Best way to fix radiator leak?

[stu182]

I have a small stress crack on the bottom right side of the rad on my 96 kx 250. Its a pinhole leak . Whats the best way to fix this? How do the pro's :worship: fix rad's and what do they use to seal it? I thought about solder but don't think it would stick. The crack is above the bottom part and right where the last fin connects to bottom. Its right where the side makes the turn to go up.

 

[Ol'89r]

Stu.

Have it tig welded.

 

[Zerotact]

this is by no means a permanent fix, but, I once used a whole bottle of ground pepper to seal up my alum heater core in my s-10 when i didn't have the money to fix it and needed a heater. I dumped a whole bottle of ground pepper in the radiator....
I swear it worked, but I'd only use it in extreme scenarios

 

[jmics19067]

if it is a stress crack nothing will hold well except for a weld. there is some low temp aluminum solders /fluxes but they are usually thin flowing and weak strength. They would only work well for tight fitting overlapping joints not for building up ,crack or butt joint. As Ol'89er said TIG, If you are good enough to use a torch for welding aluminum<you would have to be real good for something that thin and delicate> you would probably end up melting off the silver solder/aluminum braze that is holding your radiator together.

pepper does work as well as eggs tobacco, and the store bought radiator fixes, the problems with them is not only do they clog the leak up but they also clog up the cores of the radiator.

 

[carlbielke]

Take it to a professional aluminium welder, look it up in the yellow pages, I have had mine welded twice, they use special aluminium rods, and I couldn't belive how cheap it was, the welder asked me for 1.50$ but I insisted he should have 3$ to buy himself a beer.

Then again, labor might be a bit more expensive in the states than down here in Paraguay!

It's holding up just fine, mine had a long crack in it, some of the core leaked too but now it didn't loose a drop of water during a four day jungle adventure trip. I crashed and ripped of the radiator shroud which took the radiator mounting hole with it. Luckily I just had to take the piece and the radiator to the welder and he reattached it, no prob. I even bent it back into shape (carefully) and it works a charm. Radiators are way too expensive IMHO.

 

[atc3434`]

Yeah, radiator prices are rediculous. I had one waffled pretty bad on my YZ, $30 at the local radiator repair shop got her fixed up real nice. Check around to see if you got somebody local that will do that type of work.

 

[Moto Squid]

Originally posted by atc3434`
$30 at the local radiator repair shop got her fixed up real nice.

ditto about going to the local guy...if you're lucky you can even get it back the same day :thumb: The local guy has saved me big $$$