Long story, short question.
My 23 year old nephew bought a 1980 L82 about 3 months ago. After having it about 4 weeks he slid it into the back of another car on a rainy day (he was used to the antilock brakes from his former car). No one was injured, only cars. He cracked the fiberglass around the driver's side headlight and spidered the paint to the left of the headlight. He also broke the driver’s side engine mount and bent the power steering pulley. He and his father (who was a mechanic at one time) fixed the pulley and motor mount, they also replaced the upper cross member on his bird cage (not related to the wreck, the windshield leaked and the cross member looked like Swiss cheese). The car was out of commission for about three weeks and once it was back on the road it seemed to drive fine.

When he got home Friday night (he lives with us, another even longer story) he said that he was having to put lots of water in the radiator over flow reservoir, and was this normal. I told him no that it was not normal and that he probably had a leak somewhere. I crawled under the car and sure enough it was leaking (actually leaking would be mild for the amount of water dripping from the radiator). The radiator outlet pipe was slammed up against the sway bar mount which had creased the pipe, and it was leaking from a crack in the crease. I told him that it probably happened in the wreck and that it finally cracked all the way through. I was busy this weekend doing honey dos so I told him to see if his father would fix it for him. His father said yes to bring it over first thing in the morning.

I assumed that he would pull the radiator. JB weld or epoxy the crack (they had borrowed a welder for the bird cage and no longer had it) and re-install the radiator making sure it did not rub against the sway bar mount. WRONG. His father dumped in 2 doses of aluminum stop leak and sent him on his way.

I told him that his Dad did not fix his problem and most likely made things worse as far as his engine was concerned. I was always told that stop leak was a last resort if you were like a couple hundred miles from home in the booneys in the middle of the night.

My Wife told me to forget the honey dos and fix my nephews car. So we are putting it up on the stands in the morning and pulling the radiator. After we fix and reinstall the radiator I'm going to flush the cooling system and try and get out as much aluminum goop as I can.

The question is, what would the ramifications be if we just left the stop leak as the fix? I'm pretty sure of the answer, but just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing.

BTW this is his daily driver so we must be done by Sunday evening.

David



[Modified by GATOR454, 9:08 PM 10/11/2003]

 

I have used that stuff before on a couple of occasions with excellent results. However, it was always on relativly minor leaks. In the case you've described, it sounds like a proper repair is warranted. Which means to me either replacing the radiator, or having it professionally repaired. (welded) At the very least, I would suggest the JB weld. That stuff does work wonders in my experience. :chevy

 

Here is a picture of the radiator outlet pipe where it was leaking.


What I thought was a crease was actually a dimple in the pipe to clear the sway bar mount. Once we got the radiator out, the damage was worse than I had originally thought.

As you can see from the photo the leak was coming from a crack at the base of the pipe, and was about a quarter of the joint.
We JB welded the entire joint and reinstalled the radiator. No leak so far. I told my nephew that it was a temporary fix and that he needed to save his pennies and get a new one.

The next step is to fix his temp gauge that is not working.

Where is the temp sending unit on a 1980 350? Is it the switch on top of the water neck? That switch has two terminals and all of the switches at the auto parts store only have one.

David

 

I've used the aluminum stop leak to fix pinhole leaks, with the idea when I get home, I'd pull the radiator. It worked so well, I never did pull the thing...this was on the daily driver, 100 miles from home.

 

Why not just solder the crack? It's easy enough to do and it was good enough for the factory.

 

Solder is the way to go....you can use gas welding, very little oxygen, lots of acetyline...or get a plumbers tip and just use the acetyline tank...that provides the perfect gas/oxygen ratio.

The other option is to take the radiator to a radiator shop and have them solder the damage...price includes pressure testing.

 

I agree. If you are pulling the radiator or have pulled it - take it to a shop and have the thing boiled out, probably needs it from the years. Then they can solder or weld the problem and pressure check it so you know what you have.

 

It has been reported here that GM (and other car makers) put a container of Barr's Leak (or their own equivalent) in the cooling systems of all new cars as they come off the assembly line. I have no idea of it is true or not, but using it for a small leak is acceptable, if you can't get it fixed right immeadiately.
My son called me today and his 200,000+ mile Rodeo has a small coolant leak at the back of one head, where it meets the block. I told him to put a couple bottles of Barr's leak and sell the damned thing quick!