Can anyone give me heads up how to plug this pin hole leak in my radiator. The pic shows where it is bubbling... As you can tell from the pic I attempted at a gas tank sealant I had laying around. Obviously didn't work
I put bars leak in and ran engine for over 10 minutes and it STOPPED! I will get it fixed correctly but I like the idea of the bars stuff.. It is just in the radiator circulating and if a leak happens it seals it's self....is there any down fall? I only put small amount
An egg and pepper. Drop in both, the pepper will plug the hole and the egg will glaze over it. Ran my old Y block F100 for a couple years like that back when times were tighter. ...or take it to one of them newfangled radiator shops.
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ill bite....what kind of pepper? bell? jalapano? or pepper like the ground up stuff. logig tells me the second but.... it just seems weird to me.
Ive heard of this one before, A guy I know did it to his f-150 a few years ago, and its still holding up. It blew my mind.
You just put a band aid on the beginnings of a seam separation between the tank and header.The only way to fix that correctly is to remove and resolder the top tank Barsleak is good stuff but from your photo I can see where the seam is distorted and you will just have it slowly open up further along the seam. I had to repair a lot of this type leak when working in a radiator shop.( over 5 years at bench repair)With the top tank off you'll also get a look at what the condition of the tubes are like, If the core is in solid shape a rodding out might be inorder to open up the core tubes from build up I've seem more than 1/2 the cooling tubes closed/almost closed from mineral build up.
-->Excessive<-- amounts of rad leak additive can insulate the engine/waterjackets and eventuyally cause an engine to run hotter than useual. If you wish to flush your radiator/block, pour a 1 quart bottle of Sunlight dish washing liquid into the rad and drive for a few days. Rinse and repeat as necessary. The more soap you put in, the more crap that comes out. moe .
Just a suggestion, from having had a '56 F-100. You will find this is a pretty common problem, in their infinite wisdom Ford used a steel over flow tube on the brass radiator. It rusts shut and the pressure in the radiator goes quite a bit higher that the seam on the top tank will handle. After I had the top tank resoldered about three times, I took it to an old time radiator guy, he fixed the tank and replaced the tube with a brass one. It never leaked in the ten years I had it after that and as far as I know is still cooling the SBC in it. Tool Roomer
Its a trick I learned from an old timer back in the '70s. Black pepper is used. The granules collect at and start to plug up the hole, then the heat from the egg "cooking" creates a glaze that fills in the areas around the pepper and plugs the hole. I guess it was a popular "side of the road" remedy back in the '30s or '40s.
The Jalopy Journal
