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Ive been blowing up radiator cores about every 6 months...Im tired of replacing them and figured I should find a way of restricting the water flow to the core so they stop swelling up like ticks and pissing everywhere.
My initial plan is to crush down the end of the elbow that threads into the intake like the one shown below.... About how much is right? Is there a better idea?
Chinese doesn't necessarily mean anything. It's not the 70's or 80's any more, tons of US manufacturing has been moved to China...including much of what SCAT produces for instance. The quality of Chinese products is just really hit and miss depending on the manufacturer (and even from lot to lot within a given manufacturer in some cases).
The only way running too hot will cause it to overpressure, is if your cap isn't venting properly to the overflow. The system's coolant volume increases by about 0.4 liters over a 100*C temperature change. The purpose of the cap vent is to give it some place to go, and regulate the system pressure.
A flow restrictor won't do anything to change pressure...system pressure is system pressure, it's the same everywhere. I'd suspect you have a bad cap (since the cap is also functioning as a PSV).
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these cars do not have an overflow bottle and don;t need one if the system is the proper size because it will never get hot enough to build enough pressure, its that simple . . a properly working system will easily hold the pressure from a 16 psi cap . . if you have a cap that is rated higher than 16 psi, or the depth of the seat for the cap in the rad is too shallow, it could allow your system to build more pressure than it should.
ALL chinese brass/copper rads and heater cores are crap, crap, crap.
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Last edited by barnett468; 08-06-2015 at 02:20 PM.
All fluid systems that change temperature should have a pressure relief system if there's even a remote possibility of overpressuring the system. There's a reason that if you put a 15lb cap on a radiator, it will move fluid to the overflow when it warms up...and that's because it expands enough to generate over 15lbs of pressure without a relief. It's a safety device that prevents system damage.
It's also why pretty much every car made in the last several decades comes from the factory with an overflow.
Same difference, heater core is just a small radiator.
There are some really cheap heater cores out there. NAPA has a good one, but it's a bit bigger than the factory housing, so you have to modify it a bit to get the hose fittings to line up.
Are you sure you are over pressuring the core and it is not vibration that is breaking the solder joints? Make sure that the in and out points are not hard against the firewall but surrounded by rubber. The rubber hoses should provide some isolation, but the inlet and outlet can't be restricted in movement as the core does grow when hot.
the water leaks from the center of the core. I hooked it up with the heater box out to see what it looked like...The edges along the top and bottom looked slightly swollen too.
The ones that were failing were the 20 dollar ones from O'Really? autoparts lifetime warranty but yeah...no they are Made in mexico. The scott drake one was like 50 bucks...but still made in mexico...
08-04-2015, 11:54 PM
Flow restrictor for radiator core
