04-12-2005, 01:50 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Double Oak, Texas
Posts: 296
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Brian Carlton
I highly recommend you perform the following procedure. If it works, it will save you from purchasing a new radiator:
Pull the radiator out of the vehicle. I know, it's a PITA, but, it's worth it.
Hold the radiator up to the sun. Look through the fins. See all that crap?
You mission, should you decide to accept it, is to remove every bit of that crap which is blocking airflow in a big way.
Use compressed air, a chemical cleaner that foams, and a whole lot of patience and repetitive cleansings from the rear side of the radiator to attempt to flush as much of that crap out as you can. It takes a good two hours and it won't be perfect, but, you'll drop the temperatures at least 5°C. and maybe even 10°C. if the radiator is quite bad.
Unfortunately, there is no tool that I could find that can be stuck into the fins to clean them. I think even pipe cleaners are a problem, but, I haven't tried it.
If this does not solve the issue, then the radiator is partially plugged internally and a new radiator is probably going to be required to significantly drop the temps.
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I went through all of this crap last year when I started running the A/C. I had an infrared thermometer and used that 1st to determine whether the guage was reading correctly. It was close enough. I did the standard internal flushing with no results. I finally did pull the radiator and did the look through test and it was very clogged. I used my power washer and cleaned the radiator fins in about 15 minutes. I also cleaned the fins on the a/c condensor, but you need to be very careful here as the fins are thinner and can bend under power washer pressure. Problem fixed.
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1984 300SD 326,997 miles and counting . . . No wait, my odometer is still dead 
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