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Radiator stop leak


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The one I used was stop leak.

It was effective at repairing a small leak where the soldered joint had failed (on a new radiator) at the neck of the filler plug. Only until I could return the radiator though.

As luck would have it there must still have been enough of it swilling around the system to seal a subsequent leak in the replacement rad. This was where a nut (securing one of the horns) had rubbed a hole in it. I managed to find a place willing to carry out a soldered repair.

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4 hours ago, Ozzy50 said:

I don’t think there is one tbh , best bet is to replace the rad 

^ This.

At best I'd drain it and try to epoxy-putty it if it's a plastic/ali one, if it's copper/brass you could try soldering it, but it either wants proper repair or replacement.

The problem with the fix-leak gunk is you've then filled your engine with a load of random gunk.

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These things are only ever a 'get-you-home' bodge - as well as sealing any leak they'll clag-up your radiator and heater-matrix and the smaller air-bleed passages in your cylinder-head.

OK, so you've got-home - but at what cost? To make things good you'll now be needing a new radiator (to replace the one with the temporarily-bunged-up leak), a new heater-matrix, and some serious pressure-flushing of your block/head to remove the goop that's left therein.

Rover Group issued specific warnings against using any kind of "radiator stop-leak" goop in its 1980s-era engines. "Bars Seal Stop Leak" specifically says it's not recommended for Rover engines! I guess they had good reason for this!

Edited by Tanuki
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K seal is brilliant stuff! as it's so obvious that it's been used so you know when to walk away when buying a vehicle.  a friend used it many times on his navara due to headgasket failure. he wasn't pleased when he had to then have head gasket sorted, new rad+heater matrix plus oil cooler etc due to being blocked by the k seal.. 

 

do it right, do it once. :)

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I don't usually think this when reading threads on lr4x4, but this time I will say there's a lot of people riding around on high horses and giving naff advice.

In my experience K-seal doesn't clog. Unless your chucking it into some knackered old hack to start with.

I had a leaky core plug I couldnt get round to sorting for a bit. K-seal fixed the leak, rad still clear afterwards. I even know the water ways etc in the engine were good and clear afterwards as when I did my chassis swap I finally got round to pulling all the core plugs and replacing them while it was easy.

Stay away from the other goo-like ones and you'll be fine.

(I have no affiliation with K-seal, just a happy customer)

 

 

 

 

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I used a blocksealer in my CSK must be 17 years ago and it sorted it no problem with no residual gunk. Did 10k in it with this before Iparked it up. I need to get this restored soon it is breaking my heart.

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On 5/18/2019 at 7:27 AM, Bowie69 said:

If it was understood how these sealers worked, the advice would be different, a lot less naysaying.

 

Each to their own , I’m going off my own experience which has never given positive results and led me to the conclusion that there is only one way to fix a leaky radiator. 

No offence meant or taken 

James 

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On 5/18/2019 at 7:27 AM, Bowie69 said:

If it was understood how these sealers worked, the advice would be different, a lot less naysaying.

 

Nevertheless Bowie it is still just an emergency fix not a permanent repair. 

Mo

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13 hours ago, Bowie69 said:

Perhaps the old bars leaks, but the modern stuff is entirely different.

I was recommended to us block sealer from a very reputable local engineer and it is/was a very thin liquid which sealed the leak by filling the hole with a microscopic skim of ceramic. It didn't work the first time but after a second try it worked perfectly. 

That was on my CSK when the block went pourous. There are lots of "modern stuff" that works great and doesn't fur up the system.

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