radiator gooey glue brown sludge!

[sdowney717]

Ok, it is horrible stuff, very hard to clean out the radiator.

I ended up pulling the plastic end cap and look!
I do believe it is the bar's leak pellets. They coated the entire inside of the cooling system with a glue like layer. I will say I did not notice the engine blockcoated, but the radiator hoses I scraped out one way or another.

I have no idea how the car did not overheat like this. I ended up pouring gasoline into the radiator and rodded it out and it was very hard.

I had to change the waterpump and its interior was also coated with the brown gooey stuff. It is like rubber cement mixed with rust.

Here it is soaking with E10 gas to aid in dissolving this goop stuff.

 

[Chris142]

Yup that's bars leak from the bottle. I've got a cad at work now With 4 bottles poured in it. If 1 don't work just add more!

 

[sdowney717]

4 Bottles!
So what will you need to do?

I have used the dry dust before and never noticed any trouble.
With the bar's leak pellets, I first noticed this odd glue like stuff sludging up the reservoir. I will never use the pellets again.

Is there a better chemical to dissolve this?

 

[Warstud]

Looks like plain old rust to me. Either didn't have a 50/50 mixture or ran it low on coolant.

 

[JHZR2]

Yuck!

How are you going to get the plastic ends back on??

 

[sdowney717]

I only took off one end.
I plan to use the black permatex gasket maker and the old rubber gasket for the seal.
You just barely pry back the fingers to remove the cover.
Then you use pliers and squeeze them back down. I have also done this before. And have not broken a tab yet. I dont recommend most people do this.

Here is someone else who has done this.
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/di...aking-tabs.html

I did not pry between the tabs, I pried up the tabs. I have a flat screwdriver with a slight hook on the end and just lightly pop them up. They do not have to bend all the way up to get the cover off.

 

[sdowney717]

I know there is some rust in there too.
BUT, this is really brown goo, sticky goo like glue. Rust is not like gluey goo. If you google this, you find others talk about bar's leak brown goo clogging up heater cores and radiators.

I know this stuff does seal leaks well but I will never use it again. Once you have to deal with the after effects of a product to this extreme, you think differently. I will use the dry powder sealers as they work differently.

 

[Quest]

gasoline and water don't mix, so don't bother trying to clean those goo with gasoline.

Instead: you should consider using some sort of caustic soda or similar, buffered with aluminium (to make it less corrosive to alu rad).

Handle with care for if you aren't careful, you will either hurt yourself or ruined your rad, or both.

Q.

Oh and I just noticed: you pryed off the plastic part and for that you cannot reverse the process by crimping it and then try to reuse the rad (it will leak, guaranteed).

 

[Kuato]

Radiator replacement would be my choice.

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: Quest


Q.

Oh and I just noticed: you pryed off the plastic part and for that you cannot reverse the process by crimping it and then try to reuse the rad (it will leak, guaranteed).
it can be done but we have a special press to do it with. Usually the tabs break off which renders the rad junk.

 

[cos]

sdowney717,

Year, make and model of vehicle that this radiator came out of?

With radiators being so inexpensive (compared to 20 yrs ago) why not get one?

 

[285south]

Originally Posted By: Kuato
Radiator replacement would be my choice.


+2

 

[sdowney717]

Roadmaster 1994 with LT1 engine.
I originally put that sealer in due to a leaking heater core.
After a while the heater core leaked again. I may have put in more. I eventually had to service the heater core. On these cars, the tubes are designed to swivel around for packaging purposes smaller box needed. The tubes are sealed with an oring and the oring on these had failed. So I pried them apart and either replaced orings or used permatex on them.

I found the cheapest radiator is on Ebay for about $75.

 

[dishdude]

Put me in the replace it camp too.

Didn't the old school radiator shops dip the cores in some type of acid to clean them?

 

[sdowney717]

I fix things most people would replace with another.
I have the time, so I experiment!
The gasoline did dissolve it well enough. All the tubes now flow free.

 

[artificialist]

I also consider this radiator a huge risk. If your car has been on the road long enough to get that much sludge, it is old enough to have the plastic end caps crack at any time.

 

[sdowney717]

It is all together and functioning
end cleaned up with gasoline and tubes flowing fully again.

Plastic end reinforced and repaired. I used PL Premium Polyurethane Construction adhesive and fiberglass wall board tape. Six layers deep on the sides and 3 on the bottom.
So it is clean, sand inside with coarse paper, weld up cracks or holes with a Harbor Freight solder pencil and black zipties. I had gotten rid of the inner engine oil cooler and am using an external cooler.

Use fingers to smear the goo, put in FG tape. Let set maybe 15 minutes smear out bubbles, add more layers of fiberglass. After it cures fully then take knife and cut back edge to a taper so it fits again in radiator. Cut hole for outlet with knife.
For as full cure wait overnight.

Use Permatex cartridge from AutoZone. Lay in a bead. Prime Plastic end with some Permatex. Attach the plastic end cap.

Reassembled. To reattach, put end cover in grooved, lay radiator on 2x4. Take hammer and lightly tap the aluminum edge back down all around. Then use locking pliers, squeeze the tabs flat against the plastic end cover. Locking pliers set the distance correctly on every crimp. I let radiator set overnight.

This is the second radiator I have repaired in this manner. First one is a 1995 Saturn. That one I learned on how to do this. Been ok now for several years.
The glue and the tape reinforce the plastic end so the end becomes much stronger than new. You basically create a new end inside of the old end. The adherance is actually very good to the plastic end.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: Kuato
Radiator replacement would be my choice.


+1

But I might use the old one to aggressively clean the entire systems, then get a new radiator. Why was the coolant sealer added to begin with. That will likely still be a problem.

Always better to fix the real problem, than some "easy" fix. If the fix sounds too easy to be true, it probably is.

 

[sdowney717]

I had added the sealer due to a leaky heater core. But that I fixed by replacing it with another one and also replacing the Orings on the tubes. The fix I did was not easy, but it was cheap and it is a solid repair.

Once the sealer goo has set like this, it does not migrate. I did not feel or see the goo, just normal metal cast iron inside the block when I replaced the water pump.

 

[sdowney717]

Updating this thread, the radiator is still working, including the plastic side I fixed.
The other plastic side, which I did not take off, has a tiny leak, which I noticed oddly after it sits and cools down, it may leak a little or not leak at all. I just am too busy to fix it and I can go months without adding.