radiator leak

[carson randolph]

my son in law has a 96 grand am gt 3.1 L V6

IT SPRUNG A RAD LEAK I THIN IT IS PLASTIC BUT HE PUT STOPLEAK IN IT
IT LASTED A WHILE BUT BIT LEAKED AGAIN I THINK IF I USE AN EPOXY
SEALER ON THE OUT SIDE THAT WOULD SEAL IT (I HOPE)
WITHOUT PUTTING A LOT OF MONEY IN IT THEY WANT $4OO TO PUT ONE IN
AND HE DONT WAQNT TO SPEND THAT NOW LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

IS IT A CLOSED SYSTEM SOMBODY TOLD HIM THAT AND THAT IF IT HAD A
BAD HEAD GASGET THAT IT WOULD BLOW THE RAD AGAIN
I TOLD HIM I DIDNT BELIEVE THAT IS THAT TRUE
DOES IT HAVE A PRESSURE CAP ON IT OR WHAT
TO WHERE IT WOULD BLOW EVEN A NEW ONE UP
I JUST DONT BELIEVE IT MYSELF LET ME KNOW
I USED TO WORK ON CARS A LOT BUT IM HANDY CAPPED NOW
BUTI WANT TO HELP HIM WITH THIS PROBLEM

[diyman]

I just replaced my 1990 Honda Accord cracked radiator two weeks ago. It is about 2.5 inches long and I had thought to use any sealer to seal it, but replaced it instead due to high pressure when hot. It isn't too hard to change it and is a good DIY work. You can easily to get after market rediator for ~$100. I got mine for $99 and delivered right to my garage. Good luck!

[easywind]

First of all, don't drive the car with stop leak in it, it's bad and will clog up the cooling system.
You need to do a compression test to see if the head gasket is good or bad, any two cylinders next to each other with very low readings will prove the gasket is bad. Next, a radiator that is plastic can only be repaired by plastic weld and you can't do it yourself, it takes specialized equipment. If your headgasket is ok and you relace the radiator make sure you flush the hell out of it and get that stopleak out of the system or your new radiator will get clogged. Check out any major autoparts store for the cost of a radiator as I'm sure you can do better.

[msargent]

Just for info, around here the radiator shops do replace plastic side or top tanks.. Usually for about ½ the money of an entirely new radiator, and they clean and pressure test them before returning them to us..

[Lugnut]

Radiator epoxy repair kits are useless, been there, done that.

It's difficult to predict if a new radiator will crack with a blown gasket or not. It may last 'longer', but I would not say it would not crack. Too risky to proceed without checking for head gasket leak.

As mentioned, radiator shops are well equiped to repair the plastic radiators and they have all the needed smaller rods to clean out even the smallest of radiator passages found on the new more efficient design radiators.

[carson randolph]

is this a closed pressure system or is there a pressure regulater
like the cap on other cars if the pressure gets to high