Coolant Leak

[nooberiffic]

My Dad borrowed my sploder to pick up some groceries and noticed that there was a small puddle of coolant when he left to parking lot to come back.

I went out and checked the oil (clean) and the overflow tank (empty). Took the rad cap off and noticed it was a couple quarts low. Topped it off with water and started the motor to see if I could located the leak. No leak.

Since he noticed it on the way back I thought it might have something to do with the thermostat opening. Correct. When thermostat opened it started leaking from the bottom passenger side, near the petcock. doesnt look like it is coming from the actual petcock but somewhere in the lower right half. I loosened the shroud and chekcked and it seems to be coming from the gen area of the petcock.

Is it common for them to fail in this area? could it still be the petcock o ring?

 

[Maniak]

My guess is its actually leaking from the seam of the plastic to the metal on the radiator. Thats where they normally leak from. I've also seen the plastic tanks crack. Once you get some pressure in the system it starts to leak..

~Mark

 

[nooberiffic]

no big deal. 65 bucks for a new one shipped (ebay)

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_tr...xplorer+radiator+93&_sacat=See-All-Categories

 

[nooberiffic]

Just a qustion. I have heard that the new one row radiators are just as good as the old design two row ones... is this true?

 

[Maniak]

I've heard that too, but that was comparing old top tank multi core radiators to the current design cross flow radiators. AFAIK, it wasn't comparing your old multi core with a new OEM single core for the same vehicle.

~Mark

 

[geoph1986]

Single row replacement radiators can be just as good, or sometimes betters that stock 2 row ones. However there are many things to consider when doing so. Such as how many rows of tubes are there, in the single row VS the 2 row, how big the tubes are, and are the tubes dimpled (this slows the flow of coolant in the rad and allows it to cool better).

For example if both rads have 18 tubes per row, and the tubes are 1/8"X1/2", non-dimpled, the 2 row will cool better. FWIW.

 

[jd4242]

geezz i thought one row was for rad fluid and one was for trans fluid.thats why ive only seen one row manual radiators and two row auto radiators?

 

[geoph1986]

geezz i thought one row was for rad fluid and one was for trans fluid.thats why ive only seen one row manual radiators and two row auto radiators?

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not, but if it isn't:

An auto trans cooler is located in the radiator tank (basically a cooler in a cooler), and is either a tube cooler, or a plate type cooler. The auto rads have to cool a lot more because of the trans being cooled in the rad tank. People also think that bigger is better when it comes to rads, which is half true. If your rad over cools your vehicle, you could have issues like poor heat in the winter.

If it is sarcasm...I'm just a lil' slow sometimes.

 

[doonze]

As a point of interest, my radiator delevoped a bad leak this weekend in the exact same place, I pulled it and it is infact exactly what Maniak described. I have pics I'm going to post up tonight about it!

 

[nooberiffic]

I dont think one row's are just for standards. I have seen many vehicles with manual transmissions with multi row radiators. Perhaps that is not what ford did for RBV's.

 

[jd4242]

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not, but if it isn't:

An auto trans cooler is located in the radiator tank (basically a cooler in a cooler), and is either a tube cooler, or a plate type cooler. The auto rads have to cool a lot more because of the trans being cooled in the rad tank. People also think that bigger is better when it comes to rads, which is half true. If your rad over cools your vehicle, you could have issues like poor heat in the winter.

If it is sarcasm...I'm just a lil' slow sometimes.

no it wasn't,so your saying that the trans fluid doesn't flow through the tubes just in the side tanks?

 

[Maniak]

no it wasn't,so your saying that the trans fluid doesn't flow through the tubes just in the side tanks?

That is correct.. Trans fluid stays in the one tank and doesn't go through any tubes.

~Mark

 

[jd4242]

never cut one open or anything so i had no clue

 

[Currency]

That is correct.. Trans fluid stays in the one tank and doesn't go through any tubes.

~Mark

I thought my trans cooler was located in front of my radiator and looks like a mini radiator or heater core. Transmission lines run to it :

 

[Maniak]

That an aux. trans cooler.. aka an external trans cooler.

~Mark