radiator blew

[69oiler]

after the $174 tow the truck's in the barn. thankfully the weather is good right now and the rain has cleaned off the roads so i am running my IDI.

anyway, are these rads known to fail? it's a plastic/aluminum rad, i'm guessing the seal between the 2 failed. it was quick. it went form a drip to a steady **** stream in all of 20 miles.

ford has the rad for $315 and NAPA for $229. i'm thinking i'll spring for the ford part this time.

anyone else have this type of failure on a SD?

 

[towcat]

tank failures are not uncommon with the composite radiators.
just for good measure, change out the thermostat while you're in there.

 

[Double-S-Diesel]

rob got your message late
I have seen them fail, usually the seam goes.
go with the napa, it looks just as good as the ford one.

 

[Agnem]

Dang. Ford wanted like $425 for an IDI rad. Of course those are all copper with soldered seems. Hmmmm.......

We just put one of those plastic and aluminum jobbies in the Night Moose.

 

[geonc]

tank failures are not uncommon with the composite radiators.
just for good measure, change out the thermostat while you're in there.

second both those

 

[NJKen]

A little too much heat is the sure fire way to seperate plastic and aluminum. Almost always there will be a leak after a severe overheat. So, I will third the above post.
Ken

 

[69oiler]

i was towing when it happened but i did not get any indications of overheating on my dash. i will change the t-stat as a precaution.

i have the IDI loaded and ready to go quad riding and camping this weekend. i'll toss the new rad in the SD on Monday.

 

[NJKen]

Sometimes you get a beat one. It does not take much of an overheat to make the aluminum part expand more than the plastic part can deal with. Once they are weakened they are toast.
Ken

 

[69oiler]

well i got my radiator, 4 gallons of coolant from the IH shop, 4 gallons of distilled water, and a 40 frickin dollar thermostat from Ford. i should have a working truck by the end of the day.

 

[kcw12]

Carolina auto parts have to have it shipped to business

 

[69oiler]

well that was about the easiest radiator/thermostat job i ever did. i'm taking it for a ride now to check for leaks.

 

[OLDBULL8]

I got my radiator from radiators.com 800-395-3889 a year ago for $280 shipped . It's an OEM made by Visteon in Mexico for my 1990 F-350 it's the 31 inch wide. Nice radiator,exact duplicate. Brass tubes and tanks. Came out of Livonia Mich.

 

[hesutton]

Good deal! Hope it's not leaking a drop. Gotta get the IDI going next.

Heath

 

[Russ]

One down one to go. I think we need to put that turbo on, swap in that New IDI with a rebuilt C6 and call it done.

 

[69oiler]

she's a runner. Ford did something right for once when they designed the rad mounts. it's like pulling toast out of a toaster. i wasted as much time as i spent actually doing the job.