Plastic Radiators - Grrrrr

Not just the radiator - what about all the other bits made out of something other than metal that are critical to getting home safe?

like rad fans I was back in SA visiting ma and pa and looked forward to a drive of my old skyline I sold them
while it still hammered it seemed to be running rough

I investigated further and found 2 blades busted off of the plastic fan - thankfully rad was OK

and if you talking old holden motors thee is a lineup 100km long of people who never made it home due to both those crappy timing cogs and the distibuter cogs - neither which was metal

His new add on block sensor sounds interesting as well.

My mechanic was saying that a lot of european cars have low water sensors and alarms as standard.

Why has this not been a problem before? - radiators made out of aluminium, copper and brass - all metal - do not fatigue, crack and bleep ter like plastic. They may develop a leak but that is something you can fix on the road...

The RAA bloke said there is nothing much you can do - it will pass a pressure test one day and break the next.

I have been thinking how I could limp home from the middle of nowhere with a broken top (or bottom) radiator pipe or tank - perhaps build up someting that will hold water from plastibond or similar and drive with the pressure cap off?

Interesting problem.

Pete

That ole bomb of yours won't know what hit it. What with new suspension, new rims, new tyres, new winch, new spotlights, new low water alarm, new radiator, new seats, new bar work, new what else?(new driver?)....hahahahahaha



Cheers

S'cuse me.....

the old wagon is getting a bit of TLC prior to some serious
wanderings...


Might even wash it....))))))))))))

Cheers
Michael......who will eventually change his 'photo:))

OEM Holden ones

PS I wonder if desert coolers do a aftermarket metal radiator to fit???

Attack the root cause rather then awaiting for the problem to develop.

Low water alarm will come on as soon as you loose water, hence saying your engine

excuse the spelling, I am having a few not so quiet Rumbos

Effie

May be you should do some research on the Low Water Alarm. You can use the SEARCH function of this site to search the archives or Google it if you wish.

G'day Effice C,

Mate, it wouldn't have stopped the rupturing of the tank/outlet etc, but if Pete hadn't been driving with his window down and got a wiff of the coolant ## (see below), then he would've very quickly cooked his donk.... the price of the low water alarm would've seemed like loose change in comparison to the cost of rebuilding/replacing his donk.

## Now I'm gunna say something that's gunna get ME into hot water.......

Imagine if it was a person of the female persuasion who was driving the vehicle at the time..... she wouldn't have any idea what that coolant smell was..... she'd probably think the person driving the car in front of her was having some delayed gutural reations to last night's curry meal..... Thus, she wouldn't be likely to realise it was time to pull over.... Admittedly, even with a pretty large RED LED and a buzzer going off it's tiitts, she'd possibly just turn up the ipod so as not to hear the horrible buzzing noise.

To all those non-male readers of this forum who DO in fact know what to do if something does not seem quite right with their steed, please accept my apologies for the previous paragraph... I was generalising, which is a dead-set guaranteed way to offend a minority....

Cheers

Roachie

Ooooooo..Bill........yer going to regret this......hahahahahaha



Cheers

"she'd probably think the person driving the car in front of her was having some delayed gutural reations to last night's curry meal."

Roachie.....you'll be sorry.lol lol lol

An 'over temperature' engine shut down does a great job too should an employee fail to notice all other warning devices. We had one operate just a couple of weeks ago protecting a well tuned John Deere engine and the guy had to perform his (expected routine) screen cleaning with a hot radiator:-))

You can do the same thing with a pressure switch teed into the temp sender, when pressure is low it glows an idiot light or sounds an alarm

Cheers

Richard

you are right of course Roachie....but i'll never ever tell em your right

I know I was thinking what if it had been yesterday with the windows up and the A/C running to help keep the engine a little warmer.

I had a top hose blow on a courier tray top some years ago and there was a huge gush of steam as the coolant hit the exhaust. This time there was no steam until I stopped, but I must have caught it just as it let go as there was coolant sitting everywhere.

The other trap is that if it starts with a small crack it will progressively empty the radiator but if you only check the water level at the overflow bottle there will still be plenty of coolant there. I always lift the cap when cold to check levels.

The new radiator went in yesterday - $840 for a generic unit. The holden original is over $1,400.

Cheers

Pete