Hey all,

The neck broke off my radiator and of course I have a long drive in 36 hours.

There is still enough neck to clamp the hose to, but I don't trust it for 250 miles.

I know Ken sells a kit with a pipe and epoxy for reinforcing this spot, has anyone done this?

Copper or aluminum?
What size pipe?
JB Weld?

My luck is just rock bottom right now, lost third gear yesterday, hence overheat and snapping, I assume.

Going to run through the usual suspects before panicking on that count though, had the same issue a few weeks ago but it was a malfunctioning cruise control actuator (?!?).

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1985 300D Surfblau "Blueberry" 250K R.I.P
1984 300CD Manila Beige "The Banana" 238K R.I.P
1984 300TD Cypress Green "Olive" 390K (M.I.A.)
1982 300D Orient Red "Steak" 195K
1985 Euro 300TD Lapis Blue “Pancake” 200k KM
1982 300D Light Ivory “Butter” 183k
1984 300TD Black “Pepper” 55k

If you have to .. Just Super glue the radiator hose to the radiator to get home. Should work.

Do you have any hills to go up? I wonder if it would be possible to leave the radiator cap off so the system won’t pressure up and pop the hose off

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1993 e300
1995 e320
1994 e320
2006 s500 4matic
2004 Jeep wj overland
2001 Ducati 748
2004 Honda shadow aero

I don't believe superglue is going to take the heat. And a lot of normal epoxies won't take the heat either. The slow curing JB Weld will take the heat and Duro makes a similar product. But read the label and or look on the internet to see what heat it can take.
Or perhaps it is a section of thicker walled tube cut off.

I looked at the MS site and it looks like a copper tubing union (the ones that would be soldered on if you were installing it in the water system of your house) like you would get at home depot.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Not on a Mercedes. I re-soldered a seam on a Radiator and was driving on the Freeway when the seam split open even larger and by the time got off the freeway the engine was ruined. Traffic was heavy and I was 3 lanes from the side I needed to be on to find an off ramp.
I would not be fond of the sort of suggested repair.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Where is yours broken: " broken radiator neck can be safely repaired if it breaks off cleanly in the center or aft of the center of the neck. If it breaks off too close to the tank or breaks off in multiple small pieces then we advise that you replace the radiator."

From the MS instructions.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I’ve used Krazy glue on radiators before and it held up for about A year. Should only be 200 degrees on there I was just saying to glue the hose on then clamp it. The glue would give it that extra oomph

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1993 e300
1995 e320
1994 e320
2006 s500 4matic
2004 Jeep wj overland
2001 Ducati 748
2004 Honda shadow aero

I think the mod is to reinforce the existing radiator, not to fix it after it has broken. I think there's an excellent chance you may end up ruining your engine if you try to fix it yourself between the heat, vibration and very old plastic still in the radiator.

Dkr.

A get home fix I did was to JB weld the hose to the radiator tube then clamp it. Let it set overnight and go. You will need a new radiator asap when you get home.

Krazy Glue is a specific brand. Superglue is a generic word for all of them. I would not count on all of the Superglues being the same.

On the other hand the slow curing JB Weld advertises it is good for up 250 degrees F. I have also used the Duro product that also had on the package it could be used up to X amount of heat.

Since the Mercedes Engines are so expensive to fix I don't feel it is worth taking a chance on superglue. Gassers on the other hand are much cheaper to fix and it is easier to find a used engine.

When I worked at one place a Forklift had a core/freeze plug rust through at the very back of the cylinder head. Unfortunately the Ball Housing covered over half of it. The Bell Housing was made of extremely hard metal and it resisted my attempts to grind the Bell Housing to get at the plug.

After degreasing it I filled the freeze plug with some 5 minute Epoxy I had and let it sit for 2 hours. Once they started using the Forklift they got only one hours use out of it before the heat did in the Epoxy.
The next day I came to work with the slow curing JB Weld Epoxy and re-did it and that fixed it.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

There is a epoxy repair kit just for the plastic parts of a radiator that has a section of fiber cloth that you epoxy over the area. Main thing is to clean it all up good. I've used it successfully over the years on predominately BMW plastic radiator parts.

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Jim

If you believe MS it depends on where it is broken off "broken radiator neck can be safely repaired if it breaks off cleanly in the center or aft of the center of the neck. If it breaks off too close to the tank or breaks off in multiple small pieces then we advise that you replace the radiator."

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I just don't get it. For the amount of potential downside, why not just get a rental car and come back with a new radiator to install? It's an easy enough job to do by the side of the road if you have to.

Dkr.

I have a fair amount of neck left, I measured the "good" radiator (plastic intact but...the worst rad mess I have seen) and the neck measures 1" exactly. I didn't want to take off the hose clamp tonight without a new one but the plastic breakage is jagged, but past where its clamped. I think basically just the lip snapped off.

for comparison:



roughly my breakage:

I have everything to do a fiberglass epoxy job- just did a patch. Do you have a link to the kit/pic of your repair? I need to see what my stuff can take heatwise...

Thanks!

__________________
1985 300D Surfblau "Blueberry" 250K R.I.P
1984 300CD Manila Beige "The Banana" 238K R.I.P
1984 300TD Cypress Green "Olive" 390K (M.I.A.)
1982 300D Orient Red "Steak" 195K
1985 Euro 300TD Lapis Blue “Pancake” 200k KM
1982 300D Light Ivory “Butter” 183k
1984 300TD Black “Pepper” 55k

What about that high heat fiber fix stuff? If it can handle exhaust it can handle hot coolant. You could wrap that a few times then put a hose clamp on top for good measure.