Radiator question

[ADRIANFARINA]

I have an 86 automatic DX hatch.
the radiator is leaking , and I'm thinking of replacing it.
how is the transmition cooler related to it? is it water cooling the trans or is it trans oil going through the radiator (different radiator chambers).
I can't get an oem radiator here.

thanks


also , what pressure should the radiator cap be?
and where should the coolant reserve tank be mounted? I bought a new one because my DX is missing one.

[DBMaster]

It's a separate tube inside the lower radiator tank. I don't know if an add-on transmission cooler would do the same, or better job, but that might be an option if you can't get a replacement. There are lots of companies out there that offer them, though.

[ecogabriel]

Some cars have separate radiators for cooling transmission oil - Fords Explorers have those installed in front of the water radiator, and I have seen some Land Rovers with a long, thin finned tube running in the front of the car.

Once you source a viable radiator you need to figure out if it would have the same cooling capacity, a consideration that has to account also for your climate.

[DBMaster]

I bought my last radiator - for a '99 Isuzu Oasis (basically a '98 Honda Odyssey) - on eBay. It was from a reputable company, it was Koyo brand, and came with lifetime warranty. It had all the OEM connections and the internal transmission fluid cooler. Why do you think you cannot get the correct radiator for your car? Are companies not allowed to ship into Israel? There are MANY other sources online - Rock Auto, Drivewire, radiator.com, etc. I would just get the one you need and not mess around with add-on coolers. The radiators for these cars cost less than $100 these days and they are just as good, if not better, than what came on the car.

[ADRIANFARINA]

And another 100 for the shipping.. /:

[lostforawhile]

I suppose you could use another radiator with an external transmission cooler, one of the issues with doing that here is the radiator also warms the transmission fluid when it's cold, in your climate I don't think thats an issue, you might even be able to run a bigger cooler or more then one, with the high temps there I don't think you are going to overcool your transmission fluid, with the climate in the middle east, I would be running oil coolers,big transmission coolers, the biggest radiator I could find etc, thats an extreme climate for any engine

[DBMaster]

I don't know, guys. My standard cooling system did just fine with temperatures exceeding 110 degrees here. Even if you have to pay $100 for shipping that's still less than $200 for the part. If you have to cobble something together yourself you are going to pay just as much to get both parts, hardware, and not to mention the time involved. I never economize on parts if I can help it. In the long run it's worth the extra investment.

These cars were pretty well overbuilt for the time period. I had no doubt that I could have idled for extended periods of time with the A/C running. Except for ONCE when the OEM Honda thermostat actually BROKE inside the housing the car NEVER ran above the halfway mark on the temperature gauge. Use synthetic oil if you're worried. The effect will be BETTER than adding additional coolers.

[lostforawhile]

you are correct I was thinking more of a desert climate vs a Mediterranean climate, it's not that bad.

[DBMaster]

^^LOL! In a true desert the heat would only be part of the issue. The ever pervasive grit and dust gets into everything.

[Vanilla Sky]

I'd be willing to bet you can find a shop that can repair yours. As long as you have a brass and copper radiator, they can sweat the ends off, replace the core, and sweat it back together. If it's just a minor leak, they can often repair the core without having to replace it completely. I'd look into that if a replacement weren't readily available.

The radiator cap should be 14 pounds, IIRC. Your coolant overflow tank mounts to the left of your radiator when looking at it, under the battery tray.

[DBMaster]

These came with metal core/plastic tank radiators. They can still be repaired. My first replacement in 2000 was an all-metal unit that had cracked solder joints after only three years. The unit that the company sent as a warranty replacement was plastic tanks/aluminum core - much better way to go. It was still good nine years later. If a tank cracks it can be replaced or fixed. You can bend back the tabs and replace rubber gaskets at least once. Still, on a car this old you might as well get a new one. Even $200 is still not bad since it will last ten years or more.

[ADRIANFARINA]

this is good for me , right?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130594313576?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_2366wt_1187

[DBMaster]

Holy crap, Batman! That is really cheap. The silver colored hose barbs at the bottom (2 o'clock and 4 o'clock positions) are the automatic transmission cooler line connections. These things really have come down in price.

Yes, you can use it. It looks pretty good. The pic actually looks like the specific rad for our cars.

[ecogabriel]

It looks like the radiator I pulled from a 3G a while ago and have now in my car.

That seems to be the one our cars take; the trans cooler connectors can be re-oriented differently if needed, or the old ones may be used instead.

[lostforawhile]

the transmission cooler connections are just flare fittings, loosen the nut,rotate them how you want them, and tighten it back up

[ADRIANFARINA]

ordered it...

[rc00netzero]

ADRIAN
Rad replacement is a good time to give the cooling sytem some TLC. Check all your hoses (If you have an FI - there is a lot of them) and order replacements for any that are old and stiff or swollen. If you have never replaced the thermostat - consider a new one - especially if the cooling system has been neglected. Check condition of the water pump - if it's noisy, may be time for a new one. When replacing drain and then FLUSH the system BEFORE removing old RAD. Refill new system with good new antifreeze and distilled or de-ionized water.

Good Luck :D

[rc00netzero]

Oh and the cooling tank slides into a bracket on the car's right side - next to the raditor but low down. You may have to put it in from underneath (SET the parking brake :D).

[lostforawhile]

you don't want deionized water, you can use water with the minerals out, but deionized water has the iron removed and it will pull iron from the block to replace the iron removed from the water

[DBMaster]

I have always used water form my reverse osmosis system. You can buy it as "drinking water" if you go to the grocery store. It is not quite as pure as distilled, but close. It kept the inside of my aluminum radiators spotless. There will be bits of corrosion here and there, especially on hose nipples, no matter what you do. One way to keep it to a minimum is to install your hose clamps as closely as possible to the barb on the nipple. If you install it too far down you create a pocket for coolant to sit.

[ADRIANFARINA]

I've done all the above during the overhaul .. see my other thread..
thanks

[DBMaster]

Oh, and BTW, guys, deionized water, reverse osmosis water, and distilled water will all be highly purified with pretty much nothing left in it but H2O. When mixed with the coolant it will not scavenge metals from your engine block or head. I've been hearing that BS for years about purified water. The health fanatics say that by drinking R/O water I am "leaching minerals" from my bones. What a bunch of crap! In that case I should have osteoporosis and be dead by now.

[Dr_Snooz]

The health fanatics say that by drinking R/O water I am "leaching minerals" from my bones. What a bunch of crap! In that case I should have osteoporosis and be dead by now.

I drank distilled water for a number of years and it gave me pretty bad mineral deficiencies. I don't drink it anymore.

[DBMaster]

How did you find out about that, Paul? I started drinking R/O water exclusively during my two year stint in Corpus Christi. Texas, in general, has pretty hard reservoir water. It is heavily chlorinated and tastes lousy. In Corpus it was the worst, 500+ ppm total hardness (compared to 150-200 in the DFW area). I only know this because I used to manage dialysis clinics in which we did lots of water testing. Once you get used to drinking "clean" water it's hard to go back to the foul tasting stuff out of the tap (still safe, I believe).

R/O is not as clean as distilled, but pretty close. I have a U.S. Filter three stage system that I bought in 1996. The three stages are; carbon/sediment filter, TFC R/O membrane, and final carbon block "polishing." The water goes in at 150ppm hardness and comes out at less than 10ppm. It is very good and water is pretty much all I drink, about a gallon a day. I sweat a lot and get very dehydrated in the summer because I do a lot of project work. Soda or other sweetened beverages are just an occasional treat for me and my kids. I even started drinking my coffee (1-2 cups a day) without sugar about a year or so ago.

[lostforawhile]

Oh, and BTW, guys, deionized water, reverse osmosis water, and distilled water will all be highly purified with pretty much nothing left in it but H2O. When mixed with the coolant it will not scavenge metals from your engine block or head. I've been hearing that BS for years about purified water. The health fanatics say that by drinking R/O water I am "leaching minerals" from my bones. What a bunch of crap! In that case I should have osteoporosis and be dead by now.
when you try to run pure deionized water,it's not in a natural state, and it will attempt to return to that state by removing metals from the engine, thi is why if you run it it needs to be used with an antifreeze or a specific corrosion inhibitor for cooling systems, what the corrosion inhibitors in those actually contain are those minerals in a precipitate, these stay in the cooling system and replace the minerals the water is missing, Deionized water won't kill you from drinking it, but the issue, is it's usually used for industrial processes, so the metals are removed, but it's not purified like drinking water, it may not have any minerals but it may contain bacteria and could make you sick, it's not really designed to drink

[DBMaster]

Well, I won't argue with that, per se. When I lived in Corpus I didn't have an R/O system at home so I used to buy the water by the gallon from a vending machine. They now have these machine (sans need to put in a quarter) in Wal Marts and grocery stores. The ones in Corpus dispensed either R/O or DI water. I accidentally filled one jug with DI water. It tasted icky, kind of "synthetic," if that makes any sense.

But, my Zero Water pitcher - that I use at the office - has a huge filter in it (about five times the size of a Brita filter). It makes water with 0 TDS (total dissolved solids). It actually tastes very good. The tap water at my office starts out at about 200 ppm TDS. I guess the type of DI resin and additional filtration through activated charcoal must "polish" the water. My R/O system includes a carbon block filter that polishes the water just before dispensing it. The jury's out on leaching minerals, but because the water is so good I end up drinking lots of it.

I think I recall that if you read the label on premixed coolant in detail you'll see that they use purified water, of some sort, in it.

[lostforawhile]

well hopefully this thread might clear up why to use either an antifreeze or a corrosion inhibitor, it acts like the sacrificial anode in your water heater, it adds the minerals that water will leach out into the coolant and those get used up instead of the metals in your cooling system, that's why even if it looks clean antifreeze doesn't have an unlimited life span, once those minerals get used up they are gone

[DBMaster]

Speaking of water heater anodes, I cannot get mine loose, period. I tried my electric impact wrench as well as a breaker bar. All I have succeeded in doing is shifting the entire heater. I installed the thing five years ago and through that this time I would maintain it, but it appears I am not going to be able to do it. Wasted $35 online for one of those flex-anodes since my heater is on a platform and the top is only a couple of feet from the ceiling. It is a GE (made by Rheem) from Home Depot. It was their "best" (12 year) heater from five years ago.

Sorry to hijack this thread with water discussion and water heaters! :)

[Dr_Snooz]

How did you find out about that, Paul?

Hair analysis. I was going to a doctor at the time who put great stock in hair analyses. (Damn fool has since been thrown in the klink for tax evasion so I don't have a doctor anyomre. :duh:) Every time I would get results, I'd be lower in minerals. I had a shelf full of mineral supplements, but I kept losing minerals. I finally put 2 and 2 together and switched to spring water. It's not as good, but mineral depletion is worse.

The water arguments rage and I don't have anything to add to them really. One camp says that distilled water will leach your bones. Another says that the minerals in spring water will clog your arteries because they are inorganic. All I know is that distilled didn't work for me. If my arteries clog, then I'll deal with that when I come to it.

Oh, the distilled water got rid of almost all my heavy metals though, so that's something else to consider. I hear about people taking weird medicines for heavy metal toxicity and tell them that all they need to do is drink distilled water. Pretty strange, I know.

One data point doesn't make a trend, of course, so you have to make up your own mind and do what's right for you.

Sorry for the off-topic romp through the weeds...

[lostforawhile]

Hair analysis. I was going to a doctor at the time who put great stock in hair analyses. (Damn fool has since been thrown in the klink for tax evasion so I don't have a doctor anyomre. :duh:) Every time I would get results, I'd be lower in minerals. I had a shelf full of mineral supplements, but I kept losing minerals. I finally put 2 and 2 together and switched to spring water. It's not as good, but mineral depletion is worse.

The water arguments rage and I don't have anything to add to them really. One camp says that distilled water will leach your bones. Another says that the minerals in spring water will clog your arteries because they are inorganic. All I know is that distilled didn't work for me. If my arteries clog, then I'll deal with that when I come to it.

Oh, the distilled water got rid of almost all my heavy metals though, so that's something else to consider. I hear about people taking weird medicines for heavy metal toxicity and tell them that all they need to do is drink distilled water. Pretty strange, I know.

One data point doesn't make a trend, of course, so you have to make up your own mind and do what's right for you.

Sorry for the off-topic romp through the weeds...
mineral water won't hurt you, your body uses some of those minerals and the rest simply are flushed out, most of the water on the planet is mineral water in some form,

[ADRIANFARINA]

thread is dead

[ecogabriel]

thread is dead

Did they ship your radiator already?
The radiator should come with a new cap suited to the pressure our cars need; the two radiators I bought brand new came with a cap. I can read my OE to see what pressure is printed on it if you want to source another one.

[DBMaster]

When I got my new radiator I had to go out and buy a cap because it took a newer style small cap. I have only bought two radiators thus far and neither came with caps. That may be because there are several different pressure specs and you need the one that goes with your particular cooling system. I can't remember what the Accord's was, but the caps are easy to find.

[DBMaster]

thread is dead

Sorry about that. :)

I guess we went overboard on the drinking water discussions.

[ADRIANFARINA]

The rad is on the way..

[ADRIANFARINA]

finaly got it
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-FhvrsOeF18w/UDPzetHg2vI/AAAAAAAAADY/JTR77Kgipyc/s640/IMG_20120821_233309.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-4J3sLGwSwH0/UDPzey2LegI/AAAAAAAAADM/N3S70kLGFWE/s640/IMG_20120821_233326.jpg

[DBMaster]

Looks really good - all aluminum core is nice.

[ADRIANFARINA]

plastic caps..

[DBMaster]

That is what you want. The cars jostle their front ends too much to use soldered metal tanks. My metal tank radiator installed in 2000 was leaking by 2003. The manufacturer sent me a plastic tank radiator as the free replacement and it was still nice and tight nine years later. It was still a pain replacing the thing after only three years. The plastic tank radiators have rubber gaskets and are able to take quite a bit more vibration without cracking.

[lostforawhile]

That is what you want. The cars jostle their front ends too much to use soldered metal tanks. My metal tank radiator installed in 2000 was leaking by 2003. The manufacturer sent me a plastic tank radiator as the free replacement and it was still nice and tight nine years later. It was still a pain replacing the thing after only three years. The plastic tank radiators have rubber gaskets and are able to take quite a bit more vibration without cracking.
you know they are supposed to sit in isolator bushings top and bottom right? I think the bushings hardened and caused a lot more vibration to transfer to the radiator, I suspect it's a common issue, if they worked right the radiator should be completely isolated from vibration

[DBMaster]

^You're probably right. But, the plastic/metal radiators seem to last just as long as the all metal ones. If the core is intact a cracked or leaking tank can be repaired at least once. I had a side tank gasket replaced on an Escort radiator back in the 90's. With metal ones you have to mess with soldering and I have seen more of those solder joints fail than tanks crack.

[gtoman]

Will you be using the tranny cooler part of the rad as an engine oil cooler? This is what I'm thinking of doing.

Adam

[ADRIANFARINA]

I'm using it as trany oil cooler , as it should be..

[POS carb]

thread is dead

I was wondering why this thread kept popping up to the top all week.
My head hurts. I'm going to drink water from the hose.

[ADRIANFARINA]

:kekeke:

[lostforawhile]

you can't use the tranny cooler as an engine oil cooler,it's too restrictive