Bill W

When a radiator is "rodded out", what actually is done?

Rods77

I believe it's when they pull the radiator end caps off and push a rod down each core to clean them out, kinda like cleaning a gun barrel, then reattach the end caps..

ddecart

Interesting. Do you know if there's a way to determine if a radiator is getting clogged and isn't flowing properly? I would think that a cool(er) spot on a section of the rad could be a sign, but if the flow is slow and not stopped, that would be hard to tell.

GaryS

Biil W. I believe the description from the above post is accurate although I have never had to do it. If you can look into your radiator neck and see lots of white cr@p on the tubes and you have signs of early stages of overheating, your car may be a good candidate for this. Although my car doesn't overheat, the tubes have tons of this white silicate built up around them. This will be a winter project.

Gary

Ganey

Rods77 description is accurate. The rod will go smoothly down the gun barrel. In the case of the rad., the rod has to be forced & you can expect some tubes to be completely blocked. 25+% blocked is not unusual. Needs to be done about every 10 yrs. or so.

:cheers: