Fixed my leaking Heater-core
Thread Starter
|
Professional
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 132
Likes: 1
From: Vancouver, Canada
Fixed my leaking Heater-core
Figured I would make a post to help out anyone with a leaking heatercore.
Symptoms:
My wind shield would constantly fog up. When it rained outside I had to drive with the windows open a crack to keep the air circulating. Occasionally could smell the sweet smell of coolant...This went on for a couple months-finally I saw some coolant on the passenger side floor which confirmed a leaking heatercore.
After watching quite a few youtube videos & searching different threads- it looked like a complete pain in the ***..so I bought some radiator sealant to see if it would fix it..the $10-20 seemed worth the chance. Worst case scenario it doesnt work and I have to replace the HC anyway. So I purchased "Rislone Liquid Aluminum Cooling System/Radiator Stop Leak ".
The instructions are pretty straight forward, but I was afraid of the sealant mixing with some of the crap thats in the heatercore..clogging up some of the narrow passages in the heatercore, radiator or the theromstat-leaving me in a worse position than before.
I pulled the hoses off of the heatercore-connected one side my garden hose using some cheap rad flush fittings, and the other side to a piece of hose I had laying around long enough to drain into a bucket on the ground..Flushed it in and out of both hoses until it ran clear with no resistance each time..It made the leak worse inside the truck as there was some water on the floor from me flushing it. Obviously blew some of the crap out that was partially blocking the leak- not sure if it was a crack or pinhole. Drained and flushed the rad..Pulled out the tstat, flushed the block until everything was clear. Put the tstat back in, idled the truck until it was warm with the rad cap off to bleed out the air that was in the coolant system.
I put the whole bottle of the Rislone into the coolant system (not into the reservoir), let it idle for 10 minutes, took it on a 30 minute drive then let it sit overnight. Next morning I had a 4.5 hour drive from the coast to interior of BC. After about 15 minutes of driving my truck was up to operating temperature..then I noticed it was getting hot (normally sits at 1/3 on the gauge, it was up a little more than 1/2)..made me a little concerned that maybe the thermostat got gummed up..Within a minute or so the truck went back down to its normal operating temperature and I finished my drive.
I did this 2 months and 3000km ago, its been running trouble & leak free ever since. Just thought i'd post it if someone is looking for another option to replacing their heatercore due to time, weather, money, whatever restraints. Not sure if this will be a permanent fix but so far so good... just wasnt interested in replacing a heatercore outside uncovered in winter lol
Symptoms:
My wind shield would constantly fog up. When it rained outside I had to drive with the windows open a crack to keep the air circulating. Occasionally could smell the sweet smell of coolant...This went on for a couple months-finally I saw some coolant on the passenger side floor which confirmed a leaking heatercore.
After watching quite a few youtube videos & searching different threads- it looked like a complete pain in the ***..so I bought some radiator sealant to see if it would fix it..the $10-20 seemed worth the chance. Worst case scenario it doesnt work and I have to replace the HC anyway. So I purchased "Rislone Liquid Aluminum Cooling System/Radiator Stop Leak ".
The instructions are pretty straight forward, but I was afraid of the sealant mixing with some of the crap thats in the heatercore..clogging up some of the narrow passages in the heatercore, radiator or the theromstat-leaving me in a worse position than before.
I pulled the hoses off of the heatercore-connected one side my garden hose using some cheap rad flush fittings, and the other side to a piece of hose I had laying around long enough to drain into a bucket on the ground..Flushed it in and out of both hoses until it ran clear with no resistance each time..It made the leak worse inside the truck as there was some water on the floor from me flushing it. Obviously blew some of the crap out that was partially blocking the leak- not sure if it was a crack or pinhole. Drained and flushed the rad..Pulled out the tstat, flushed the block until everything was clear. Put the tstat back in, idled the truck until it was warm with the rad cap off to bleed out the air that was in the coolant system.
I put the whole bottle of the Rislone into the coolant system (not into the reservoir), let it idle for 10 minutes, took it on a 30 minute drive then let it sit overnight. Next morning I had a 4.5 hour drive from the coast to interior of BC. After about 15 minutes of driving my truck was up to operating temperature..then I noticed it was getting hot (normally sits at 1/3 on the gauge, it was up a little more than 1/2)..made me a little concerned that maybe the thermostat got gummed up..Within a minute or so the truck went back down to its normal operating temperature and I finished my drive.
I did this 2 months and 3000km ago, its been running trouble & leak free ever since. Just thought i'd post it if someone is looking for another option to replacing their heatercore due to time, weather, money, whatever restraints. Not sure if this will be a permanent fix but so far so good... just wasnt interested in replacing a heatercore outside uncovered in winter lol
