Whew! Radiator cleaning.

[Paul Higg]

I spent the day removing the radiator and cleaning it. I found a veritable forest in there. I had the FSM to guide me but some of those little 10 mm screws on the shroud, well, they were tough. Also, removing, and what's worse, replacing the shroud! What a job! Now it looks like I might have a tiny leak from the lower transmission nut. I shouldn't lose too much fluid as I didn't lose a lot when I disconnected them today and then I might use high-temp teflon tape. Any better ideas? Definitely not cross threaded at least.

Anyway, I also replaced the engine coolant temp sensor and test drove it for a while. I now have a 30 degree drop in temp from the day before and it is the same ambient outside temp too. What a difference.

 

[Ugolino]

I think last time I did this on my old c4 I just used some thread sealant on the transmission line, and it worked perfectly. And be sure to use a flare nut wrench, you don't want to kink that line.

 

[Paul Higg]

Good old sealant, cool, thanks. I just used a 1/2 open end wrench and it worked fine. I held back on the line with my hand, no problems.

 

[Baldie88]

Yeah, it truly is amazing how much junk gets vaccuumed up between the condenser and radiator. Glad everything worked out for you.

And don't you wish you could show those engineers where they could place some of the 10mm screws!

Ron
"Baldie88"

 

[Paul Higg]

NO kidding. I worked aircraft for 25 years as an avionics tech and after a few too many engineering orders we got tired of them having us run wires all over the place and doing things that made no sense. So we got together and forced them to come to the aircraft and ask our advice. It worked. You're right, the engineers should get feedback from the mechanics and owners first.

Boeing did just that with the 777, they got feedback from a lot of mechanics to make the job easier so the turn around time would be reduced and it has helped dramatically.

As for the radiator, I don't really want to do that again, at least not for a while. I think the hardest two parts were getting the shroud off when all the bolts and screws were removed and getting it back ON! ARGH! I spent the greater part of the job trying to get the A/C condenser and the radiator lined up just right. What a pain in the you know what.

 

[Boeingdriver]

I now have a 30 degree drop in temp from the day before and it is the same ambient outside temp too. What a difference.

Paul......from what, to what did your temp. drop?

 

[Paul Higg]

I went from 239 degrees on a 70 degree day to 185 degrees on the same day by removing the radiator, cleaning all the garbage out, and there was a virtual forest of yellow straw, pine straw, leaves, cigarette butts, dirt, bark, a plastic bag, and various and sundry other debris. Then I straightened out as many fins as possible with a tiny screwdriver. I was extremely careful doing this. I also replaced my engine coolant sensor.

I put all new Prestone green 50/50 in it and drove it then added some more until it was at the proper level.

Hope this helps.

Paul

 

[Toms007]

Yea, our cars are little vacuum cleaners, sucking up everything it passes over the road.

 

[Paul Higg]

It really is amazing. I have a question as I have never tested it or looked, when the cooling fans come on do they blow forward to the front end of the car or do they suck air through the radiator? If they suck air it is no wonder they get so full of junk.

 

[muddywaters]

My 88 was clean when I bought it. I heard about the Hoover effect and checked mine out. It looked like a vac. bag, lottery tickets, leaves, cig. wrappers, I could not believe the debris that was in there, in my case I had to remove the rad. to clean it properly. I watched the situation for a while and found that at the bottom of the condensor there's a gap, the debris blows flat against the cond., slides down and pops up on the other side. I used a piece of vac. hose to fill that gap and so far so good...............

 

[Paul Higg]

Exactly how did you do this? Could you post a photo? I am sure a LOT of others would be interested too. If something so simple could help us avoid pulling radiators that would be great. I know a guy who overhauls Vettes for a living and he had had to pull his radiator for cleaning three times. Not something I would want to do on a quasi-regular basis.

 

[ken mohr]

Exactly how did you do this? Could you post a photo? I am sure a LOT of others would be interested too. If something so simple could help us avoid pulling radiators that would be great.


I agree

 

[muddywaters]

I can't do the picture thing, but what I did was put vac. tubing along the bottom of the cond. along its length, I noticed leaves that were already entering that slot. halfway on the outside, halfway into the space between rad./cond.. I took an envelope and laid it flat on the cond. and slid it towards the bottom of the cond. and found once the debris enters that slot the action of the fan pulls the crap into the gap. I'm sure there's other areas that can be sealed also, but it looked to me that the crap was dropping to the bottom. You can also screen the openings under the chin of the vehicle, but ANY type of screen impedes air flow.............

 

[tcolyer]

On my 86 I used the foam insulation for water pipes (it is split with adhesive on it with peel offs) I placed sections top, bottom & both sides peeled the tape and stuck it to the condenser. You could do the same with sticking it to the radiator support but I found it fit nicely on the condenser. I found just a slight tension on the rad support when replacing showing that the insullation took up all the gaps. So no foreign matterial can get thru and it directs all air thru the condenser instead of around it.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[muddywaters]

That's the way ya do it!!!! There's always more than one way to skin a cat.........

 

[Paul Higg]

Fellas, I appreciate the descriptions, I really do but a photo is worth a thousand words. Someone told me how to use the Photobucket web site to upload photos and I have done it, it is easy. Do you think you might go out of your way and do this? It would help a lot of people.

I am still not sure about the hose. Do you mean a shop vac hose? Or a small vacuum hose you'd use on the car?

The water pipe insulation is a great idea too but photos would be better.

Please???

Paul <grin>

 

[Boeingdriver]

I went from 239 degrees on a 70 degree day to 185 degrees on the same day by removing the radiator, cleaning all the garbage out, and there was a virtual forest of yellow straw, pine straw, leaves, cigarette butts, dirt, bark, a plastic bag, and various and sundry other debris. Then I straightened out as many fins as possible with a tiny screwdriver. I was extremely careful doing this. I also replaced my engine coolant sensor.

I put all new Prestone green 50/50 in it and drove it then added some more until it was at the proper level.

Hope this helps.

Paul

Wow......I guess I'm due for this. I run 203 to 215 F on an 85 degree day on the interstate driving easy (65 to 72 mph). This is with an LT4, but the propensity for the radiator to clog with debris is the same. I'd love for mine to run at 185 F. Gordon Killebrew told me at FunFest last summer that the OE thermostat in my engine (which I have) is 180 F. My oil temp. runs right up 200+ F in step with the coolant. I wonder if it'll drop along with the water temp. with a clean out?

 

[Paul Higg]

Good question about the oil.

Have you pulled and cleaned the radiator? The only reason I changed the ECT was because the previous owner or some other knucklehead who changed the serpentine belt wasn't careful and broke the plastic connector off so the pins were being held in place by the grip on the pins themselves. One thing I did notice however was the ECT was black with gunk so I wonder if that contributed to a high reading? Since it needed replacing and since the radiator was full of garbage (and bent fins of the fan side, HOW?) I thought I'd kill two birds and now all is well.

Anyway, I have an LT1 and here's the information right out of my FSM:

Radiator fan cycling - See 6B

Primary fan comes on when ECT is above 226 ºF & oil temp above 228º F

Secondary fan comes on when ECT is above 234º F & engine oil is above 235ºF

Hope this helps.

Paul

 

[Toms007]

Paul and Steve, here's a project that I did today after school. It is should help with keeping the junk out of the radiator. I had read about doing this on another forum and a friend of mine had bought a 10' length of this "expanded metal" to make these screens for his 2 C4's and had this extra piece and gave it to me. I've had it sitting in my garage for many months. Now with this thread it got me going to finish this job, so today I decided to do it.

The expanded metal which is Aluminum gutter guard from Home Depot and has the little clips already on them (I did have to pry them off to move them) so that they would line up with the screws that hold the fog lamp access doors closed and drilled a 1/4" hole in them to run the screw through. I made a cardboard template to create the shape on the ends that I wanted and then just used my tin snips to cut to shape. At the bottom I drilled 2, 3/16" holes through the center replaceable section of the air dam and ran a couple of zip ties around to hold the bottom of the screen in place. Only the smallest junk will get through now.

here you can see where I attached the existing clip to the screws for fog lamp access and where I put the zip tie through the front.

In this picture it shows where I drilled the holes in the center section of the air dam and ran the zip ties to hold the bottom of the screen.

 

[Paul Higg]

Tom! This is outstanding. I printed your post with the photos so I can do the same. This is exactly what I needed, some photos.

So, is this where all the debris gets sucked up? I was under the impression that it got "vacuumed" from under the car, from directly under the radiator. When I pulled mine I noticed there wasn't one bit of debris on either side of the A/C radiator.

Anyway, with your photos I plan on doing the same. I appreciate your photos Tom. Nice clean work by the way.

Paul