Posted: 6/30/2010 8:56:12 AM EDT
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I need to get a radiator rodded out or recored. It's a big one out of my M1009 (diesel military K5 Blazer). It's got a lot of deposits on the tubes, but is otherwise in good shape externally. It doesn't leak or have bent fins or anything. Just not cooling well on the freeway. Temps will hold at about 190 all day at idle or at slower in town speeds, but at higher RPMs on the freeway, it just won't cut it and starts heating up fast. So, can any of you guys recommend a good local shop in Phoenix? And do you have any ideas what rod outs or recores cost? Been a long time since I've had a "real" radiator. I've always just put a new one in when they are aluminum with plastic tanks. |
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Call Afco and order an aluminum radiator. Rodding out and recore is oldschool. The aluminum one will work much better. The Blazer is so common, that I bet the radiator will not be very expensive. Afco makes all aluminum, welded construction––no epoxy.
Buy Afco through Summit Racing for a decent discount. Get the part number from the factory.. (Just bought an Afco recently) AFCO Link A new GM factory radiator for your Blazer will be around $200. |
| you can buy a china HD rad with a life time warentee for $110.00 Hawks Radiator 623-487-9960 ,a R&R will cost $65.00 to $70.00 if you take it out and bring it to the rad shop . The Rad guy I have used for 20 years 602-670-1615 ask for Jim , 3136 west Lincoln phoenix. AFCO will cost you an arm and a leg . |
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Quoted: Call Afco and order an aluminum radiator. Rodding out and recore is oldschool. The aluminum one will work much better. The Blazer is so common, that I bet the radiator will not be very expensive. Afco makes all aluminum, welded construction––no epoxy. Buy Afco through Summit Racing for a decent discount. Get the part number from the factory.. (Just bought an Afco recently) AFCO Link A new GM factory radiator for your Blazer will be around $200. |
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Quoted: you can buy a china HD rad with a life time warentee for $110.00 Hawks Radiator 623-487-9960 ,a R&R will cost $65.00 to $70.00 if you take it out and bring it to the rad shop . The Rad guy I have used for 20 years 602-670-1615 ask for Jim , 3136 west Lincoln phoenix. AFCO will cost you an arm and a leg . That's Performance Radiator, right? I used them once a long time ago. I'll try them. Got to pull it out and just take it down there. I'll let them decide what the best course of action is.
 It sucks not being able to drive my weekend toy.  |
| I have a high performance car and going from a old school radiator to a all aluminum one made it so I am comfortable driving it to Tucson in the summer here where I never could before. It hardly ever goes over 180 anymore, before it was at 210 all the time and when traffic slowed I was looking for a way to get out of it as I knew it was going to 230 plus range quickly. Even a electric fan didn't help much. I used to not drive it in the summer because I was worried I was going to over heat a very expensive engine. Now I have no doubt. |
SEEING AS HE HAS A 6.5 DIESEL in an old truck ,and they have always been runts as everyone knows .he would be a fool to put a $500.00 rad in it . If the truck ran good with the OEM rad for all these years a simple R&R would be the way to go . If the rad can't be repaired ,the $110.00 china replacement is the way to go with an old truck . IMHO just fix what you got and save your money .Don't try and make a sows ear into a silk purse . the very first you need to check is the fan clutch . if it keeps spinning even slightly when you shut the engine off replace it with a extream duty Hayden fan clutch .
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SEEING AS HE HAS A 6.5 DIESEL in an old truck ,and they have always been runts as everyone knows .he would be a fool to put a $500.00 rad in it . If the truck ran good with the OEM rad for all these years a simple R&R would be the way to go . If the rad can't be repaired ,the $110.00 china replacement is the way to go with an old truck . IMHO just fix what you got and save your money .Don't try and make a sows ear into a silk purse . the very first you need to check is the fan clutch . if it keeps spinning even slightly when you shut the engine off replace it with a extream duty Hayden fan clutch .I make sows ears into silk purses. There is a thread on it in the cars/bikes section. Hayden fan clutches are garbage. I used to carry a spare with me because they failed every year. I could change it on a hot big block motor in 15 minutes on the roadside. Pep Boys used to have a lifetime warranty on them, and I keep that receipt with me. I don't think they offer it anymore, probably because of me. 
Nothing cools like an aluminum radiator. I put one in every project, regardless of budget. That is one area I will not compromise. What is your time worth? What will a tow cost? What will a blown head gasket cost? If you want to go cheap, good luck. Anytime I have had tanks pulled, a leak was forthcoming. 
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| Haden fan clutchs are fine ,never had a problem with them I have one on my 04 hummer H2 that is 3 years old and still cooling like a champ . They are an OEM supplyer .As I said if the rad was working fine since the truck was new it should be good to go after a R&R if in fact the rad is the problem . For $65.00 it is worth a shot . your lucky a 6.5 went this far as it is .I have a used car lot and Jim has done many rads for us and no leaks. Lately we just put in the china rads ,give the cust the paper work and the LIFE Time warantee . spending 5 or 6 hundred for a high pref rad is crazy on a truck that is worth about $2000.00 . |
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Quoted: Hawkes does everything including repair on site. But these days with how cheap you can get a new, good radiator. They are a disposable item. I would just call and ask them what a new one costs vs. rodding yours out and what they recommend. Thing is, for a new aluminum rad for this truck, I'm looking at $275-$400 depending on quality. If a rod out works for $75, That's a lot of ammo. |
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Quoted: Call Afco and order an aluminum radiator. Rodding out and recore is oldschool. The aluminum one will work much better. The Blazer is so common, that I bet the radiator will not be very expensive. Afco makes all aluminum, welded construction––no epoxy. Buy Afco through Summit Racing for a decent discount. Get the part number from the factory.. (Just bought an Afco recently) AFCO Link A new GM factory radiator for your Blazer will be around $200. |
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Quoted: Quoted: I DIDN'T THINK THERE WERE ANY 6.2 DIESELS STILL RUNNING . I THINK THE SAME YEAR DIESEL SUBURBAN HAS THE SAME RAD.Seriously. LS1 swap.  |
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I DIDN'T THINK THERE WERE ANY 6.2 DIESELS STILL RUNNING . I THINK THE SAME YEAR DIESEL SUBURBAN HAS THE SAME RAD.Seriously. LS1 swap. Because it is the right thing to do.
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I DIDN'T THINK THERE WERE ANY 6.2 DIESELS STILL RUNNING . I THINK THE SAME YEAR DIESEL SUBURBAN HAS THE SAME RAD.Seriously. LS1 swap. Since you're on a budget, I didn't even mention it should be twin turbo. Those trucks are totally cool. Solid front axle, short turn radius, all the best drive train parts bolt right in. But the factory engine options Oh the horror. |
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Quoted: Those trucks are totally cool. Solid front axle, short turn radius, all the best drive train parts bolt right in. But the factory engine options Oh the horror. Oh I agree. I had a '79 K5 with a SB400 that had a little bit of a massage. I don't know all they did to it, but I do know if I put it in 4L on pavement I could ROAST all 4 35" BFG mudders. And I was lucky to get 6mpg in town, and maybe 7mpg on the freeway. That truck was ridiculously fun. Even with the 35's, I couldn't launch from a light under full throttle. It would just spin. Man, I miss that truck. I sold it when premium hit $1.75. That was too rich for my blood. ETA: Have to add a funny story in that truck. I was re-doing the interior and all that was in it was the drivers seat. I went out to the bar and met some friends. I ended up picking up some chick and she wanted to go back to my place. I told her that I didn't have seats in my truck and couldn't really take her. She didn't care, still wanted to go. She sat on the little lip where the passenger footwell is. The truck just sounded fast. Very throaty and a nice vibration to it... She kept begging me to drive more and more. We stopped at a light, she was really "getting off" on the ride. When the light turned green she moaned "FLOOR IT!!!", so I did. I don't think she realized how much get up and go that truck had. She went flying backwards and tumbled all the way to the tailgate. SMACK! I was sure my night was ruined. But nope, she started laughing her ass off. Oh, that was a good night...
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Dropped it off at Westside Radiator on Saturday. Turns out my dad knows the owner there and he's taken all his radiators there for years. I took it in, the guy looked at it, and his eyes went crossways. He said it was the first time in at least 15 years he'd seen an untouched radiator out of an old GM diesel. He was showing me the ways you could tell it had never been repaired or taken apart, and this one never had. He found a little bit of a leak on the driver's side, said he might have to rebuild that side. Said cleaning it out of deposits shouldn't be a problem. They were only open til noon on Saturday and closed today, so I won't find out if they were successful until maybe tomorrow.In the meantime, I decided to change out the water pump. Wow. Hardest pump I've ever done. Had to pull off the power steering pump, the passenger side alternator, the crossover tube, hell - everything on the face of the block. Took ~2 hours to get it out. As much as you have to take apart, I figured I might as well do it while the radiator's already out. A brand new (not re-man) pump is only ~$60, so it's well worth just knocking it out. That thing must have had a 1/4" of caked on dirt and crap on it. I need to buy a couple cans of engine cleaner and go to town while it's all ripped out. Fun!
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Well, crap. Guy told me it would probably be ready today, so I swung by there on the way home from work. They were just finishing up sweating everything back on. Once done, they dunked it and pressurized it. Failed the pressure test. Once they got everything all cleaned out, there were pin hole leaks all over the core, at least 20. I guess the crud that it was full of was kinda plugging up the leaks. He said it was terribly clogged, probably 75%. So, he's ordering up a new core for me. Upgrading it to a 4 core (stock is 3 core). If they have one in town, it will be ready tomorrow afternoon, if not it won't be until Thursday. So long as I have it back by Friday morning, I'm good. I really want to be able to drive it to the shoot this weekend! Guess it gives me some extra time to clean out the engine compartment. It's filthy. |
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New radiator is in! Fired it up and was letting it warm up. Looking for any coolant leaks. Didn't see any so I stepped away to put some tools up. Came back and OH SHIT!!! I didn't seat one of the oil cooler lines right. Had about a quart of oil on the driveway with more on the way. Oops. That was a mess. Think I've got it all right now. Going to drive it to work tomorrow morning and if everything goes well, I'll be driving it to Prescott tomorrow afternoon.
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Quoted:
Well, crap. Guy told me it would probably be ready today, so I swung by there on the way home from work. They were just finishing up sweating everything back on. Once done, they dunked it and pressurized it. Failed the pressure test. Once they got everything all cleaned out, there were pin hole leaks all over the core, at least 20. I guess the crud that it was full of was kinda plugging up the leaks. He said it was terribly clogged, probably 75%. So, he's ordering up a new core for me. Upgrading it to a 4 core (stock is 3 core). If they have one in town, it will be ready tomorrow afternoon, if not it won't be until Thursday. So long as I have it back by Friday morning, I'm good. I really want to be able to drive it to the shoot this weekend! Guess it gives me some extra time to clean out the engine compartment. It's filthy. To bad I hadn't read this sooner. The typical process for a radiator that is that old, is to pull it, wash it (exterior pressure wash) and backflush it (internally both ways, inlet, outlet, filler neck), then throw it into the test tank under pressure. This would have shown most of the leaks, right out of the gate. It would be at this time I would have suggested a new or recored radiator. |
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Quoted: To bad I hadn't read this sooner. The typical process for a radiator that is that old, is to pull it, wash it (exterior pressure wash) and backflush it (internally both ways, inlet, outlet, filler neck), then throw it into the test tank under pressure. This would have shown most of the leaks, right out of the gate. It would be at this time I would have suggested a new or recored radiator. It was so clogged, I don't know that it mattered. I don't know how they do things, but I can't imagine they would have invested all that time without testing it first. Either way, it didn't cost me anything. I didn't pay for the rod out, only the re-core. Was a little cheaper than a brand new 3 row chinese radiator, but I got a 4 row instead, AND got to keep money local. So I'm happy. Drove it up to Prescott this weekend, ran at 195f even up the hill to Sunset Point. And it was ~110+ when I was climbing. |