Radiator Repository Remediation

[ARCHINSTL]

I removed the grille to clean the radiator with the foam cleaner* usually used for central AC condenser cleaning and noticed a big buildup of pieces of leaves wedged between the radiator fins and the front shroud. It was about 1" thick on both sides and 1"+ at the bottom of the radiator.
I guess some of them were years old - I'd never considered cleaning that area. So I vacuumed them with a 1/2" ID hose stuck on the the vac's nozzle - I did have to use a thin screwdriver to dig some out. This exposed quite a bit of the finned area.
Did it have an effect? Hard to tell from the temp gauge, but it had to have helped cooling a bit.
I would suggest all pop their grille and clean the area - maybe in the "pine belt" there will be large amounts of needles lodged there.
* The foam worked great, incidentally, although I did blast it with a hose afterwards.
Tom M.

Radiator Right Side

Radiator Left Side

[takza]

One way to clean radiator fins is with a hose....BUT....you have to be very careful with the pressure used. Too much and you will bend the fins and make a real mess. I also take a small jewelers screwdriver and carefully bend the bent ones straight.

But remember...one forum member posted a pic of a rad that did not overheat and he had about 1/2 of the fins corroded away.

Detritus is the enemy. But you should use some of these other words on occasion.

*bits, crap, detritus , dregs, dross, fragments, garbage, junk, offal, pieces, refuse, remains, riffraff, rubbish, rubble, ruins, trash, wreck, wreckage, clutter, collateral, confusion, detritus , disarray, disorder, garbage, hash, hodgepodge, jumble, jungle, junk, mishmash, muck, muddle, offal, rash, refuse, rubbish, rummage, scattering, scramble, shuffle, trash, untidiness, waste

If you saved all that stuff...maybe you can check to see what it actually is?

[ARCHINSTL]

So - while the high pressure DID remove some of the paint on the fins - should I give a light spray of either Rust-Oleum High Temp or Rust restorer or ? to them?
Much to my surprise, none of the OE fins were bent on the outside or the inside, whether before or after the use of the pressure washer.
Tom M.

[splatterdog]

A very light spray of rustoleum might be OK. Ideally you would use an auto radiator paint. It's formulated to not clog or interfere with heat transfer. http://www.amazon.com/Eastwood-Radiator ... 615&sr=8-1

Either way I would be very careful to not clog fins. Sometimes the fins have fins making for some very small air passages.

I usually check every car for rad clogging. A/C condensers will pass just about everything but bugs. The rad is a way more effective air filter. Fuzzy seeds are the worst. It's not unusual for the condenser to look OK, but the front of the rad looks like a nasty lint screen from a clothes drier. Sometimes it's at least 90% coverage!

I have an older version of this to fix the situationhttp://www.tooltopia.com/thexton-467a.aspx I see it now has an adapter and tip for compressed air. Thanks for getting me on the subject, this is going to cost me. Now I'm going to have to upgrade as I see there is an extension available now too. When will it end!

[takza]

Forgot that I did this way back when....

https://tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=51

Also put some screen under the cowling in front of the windshield.