John H

On my way into work this morning, after I had driven about 4 miles, I noticed I was still not getting any heat from the heater. I glanced at the temperature gage and saw I was right at the top of the gage. On checking, the top radiator hose was hot, and both heater hoses were hot. The radiator cap however was still cold. The serpentine belt was in place and I was getting a charge. I drove the truck home at which point the temp gage was off scale. I did notice the overflow bottle was empty, which it wasn't two days ago. but I have seen no coolant leaks under the engine, and the engine is dry. I had to steal the wife's car to go to work.
When I go home tonight, I have to start working on the truck, but I just wondered if anyone out there has any ideas on where I should start looking, or what could be the problem.
Last night I replaced the power brake booster, but I didn't disturb anything that I know of.

John

Mexstan

Check for water in the oil. If no water then with the engine cold, fill the rad and the overflow bottle. Start it up and check for leaks. If no leaks, take it for a drive around the block. Check for leaks again. If still no leaks, take it for a longer drive and check again. By now I am betting that you will have found the leak.
BTW, check for leaks with the engine of and with it running. Could be a leaky water pump that only shows when it is running.
Keep us posted on what you find and the fix.

John H

Didn't take much checking. Oil fine, but radiator nearly dry. When I started to fill it back up again, to check for leaks, I couldn't pour the water in fast enough. I have a serious leak about 2/3 the way up the radiator on the drivers side. There is no visible damage, just lots of water pouring out between the fins, and without being pressurized. I wonder how that happened? I now have to figure out my options. Are these repairable? Or is it not worth trying? Anyone know the success rate or the survival rate of an attempted fix?

Thanks for the tips.

John

Mexstan

On a '93 if it were my rad I would just yank the rad and take it in for recoring. On a newer rad a fix would work but I suspect on a rad that is 10 years old that it leaked because it is corroded. Step one is to remove the rad. My guess is that once you see the place where it is leaking that you will be able to answer your own question.

Redleg

Check your thermostat. It may have went bad and caused the pressure that would put an older radiator over the edge.

John H

I pulled the radiator last night, but still couldn't see the actual leak, it was deep down in the fins somewhere (I was surprised, how easy it was to pull, four bolts and 15 minutes).
I took the radiator in to a repair shop this morning, and asked what choices I had. They are supposed to get back to me this afternoon. I wanted some of your opinions as a reality check on what he might come back with.
You're probably right about the condition on the inside, even though it looks real clean, down in those crevices it could be corroded.

That's a good point Redleg made on the thermostat, I hadn't thought about that. I'd have been real upset to put it all back together and find something still wrong. I might as well check that our while I've got everything in pieces.

John

Mexstan

Redleg is correct. Even if the thermo is good, while the fluid is out I would replace the thermo anyway. They do not cost that much and in my book that is cheap insurance. Comes under the category of preventive maintenance. So does recoring an old rad.

Bearfoot2

[quote author=Mexstan link=board=13;threadid=18099;start=0#msg170011 date=1060361040]
Redleg is correct. Even if the thermo is good, while the fluid is out I would replace the thermo anyway. They do not cost that much and in my book that is cheap insurance. Comes under the category of preventive maintenance. So does recoring an old rad.[/quote]

What Stan said.

Also, at ten years old, with it already apart, I would put on a new serpentine belt (unless it has been replaced recently) and replace the radiator hoses and heater hoses. All the rubber deteriorates with time and engine compartment heat. None of those things are that $$$ and the insurance sure beats calling a tow truck out to the middle of Ohio corn country! ;D

Just my $0.02 again.

Stan

John H

and the insurance sure beats calling a tow truck out to the middle of Ohio corn country! ;D

Just my $0.02 again.

Stan
You got that again. Three weeks ago I nearly had just that with my Chevy van. My one year old serpentine belt disintigrated and I had to cut most of it away with a pocket knife. I only just limped into a garage with what was left of the belt. Mechanic said I'd picked something up between the crankshaft pulley and the belt which cut it. Just goes to show you can have problems even with a good one.
I was going to replace the belt and the hoses though. But thanks for the reminder.

John

Lil Dog

When you have the rad at the shop, get them to check the solder connection at the outlet (bottom) of the rad. From the factory they are only soldered, not Silver Soldered which makes a difference in strength of the joint and might rear its ugly head after putting on the new hoses..

I didn't do the thermostat when I fixed my rad and had to do it a month later.. :-[

Like most have said, belts, hoses, thermostat (Cummins of course) and rad all at once..

I would think that the rad would be repairable, nice not having plastic side tanks...LOL>..

J-eh

Redleg

I guess as long as your at it, the lower hose that Napa sells, came with the new spring inside when I got one last spring. It seems I've read here that not all places supply this.

PumpDaddy

On the Rads with the REAL tank, and if you carry or have the stuff, a little acid core solder, flux, wire brush or sand paper works great to get you home, and in some TIGHT WAD cases, it will run for quite a while. We just fixed our shop vans rad when little Johnny came in and said he needed to take it to the shop for repairs, 10 minutes and "Get your butt back to work". DO NOT USE flux cored solder, it won't hold, use ACID core, but DON'T use the acid core on potable (drinking) water, they say it has some good effects on our brains....DUH

John H

Frustrating end of week and weekend. I took the radiator in to get it checked. They said they'd call. No-one called. Went to find out what had happened. They said they'd fixed it - $40. I guess that was kind of them! They fixed it all right, they cut the leaking tube at each end, and plug soldered the header tanks. That probably is a standard fix, but I hate to lose cooling area. It would have been nice to have a choice.
Anyway, I went to NAPA for hoses, belt and thermostat (our nearest Cummins dealer is 50 miles away in Cleveland, and I'm not happy with the local Dodge dealership. Three stores later, I got the bottom hose and a serpentine belt. No thermostat, no top hose. I put the radiator back in with old top hose and old thermostat. I had to order those, and I have to pick them up tonight. I did find that a new radiator is $295.99. A re-core is $155.00 I might have liked to spend my $40 towards the re-core.
Oh well, radiator out again tonight. I am still thinking about whether to go new, or to re-core. Does anyone have any experience as to how long one might last over the other?

John

Mexstan

Have had a few rads recored and never had a problem. I suspect that the recores are a better quality than the OEM's but have no proof of this.

Cumminsdude

I dont know if this helps but I remember a rad floating around on ebay for your truck pretty cheap. I tried to find it but no such luck. If I happen to spot it again I'll let you know but you might have some luck checking there.