95 radiator cracked

hi,

wife came home last night saying the car was steaming and very hot.
today as i looked at it i see a crack near the upper hose. is this
something some epoxy can cure? if not, what are good sources for a
radiator?

tia,
peter

In article
>,
peter > wrote:

> wife came home last night saying the car was steaming and very hot.
> today as i looked at it i see a crack near the upper hose. is this
> something some epoxy can cure? if not, what are good sources for a
> radiator?

Once the black plastic top tank turns green, it's brittle and ready to
break. You're lucky it lasted this long, and that it wasn't catastrophic.

Replace it with a new all-brass double-core radiator. You can buy one
online for $130 or less. It will be for an automatic Miata, so will have
more cooling capacity. Just ignore the transmission cooler in the bottom.

--
Lanny Chambers
St. Louis, MO
'94C

On Jul 31, 5:52*pm, Lanny Chambers > wrote:
> In article
> >,
>
> *peter > wrote:
> > wife came home last night saying the car was steaming and very hot.
> > today as i looked at it i see a crack near the upper hose. *is this
> > something some epoxy can cure? *if not, what are good sources for a
> > radiator?
>
> Once the black plastic top tank turns green, it's brittle and ready to
> break. You're lucky it lasted this long, and that it wasn't catastrophic.
>
> Replace it with a new all-brass double-core radiator. You can buy one
> online for $130 or less. It will be for an automatic Miata, so will have
> more cooling capacity. Just ignore the transmission cooler in the bottom.

best i find is at:

https://www.radiatorbarn.com/search....oduct=radiator

(there doesnt appear to be a direct link). is that the one lanny?

tia,
peter

In article
>,
peter > wrote:

> best i find is at:
>
> https://www.radiatorbarn.com/search....oduct=radiator
>
> (there doesnt appear to be a direct link). is that the one lanny?

Yes, that's a popular source.

--
Lanny Chambers
St. Louis, MO
'94C

Lanny Chambers wrote:
>
> Replace it with a new all-brass double-core radiator. You
> can buy one online for $130 or less. It will be for an
> automatic Miata, so will have more cooling capacity. Just
> ignore the transmission cooler in the bottom.

While you're in there, you might want to replace every water hose on the
engine. Definitely replace the two in the front while you're in there;
the labor for that part is completely free, since you're going to have
to disconnect them to replace the radiator anyway. Replacing the heater
hoses on the back of the engine is more work, but shortly after I
replaced my radiator one of the heater hoses on the back of the engine
blew out, and then immediately after I fixed that, the other one blew
out as well. If I had got all the hoses done when I did the radiator it
would have saved me some money and a lot of effort and hassle.

Another suggestion; OEM hoses cost more, but they actually fit correctly
so they're worth it. However, I was quoted $450 for the OEM radiator,
which is crazy.

yrs jp

On Aug 1, 11:05*am, "johnny p." > wrote:
> Lanny Chambers wrote:
>
> > Replace it with a new all-brass double-core radiator. You
> > can buy one online for $130 or less. It will be for an
> > automatic Miata, so will have more cooling capacity. Just
> > ignore the transmission cooler in the bottom.
>
> While you're in there, you might want to replace every water hose on the
> engine. *

good idea, however, i did replace them maybe 10k miles ago when i
replaced the motor., (why does this sound like famous last words?).

also i will be replacing all the mounting nuts and bolts as they are
shot
peter

On Jul 31, 2:32*pm, peter > wrote:
> hi,
>
> wife came home last night saying the car was steaming and very hot.
> today as i looked at it i see a crack near the upper hose. *is this
> something some epoxy can cure? *if not, what are good sources for a
> radiator?

actually,

i am going to see the local guy who repair radiators, not to fix this
but if i can get something like radiatorBarn from him, i will give him
the business. i like to support craftman when ever possible and
affordable. either way, i should have one by wednesday.


peter

While the plastic tanks can be replaced with metal tanks, the labor cost
runs the total price up there, to the point that a brand new aftermarket
radiator with metal tanks is usually less expensive. I have a 99, and,
early on, replaced the perfectly good stock radiator. The last GM
failure was on a 96 Impala at about 90 thousand miles and 9 years of
use. (I inherited the car.)

My reasoning was that every plastic tank radiator on Mazda and GM cars
that I've owned failed with cracks in the plastic. (Not to mention that
I was getting ready to add a turbo to my 99 Miata, and the stock
radiator was a bit small.)
Eventually, a few months later, I was able to sell the perfectly good 99
OEM radiator, thus offsetting part of the cost of the larger AM
radiator. When the plastic tanks change color, the tanks are brittle,
and usually problems follow.

On 8/1/2010 11:36 AM, peter wrote:
> On Jul 31, 2:32 pm, > wrote:
>> hi,
>>
>> wife came home last night saying the car was steaming and very hot.
>> today as i looked at it i see a crack near the upper hose. is this
>> something some epoxy can cure? if not, what are good sources for a
>> radiator?
>
> actually,
>
> i am going to see the local guy who repair radiators, not to fix this
> but if i can get something like radiatorBarn from him, i will give him
> the business. i like to support craftman when ever possible and
> affordable. either way, i should have one by wednesday.
>
>
> peter