Well for now, it looks like my damn Fluidyne radiator! I thought I blew a coolant hose yesterday on the way to work, and couldn't get a new one for 2 days, so I towed it back to my house. I go in there today to rip the "bad" hose off and polish my coolant filler neck, and the hose looks perfect.

So I re-assemble everything, top it off, and figure I had just made a mistake and let the coolant get too low(which I doubted because I check it twice a week). I start the car, and let it idle for a while. I'm standing in front of it, looking inside the entire time to see if I can spot a leak or something. Nothing... everything seemed fine.

So I decided to turn on my fans and let it run, and see how it reacted when it got to operating temp(if it would remain stagnant, or jump into the 90s). I stand in front of the car again, and I feel a mist on my legs through the bumper. I get on the ground and look up at the radiator, and it appears that the water is coming right from the weld on the passenger side, about 2-3 inches from the corner! I can't 100% tell as of right now if that is the culprit, I was in the dark using a flashlight, but the hose on the back that is directly behind where the leak is coming from(hose from rad to filler neck) is completely dry all around it. So now I don't know what to do... the rad is in excellent condition, only a few months on the car (3 to be exact), and no rock damage or anything on it.

WTF should I check for? I have off in the afternoon tomorrow, so I'm going to check it out again, but any suggestions of what I should look for? Has anybody else had this problem? If the rad is shot, what should I do?

~A-Rod

 

My suggestion would be to remove all of the intake/smic/hoses on the top.

Go rent a pressure tester for your coolant system to make sure it's the radiator that is leaking. If it is in fact the radiator, take it to a radiator shop. Usually, they'll be able to pressure test/repair/re-pressure test it if it's not a serious leak.

 

Bingo! I had a similar problem with my Fluidyne. Usually a radiator shop can fix it for around $75.

 

Hopefully its just a simple crack. I think I can come all the way to your side of the river and tear it out... we'll see.

 

A-Rod give me a call about noon time.

 

call fluidyne and see if you can get replacement. Ron davis radiator did it for me in past.

 

stop-leak?

 

Not sure how big the leak is, and I'm not even 100% its the radiator(like 99%), but I'd like to make sure before I take any further action(already bought the freakin $130 Samco replacement hose ). Not sure if I want to dump that "miracle juice" into my expensive radiator, either... if I'm going to fix it, I'm going to fix it right the first time.

 

There should be a local radiator repair shop that can do it for you, assuming the crack is in the end tanks, and not the paper-thin fins/passage section.

Dave

 

Crossing my fingers...

I live in an urban area, yet the closest radiator shop I know of is about 40 minutes away... I'll have to ask around a bit, I don't want just any clown touching my car parts...

 

i know it's only anticdotal but i owned an accord once that busted its radiator. i put the stop-leak in it and it ran for another 200k miles without any problems...

 

you should know better...

 

I had a similar issue once when my Koyo sprang a leak b/c the IC pipe from my Greddy FMIC was resting against it. I took it to a local rotary shop (J&R in Elmont NY) and they had their aluminum welder dude fix it up for me.

 

Double check that it's not coming from the drain plug, I've heard fluidyne had some issues with there, however, I haven't had any problems with mine.

Don't use that fix-o-crap

 

Mono4lamar and I switched out the Fluidyne with my stocker... everything works fine; but for some reason, my water temps are a little lower with the stock unit? Now I'm a little confused...

 

There have been several threads about cooling efficiency under various conditions. In normal street use, the OE rad is VERY good. For racetrack use, with wide open throttle and lots of airflow most of the time, HD rads like the Fluidyne or Koyo are better.

The stock rad does better than most in low air velocity conditions.

Here's one thread about this:
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...=radiatorworld

Here's another:
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...which+radiator