the radiator may need to be rodded out. Should be around $60.
Mine was clogged beyond belief.
also pull off all the hoses at the rear of the engine and make sure those
tubes are clear; they have a tendency to clog up if the car sits for a
period.
A radiator shroud would help.
In a car that the heater was hooked up you would need to be sure the heater
valve was fully open when adding coolent and ran long enough to allow all
the air to burp out.
Al salvatore
----- Original Message -----
From: "Skip Montanaro" <skip@pobox.com>
To: <6pack@autox.team.net>; <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 11:14 PM
Subject: Is my radiator toast?
> I'm in the midst of a mini odyssey with my car's cooling system.
> Background: It's a TR250 with no special cooling stuff (e.g.: no shroud,
no
> electric fan). The heater core is currently not in the loop. It has a
new
> thermostat, water pump, hoses and return pipe. I don't know how old the
> radiator is, but it looks good externally and doesn't leak.
>
> The radiator cap was old and weak, so it wasn't maintaining pressure and
the
> car was boiling over. I purchased a new cap which solved the problem
> immediately. However, the radiator fluid was quite rusty looking and I
knew
> it had been a long while since the cooling system had been properly
flushed,
> I purchased a bottle of Prestone Super Flush, some new antifreeze and a
> bottle of Redline Water Wetter.
>
> I set about flushing the system. I drained the system, filled it with
plain
> water, ran it, drained it, then filled it with water plus the Super Flush,
> then ran it and drained it again as the instructions indicated. The water
> percolating up to the top of the radiator still looked fairly murky, so I
> flushed it twice more with plain water. The last time the car overheated,
> with water boiling out the escape valve into the overflow tank. I
thought,
> "Not a problem. The system just doesn't have any antifreeze to raise the
> boiling point or water wetter to improve the heat transfer." I then
> proceeded to drain and fill the cooling system once again, this time
adding
> the Water Wetter and about 25% antifreeze, as the WW label recommended.
>
> Still the car overheats. When I look in the radiator and it's down a bit
on
> fluid, I see little "crumbs" of what looks like rust in the top of the
> radiator, so I suspect flow through the radiator is compromised. Today I
> pulled the water pump and thermostat to make sure nothing was obstructing
> them. Everything looked fine there and the water pump spins freely.
>
> So, is my radiator toast, or can I do something like pull the radiator and
> flush it upside down to wash out the "crumbs"?
>
> Thanks,
>
> --
> Skip Montanaro - skip@pobox.com
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