Plastic Radiator Repair

"FJ80WaitinForaLSV8" (fj80waitinforalsv8) 10/28/2013 at 09:45 • Filed to: Car Repair

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Two weeks ago, I asked you Jalops the best way to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Well, this weekend I ignored most of your advice and did a quick patch job on my radiator. For those that didn't see my originial post, I broke a plastic barb that comes off the top of my radiator that circulates fluid to the throttle body.

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Below are pictures of my fix. It basically required a 5/32 OD brass tube and an entire pack of JB weld. The little plastic box that I used was an old !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! I had lying around in the drive way. Drove for about 50 miles this weekend and there were no issues. Time will be the judge of this repair...

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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 10/28/2013 at 10:18

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I fixed a VW radiator with a cracked top hose nipple with epoxy, and managed to run on it for quite a while. Wasn't forever, but it did work to a degree. It's arguably better to use radiator fix epoxy than JB weld or others, because it has solvents to at least slightly blend ABS and has similar expansion and thermal tolerance.

FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 10/28/2013 at 10:41

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I bought some of the plastic epoxy stuff but it was only rated to 200 degrees. I'm of the opinion that even if it breaks lose from the radiator, it will still stay intact around the barb- essentially a floating block of epoxy surrounding the breakage point. Hopefully I'm right.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 10/28/2013 at 10:48

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That's very odd - I just looked up some of the radiator epoxy (versa-chem) and the spec listed bears that out: 200 degrees. That makes absolutely no sense - 200+ radiator temps are not that uncommon. It'd probably be okay a bit north of that, but even so...

Advance lists a radiator and fuel tank epoxy by permatex, and *that* allegedly specs 0-100 degrees F. Wat.

FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 10/28/2013 at 11:13

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Yup haha needless to say, I was disappointed after I opened it up and was ready to go only to then figure out that it was only rated to 200. I don't know if I will ever learn to read the instructions first.