Radiator Leak Would you?

[ChallengerRN]

Pepper?? I for sure not take a chance on making that motor sneeze. Just saying. Good luck. Radiator shop only permanent fix. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Russell

[TQ60]

Careful with anything added as a the chemistry of the antifreeze is different now.

If it holds pressure it is not leaking.

Check level with a stick so you have a benchmark then apply pressure with a tester and leave it.

If pressure is stable great but check level against stick after being under pressure to see.

Also twist or try to twist every hose you can find and operate all of the heater controls.

You may have had a large air bubble in a high point that burped out.

Ours requires opening a bleeder valve to get air out of one overhead pipe

[spritz]

Okay on the additives I will take her for a run 20 miles stop take a look, I would think that everything should be @ the operation temp by then for a Gasser.
Thanks,Tim
Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year and Safe travels

[D Lindy]

Pepper DOES stop radiator leaks. ALL my contact trucks in the Military carries a 1lb can of pepper just for that use. If it was a bigger leak they'd use pliers to crimp the tube as closed as possible and then dump a hand full of pepper in it, run it for an hour to seal it up.

[jesilvas]

No one said it didn't work. But what all is in that coolant system? Oil cooler ever get clogged? Cylinder sleeves? Too many other places it may "stop the leak" also.

[TeJay]

Yes pepper does work. It was often used in the racing circuit years ago but then racers usually rebuilt everything between races anyway but it did help to get them through the race.

Many year experience with this stuff. I have used most every product out there and yes some of them work for awhile but in this situation don't try it. Get a good new Radiator. You've got an older MH. Don't try to cut corners with something like this. It will probably come back to haunt you down the road.

Some losses of coolant are from external leaks but some are from internal head gasket leaks or cylinder head or block cracks. These small cracks will open and close as temperatures change. If you have an internal leak they can be diagnosed with dyes and special lights. I'd want to make sure that I didn't have one of these problems. Changing the radiator won't top the internal leaks. You'll have to find a decent shop that can diagnose these kinds of internal leaks.

We don't see as many radiator fix-it shops anymore because of the use of plastic and aluminum radiators employed to save weight.

My 40 years experience working on all kinds of vehicles is, " If it is from a can and supposed to fix something it won't work for very long if at all." Don't waste your $$$$ and time using band-aids to fix this problem.

TeJay

[Ed-Sommers]

I used the stuff as an emergency stop gap once many years ago, but seeing as how it stopped the leak, I decided to see how far I could go before a repeat occurrence.

When I got rid of the car some years later, it was still holding. That's all I know!

Ed