Hello to all, today I noticed a small puddle of coolant under the truck and when I opened the hood I found a pinhole in the core of the radiator. I am in the middle of a 6 day job and don't have much time between sleep and work for research. Does anyone know of any good quality & fitment radiator manufacturers ? Unfortunately i can not afford oem at the moment so I am looking for the best alternate option, thank you.

If in a pinch I would warm up the truck and slowly pour a tube of aluma-seal and allow it to mix as the coolant is flowing in that side. It will allow you to buy time till you can get it fixed properly. Just remember when you do change the radiator to flush the block and change the thermostat at the same time.

 

Alumaseal has worked for me but you can all so use a box of course ground black pepper in a pinch.

Coarse ground black pepper !? Never heard about that one. I'll be taking a box of pepper and a couple gallons of distilled water until I get time to get to the alumiseal. Any recommendations on a good radiator ? By the way thank you for the quick replies and help !!

RockAuto has them for fair price.

I've replaced a lot of radiators over the years in my repair business and found that the OME last the longest. Most of the after market radiators are made in Taiwan, Red China, or Indonesia. Some are better than others but last any where from 2-6 years. Remember the cheap ones are what a used car dealer would use to keep the cost down and get the car off the lot. I've found that even the better ones can be a crap shoot and only last a few years. I can call my wholesaler tomorrow and see what he says with the prices. I need to know what your driving. 

There isn't much made in America anymore...

Sorry been having issues with my signature but I'm in a 04 2500 qcsb 5.9 4x4, I checked rock auto yesterday and notice the apdi pro one seems to be a nice unit but didn't know if it was actually worth the extra $$ compared to the other 2 options they carry and if it's actually a direct fit. I'm off to work I'll try to check in thug out the day thanks again guys.

DO NOT ADD THE ALUMA SEAL UNLESS YOU WANT MORE ISSUES!!!! Old school stuff not very friendly at all on the new stuff.

 

Best to just get into the core with a needle nose pliers or vice grip and pinch the tube off that is leaking, very simple and effective to get you by until you can replace the core.

 

The only other option I would recommend would be GM seal tabs, they are compatible with our newer systems and work well depending on how bad of a leak it is. I have used them for many years and they are awesome. Have actually sealed up many weeping Cummins head gaskets with these as well.

 

DO NOT ADD THE ALUMA SEAL UNLESS YOU WANT MORE ISSUES!!!! Old school stuff not very friendly at all on the new stuff.

Best to just get into the core with a needle nose pliers or vice grip and pinch the tube off that is leaking, very simple and effective to get you by until you can replace the core.

The only other option I would recommend would be GM seal tabs, they are compatible with our newer systems and work well depending on how bad of a leak it is. I have used them for many years and they are awesome. Have actually sealed up many weeping Cummins head gaskets with these as well.

Thus is more along the lines of what I was thinking, I didn't want to make more work for myself later, thanks. By the way the leak is very small it's actually just misting at the moment not even a stream. Are those tabs only available at dealers ?

Thats the only place I have gotten them but I think any bigger parts house that carries AC Delco stuff should have them. Been a while since I have picked any up but they are around 10 bucks or so for a pack.

You just crush them up in your fingers and drop them in the radiator, they turn to a fine powder and dissolve almost instantly.

What ever happened to water glass?

I checked with the wholesaler this morning. He had a "Pacific Best" or a "Cryomax", ether one for $197. I've used the Cryomax and have had good luck. The wholesaler told me they have a life time warranty with only a 1% return rate.  There are a few other brands that have a radiator for the 04 L5.9: Spectra Premium, Valeo, and Vista Pro to name a few. What ever you get flush the system and replace your coolant with fresh anti-freeze and distilled water. You normally get what you pay for, if its to good to be true its not, learn from other people's experience. 

DO NOT ADD THE ALUMA SEAL UNLESS YOU WANT MORE ISSUES!!!! Old school stuff not very friendly at all on the new stuff.

 

Can you explain this... What is not so friendly about it?

 

Aluma seal is really bad for and known for clumping rather than dissolving and doing what it is advertised to do, I have seen it many times on engine I have pulled down and rebuilt over the years. In our smaller and finer cored aluminum radiators and heater cores it tends to plug them up versus repairing leaks, inside engines they can damage water pump impellers plug weep holes and then getting into the computer controlled heater control valves with small orifices brings on a whole new set of issues. I have literally seen hand full sized gobs of this stuff inside engine blocks that clumped up, can inhibit proper coolant flow around cylinder and head passages and jackets ect ect. The old copper cored radiators with pencil sized core tubes are a thing of the past which is what this stuff was designed for. I doubt most of it would even reach the engine block on the newer radiators, would plug them right from the start and then you have instant heating issues from lack of coolant flow through it then if it does migrate you end up with no heat in the cab.

If in a pinch I would warm up the truck and slowly pour a tube of aluma-seal and allow it to mix as the coolant is flowing in that side.

 

Hence what I said above. Most people dump the tube instantly in the radiator causing this problem. If poured in SLOWLY and allowed to mix that problem will not occur. A matter of fact I've got a tube in the 96 Dodge Ram with no problems just like I said pour it in slowly and allow it to mix with the coolant. Best on a hot engine be be careful of opening the cap that you don't get sprayed with hot coolant.

 

Another way to get around this is dump the tube in a gallon jug of 50/50 mix and shake then add the jug to the system.

Hence what I said...........In a pinch, just give a pinch to the leaky tube to shut off the leak rather than pout in liquid bandaid potentially cause other unseen issues. I have seen many cut aways of newer cores  that had that stuff in it and it is an eye opener. Want to see unhappy looks ask guys who repair radiators, they will not even look twice if they find traces of this in them, you just bought a new radiator, same as folks who pump slime and other tire goop inside tires and rims of vehicles, I have seen tire shops turn customers away after breaking a bead and seeing that crap inside them, they do not want to deal with the mess of cleaning up the rim and their equipment.

Both valid ways of handling a issue might be tougher pinching a tube shut if its on the front side low on the face. Now if it high on the face and you can get to it easy sure pinch it off. But do remember if you don't get it the first time there is no soldering it close since its a aluminium it would be way different if it was old school brass. This is why mention after getting a new radiator to make sure to flush the block out and replace the thermostat. Because we are coming back around to the problem at hand why did the tube spring a leak? More than likely the coolant is corrosive and ate the tube thin. Also during the flush you'll get a very large amount of sealant back out.

Just got home, I stopped on the way home to look at yhe leak closely and it is tiny I also kept an eye on coolant temp and never reached dangerous temps. I have 3 days left on the job I think I'm going to see if it makes it till sat then I can stop the truck and figure out a new radiator. I appreciate all the input, it seems like all the ways mentioned may be functional for the situation but I have always cringed when thinking of pouring any kind of "sealant" into any of the fluids on a car or truck. I'm going to look into that cryomax because the rock auto option only offers 24mo warranty.

I made it to the end of the job and replaced the radiator yesterday with a napa/spectra radiator w/lifetime warranty less than the dealer with better warranty, can't go wrong. I also changed the t-stat while there to the 180* option for the warmer weather down here in FL. I also found out that the radiator that started leaking was a very low quality radiator the core was actually thinner that the spectra replacement. I'll post pics soon for refrence.

I made it to the end of the job and replaced the radiator yesterday with a napa/spectra radiator w/lifetime warranty less than the dealer with better warranty, can't go wrong. I also changed the t-stat while there to the 180* option for the warmer weather down here in FL. I also found out that the radiator that started leaking was a very low quality radiator the core was actually thinner that the spectra replacement. I'll post pics soon for refrence.

 

I am not sure the 180° was a good idea. The cooler thermostat will have several negative effects and I don't think any positive effects. 

 

The higher temperature is more efficient, but just how much is a ??? Anyhow, diesels like heat and a cooler thermostat will generally mean lower power and/or mileage. 

 

Also your fan clutch is electronically controlled and doesn't really start getting actuated until ±215°. The max allowable temperature on a 180° thermostat is 212° (Cummins limit, not Dodge), so you have basically taken your fan out of the equation.