This morning while driving to work, I ran over a rather large chunk of concrete... i could give about 15 excuses but fact is I wasn't paying attention.

It hit so hard a small crack in my windshield ran across to the other side! I pulled over immediately to find the drivers side half of my R1 lip detatched, the undertray ripped in half and my shiny fluidyne radiator spewing coolant!

I was sick, how could I do this? and what the hell is a chunk of concrete doing in the road?

The good thing is I work at a chemical plant, and this happened about 200 feet from work. I took the chance and ran the car that 200 feet to the parking lot.

I took my engine bay apart in the lot and brought the radiator to the welders in the fab shop. I was lucky, the crack occurred on the original weld with only a slight dent.

With a few minutes work, the fab guys (THANKS GARY AND KEVIN!) had me fixed up! I put the radiator back in along with the IC, battery etc...

Filled it up with distilled water (Thanks GE!) and cranked her up... well it is holding temperature, 180 F and 84C on PFC just ideling, left it idleing for about 10 min. No leaks, I kept checking...

Is there anything else I should do to test?

...and yes I know I need to pay better attention.

all help appreicated!


Z

 

that's one hell of an impact if it sent the rest of your small crack all the way accross the windshield. Did you hit it with a wheel? If you did, check it for damage and have your alignment checked. replace windshield. replace undertray. burp coolant. again. and again. have fun, and WATCH THE ROAD! glad to hear that it didnt' do more damage than that.

 

Nope, didn't hit tire, just inside, I will need to bend the drivers side radiator brace back into place when I can get under.

Yeah calling Ray Crowe now for the undertray!

 

My coolant seal died from something very similar. A flying strip of tire went under my car during rush hour traffic in L.A. I replaced the radiator, but it took another 10k miles for the coolant seal to start dying. I wish you the best of luck.

 

I don't know what job you have that allows you to pull your engine apart at work, and then have other employees re-weld your rad... but i'll trade jobs with you.

 

lol, I'm a chemical Operator... I just had team mates pick up my slack for a bit... Pulled it out in just over 30 min, though more like 45 min going back in.

The fab shop guys are used to doing large projects so my 2 inch crack took them like 5 min. I just clocked out each time I went out to work on it. Beats getting a tow, lol.

 

I'll second that. The engine seems OK...you handled that well. But I'd be concerned about structural damage. The FD's chassis and handling is so precise it'd be a shame to lose that by bending or weakening something. An alignment is a good place to start. I'd get the car up on a lift and give it a good visual inspecton. If I had any serious doubts I might even go for a check on one of those laser chasis rigs the frame straightening places have.

And yes, definitely replace the windshield ASAP. There are horror stories about what can happen with a crack at highway speeds. If I remember correctly, insurance replaces glass 100% if you have comprehensive.

 

Check your swaybar as well, the swaybar mounts are used to hold the radiator up.

-s-

 

I would check the mounts too because I was in a very similar situation. My swaybar was fine, but one of my swaybar mounts and one of my front swaybar links had bent with the impact. I didn't even notice the damage until I tried to re-mount the radiator and it wouldn't line up.

 

swaybars and mounts are good, the drivers side rad mount was a tad out of place, so I tapped it forward and all is good. I finished burping the system today and all is well... except the M2 CAI I ordered off the forums came in and I had to drop the radiator (remove the gromets) to get it to fit, lol.... pulled my rad out twice in 2 days! That's enough!

 

If you didn't already do so, drain out some of the water and put in at least 20-30% coolant.

 

It's falling apart...

 

Reminds me of the time a big fragment of shredded tire split my front bumper in half and busted both my foglights. I would have seen it had it not been for the douche in the huge Battlestar Galactica sized SUV that suddenly switched into my lane blocking any advance view in front of his vehicle so I could have changed lanes.

 

Holly crap, I just laughed for a while there, "Battlestar Glactica". I'm so going to quote that sometime. I've had the same happen to me but, it was a pic-up in front of me with a pretty big bumper that had 1' diameter sized rocks sitting all over it, he hit a bump in the road and all the freakin rocks came bouncing off and onto my car, two cracks in the windshield, one big dent in the hood broken housing around the fog light. Idiot, he must have been picking up rocks for the garden or something and didn't clean off his rear bumper, I just changed lanes and then all of a sudden, crack, wham, ****!!

 

I'd get a coolant pressure test done, that's all.

Dave