiator.

and if you have no acces to a radiator repair shop, auto zone has a pressure tester available. if there is a leak that would surely lead you to it.

good luck.


p.s some tight pants told me you liked kevlar

 

Hmm do you mean the lower radiator hose? When I felt and looked at it, it was totally dry around the clamp... Also at the angle that the radiator sits, it seems hard for a leakage at the clamp to drip through the radiator fins to the other side (side closest to ground)... since the fins are positioned just above the hose and everything is at a downward angle

I'm going to check again though.

The one thing that I'm not sure about is, if the radiator is really leaking at the fins... wouldn't it leak as soon as the car is started? For me, it didn't seem like the leak started until around 80C or I guess when the thermostat opened. Can anyone shed some insight on this?

I don't want to give fastrx7man a bad name yet... but I'll find out 100% tomorrow

 

The radiator and associated hoses wouldnt leak until your thermostat opens.

 

The radiator, if it is leaking, may not start to leak until significant pressure builds up in the system. This will usually happen as the engine begins to warm up and the coolant expands. It may take a few minutes for this to happen.

Rich, this may take until the thermostat opens, but not necessarily, if enough internal pressure builds up before that.

 

These guys are right, pressure testing is the way to go. If the test checks out, you have a leak in the hoses, but if you're losing pressure, then you're gunna need a new radiator.

 

Did you run the stock radiator setup before you put in the FMIC? Your car and mine have the same FMIC. For me, low 90s is normal.