my opinion on stop leak is that it doesn't really hurt anything. if it finds a small leak that it can crust up, it can stop the leak. as long as its flowing around in solution, i don't think it hurts anything.

its perfectly alright to catch and reuse good antifreeze. just place a clean rag or towel or paper towels in a funnel, which acts as a filter, and pour it back in. its too expensive to waste.

the reason the stop leak is not working on your radiator seam is that the seam is expanding and contracting and that's not giving the stop leak a place to crust up on. it works best in little rust holes. your seam of plastic on metal is unlikely to ever get any better without some kind of crimp or epoxy repair. i wouldn't waste time on the old one, as its a pretty common failure and nobody ever posts any success stories other than spending too much money to repair it at a radiator shop.

did you try the radiator cap in the loose, half **** postion yet?

 

Good deal. In case (that's a very big IF) the stop leak is working on the heater core, I'd rather re-use it without straining.

It makes perfect sense about why stop leak not working on radiator. I find it hard to believe that it is working on the heater core either. Where is the common location on heater core to spring a leak?

Not sure if roommate tried the cap yet. I told him to do it when he topped off his loss coolant before going to work last night. I will ask him when he gets up.

 

I asked roommate about the cap being 1/2 turned. He said he did. Not sure if it helped coolant loss, but he said it made his gauge weird. So I had him top off any loss and tighten cap back up. It may be spitting coolant out his front seam, but at least it is holding pressure.