Radiator stop leak

[Gammaboy]

drive with rad cap loose to stop pressure build up pushing all water out

Can tell you from experience that if you're pressurising the cooling system this is a shit idea beacause it makes it easier to push all the coolant out...

[Jim]

fuel tank putty/knead-it stuff. Jam a gob of that shit on there. Works really well, doesn't block up the core or coat the cooling system, and it's easy for the repair shop to knock it off and repair it properly when the time comes.
Also, it's cheap as shit and very easy to use.

[MRMOPARMAN]

pepper/egg should burn away when they go to solder it. well its never been mentioned it was a cunt when i got a radiator fixed properly after doing the pepper trick anyways.

[Jim]

pepper is fine. May reduce the leak to a weep rather than actually fix anything though.
egg and stop leak can be problematic, particuarly the stop leak. It coats everything and reduces the thermal efficiency. Not only does it often block up the rest of the rad core it seems to cause the engine to run hot even after the rad is repaired due to having coated the cooling system.

Egg only works on tiny pinholes and is hard to flush out. Makes everything stink too.

Knead-it mate. Short of solder, it's the only thing that really works and won't cause issues later on.

[caged]

From experience knead-it isn't a temporary fix. Thats a fucken permanent fix, that shits unreal.

[styler]

Yeah fark the egg pong get some metal putty/metal glue/radiator repair patch shit

[Purple-Headed Love Truncheon]

would something like Q-Bond also work?

[Blow]

Not sure if I can get to the hole to use knead-it or similar. It looks like its coming from a tube in the core, I think it's a radiator out job no matter what so I will limp it to the next town and set up base for a few days and pull it out. Once it's out I will see how accessible the hole is and go from there.

If I was to just solder it do I just use regular solder and soldering iron? What should be the most perminent fix? Solder or knead-it/metal bond etc?

[Jim]

knead it will work fine on the core. usually it's the front or back of the tube that gets a hole in it usually from a stone, if so, just push the knead it against the tube that is leaking. if it's split down the side of the tube then poke some fins out the way and poke the knead it in.

you will need normal flux solder and a decent plumbers type propane torch to solder anything. solering iron won't put enough heat in.

[Purple-Headed Love Truncheon]

not to mention it has to be super clean but i guess you already know that

[snavy]

You know whats going to happen once you red neck the repair? You are going to be going through drive through in maccas and theres smoke pouring out of the engine way and you can't do anything about it as there is a queue in front of ya!

I took my condenser to a radiator place to get repaired due to a leak in the core and it only cost $30.00. Cheap as.

[Blow]

It won't fit in a drive through so that's fine, plus I don't eat macca's.

I have semi bodged it, put a little bit of the radiator stop leak in it.

Only reason was because there was no pepper available and there was only a servo near by. Once I get to a more populated area I think I will just try to get it recored or try to find a complete new one somewhere. It has lasted about 500klm so far with no further issues. By the looks of it corossion was the cause not a rock or anything hitting it, so it probably needs replacing anyway.

[BigMuz]

find the oldest fashioned looking radiator shop and they will fix it in 20 minutes and clean the rest of the cores at the same time for cheap.

[Beavis]

FWIW the Subaru cylinder head/cooling system treatment (used to "fix" head gasket issues) recommended for a lot of cars is Holt's Rad-weld. So it's not unheard of in OEM applications; doubtful they would suggest its use if it brought on problems of its own.

[Tripper]

Used knead it on welsh plugs before lasted 3 years till the car got sold, prep was limited to wiping away the moisture etc with a rag