Radiator performance? Life expectancy?
Just thought I'd put this out to you guys, since you are all so smart!! :B Truck in sig, getting old. 393,500 K on the odometer. (244,509 miles) I noticed while towing 8000 pounds of trailer in ...
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My RV is 30 years old. I just replaced the radiator last year as I was having an overheat. It started off with slight overheating as you are describing.
When I took the radiator cap off and looked down into the radiator cores, they looked like Yellowstone National Park with mineral deposits all around the core openings and plugging them.
Take off your radiator cap and drain the coolant until you can see your cores (assuming you can with your radiator). Here is what mine looked like:
It is getting harder and harder to find radiator shops that will rebuild radiators anymore, because it is cheaper to just replace them. But, it is possible to have a radiator "rodded out". This is where they remove the top and bottom of the tank and then run a piece of rod up and down the cores to try and break loose the crud. Better yet, you can "re-core" the radiator, where they unsolder the top and bottom tanks and then solder in an entirely new core.
None of the "mechanic in a bottle" solutions will get rid of mineral deposits.
It's also possible that the fins on your water pump impeller have rusted away so you are no longer getting good coolant flow.
When I took the radiator cap off and looked down into the radiator cores, they looked like Yellowstone National Park with mineral deposits all around the core openings and plugging them.
Take off your radiator cap and drain the coolant until you can see your cores (assuming you can with your radiator). Here is what mine looked like:
It is getting harder and harder to find radiator shops that will rebuild radiators anymore, because it is cheaper to just replace them. But, it is possible to have a radiator "rodded out". This is where they remove the top and bottom of the tank and then run a piece of rod up and down the cores to try and break loose the crud. Better yet, you can "re-core" the radiator, where they unsolder the top and bottom tanks and then solder in an entirely new core.
None of the "mechanic in a bottle" solutions will get rid of mineral deposits.
It's also possible that the fins on your water pump impeller have rusted away so you are no longer getting good coolant flow.
