Radiator

[metaldad]

02 ram 1500 4.7. truck is used by boy1, as a dd for work and school. he drives like a grandma, doesn't abuse the vehicle (unlike boy2 with his, but that's another story). had to replace the radiator AGAIN. warranty, pep boys, made by spectra out of canada, i think. 5th one in 7 years. this one in the pics actually lasted 3 years. heating core replaced 5 years ago. boy1 keeps an eye on the fluids, tops off when needed. rm does lose a little coolant, have replaced just about everything in the cooling system over the years, pump, t'stat, tstat housing, hoses, plastic fill bottle, cap, etc, always topped off with premix 50/50, usually 'peak' brand.
what the hell would cause this many failures? memory serves me correct, a couple rads only lasted a month or 2, the plastic/metal crimp would fail.
and what would cause the bulging of the passes, as shown in pics?
overheating, rite? temp gage and vehicle operation don't show any problems.
and, we're not going to invest a ton of money. she's going to go to the boneyard when boy1 can afford a replacement.

 

[65-440]

Don't let that 4.7 overheat, you'll be doing head gaskets shortly after. They are notorious for that, did my fair share when I was at dodge. You'll know when you keep adding fluid but there's no leak anywhere !

 

[PurpleBeeper]

I will try to answer your (many) questions one by one.

1. Why so many cooling system failures?
a. The vehicle is 16 yrs. old.
b. If they ALL just corroded away, then you might have an "electrolysis" problem which basically means your engine/battery/frame are not properly grounded anymore & your electrical system is using your coolant as a ground.
c. Anti-freeze isn't all the same & some brands don't mix. I have personally tested 3 different anti-freezes that were SALT WATER WITH GREEN DYE IN IT....(I'm dead serious about this)

2. What caused this radiator to look like this?
a. It froze...no doubt about it. Some of your 50/50 was just water....sorry. You are VERY lucky it was just the radiator & not the engine!

 

[metaldad]

thanks, pb.
no, they didnt rot out, but, good idea, to look at the grounds. that's easy enough.
freeze? we didnt have that cold of a winter, as you know. but it was under freezing. i'll have to show boy1 how to check using a refractometer. never cared for the floating balls. entirely possible that product bought is not as advertised.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

thanks, pb.
no, they didnt rot out, but, good idea, to look at the grounds. that's easy enough.
freeze? we didnt have that cold of a winter, as you know. but it was under freezing. i'll have to show boy1 how to check using a refractometer. never cared for the floating balls. entirely possible that product bought is not as advertised.

Cleaning grounds is a good idea anyway on a '02, but there are some articles I've seen about testing for hydrolysis using an electric meter & putting one electrode in the coolant itself with the radiator cap off. I ran that test once myself, but it was years and years ago.

 

[khryslerkid]

I'm wondering if you have excessive pressure in the cooling system. If 4.7 are known for bad head gaskets it could be a cylinder leaking into the cooling system, while running, building up pressure.

You could use a radiator pressure guage on the radiator, fire it up and see what it reads while running. I've seen this a couple of times and the head gasket leaked only one way, into the cooling system. A leak down test could show it also. Have a pressure guage on the radiator while doing the test.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

I'm wondering if you have excessive pressure in the cooling system. If 4.7 are known for bad head gaskets it could be a cylinder leaking into the cooling system, while running, building up pressure.

You could use a radiator pressure guage on the radiator, fire it up and see what it reads while running. I've seen this a couple of times and the head gasket leaked only one way, into the cooling system. A leak down test could show it also. Have a pressure guage on the radiator while doing the test.

You know kid, that crossed my mind too, but to build up that much pressure you would have to seal the engine up really, really tight & then boil some water inside it. The radiator cap (if it has one) should bleed the pressure off at 15-22 psi, the overflow would have to be blocked off AND the hoses would have to be made of kryptonite not to burst. Think about it, even a plastic/aluminum radiator is a lot stronger than a rubber hose. That's what I was thinking anyway.

 

[khryslerkid]

You know kid, that crossed my mind too, but to build up that much pressure you would have to seal the engine up really, really tight & then boil some water inside it. The radiator cap (if it has one) should bleed the pressure off at 15-22 psi, the overflow would have to be blocked off AND the hoses would have to be made of kryptonite not to burst. Think about it, even a plastic/aluminum radiator is a lot stronger than a rubber hose. That's what I was thinking anyway.

I've seen weirder things happen. That's a lot of radiators to go through and they all go up the same way?

 

[PurpleBeeper]

I've seen weirder things happen. That's a lot of radiators to go through and they all go up the same way?

True.....5 radiators in 7 years....that IS odd.

 

[metaldad]

True.....5 radiators in 7 years....that IS odd.

ah, jah.
bunch were crimp leaks, after install, 2-4 months.

 

[metaldad]

You know kid, that crossed my mind too, but to build up that much pressure you would have to seal the engine up really, really tight & then boil some water inside it. The radiator cap (if it has one) should bleed the pressure off at 15-22 psi, the overflow would have to be blocked off AND the hoses would have to be made of kryptonite not to burst. Think about it, even a plastic/aluminum radiator is a lot stronger than a rubber hose. That's what I was thinking anyway.

there's a pos plastic flow thru bottle that i think would rupture first. the rad cap screws on there.it was replaced a long time ago by me with oem.
i think i should have bought the oem rad first off, but no one had one in stock, or was able to get it within 24 hours. truck has got to roll, or the fleet and their drivers have to be shifted. and he AINT driving the coronet