Drip, Drip, Drip water torture!!!

weendoggy said:

That almost looks like a double hose clamped. Not right if it is.

Click to expand...

The original setup that factory five provide worked for quite some time. It was made up of two hoses at the radiator outlet. An inner rubber hose that brought the diameter (kinda like a sleeve) up so it would match the Steel Hose and the larger rubber hose that would slide over both the corrugated steel hose and the hose over the outlet. I did notice that the outlet on the radiator has a slight "dent" inward, but it's before the "bead"( between the bead and the end of the outlet) so I wouldn't think it would have an effect. I have removed ( it was just ugly anyway ) what was in the picture and going back something close to the original setup. If it still leaks, I'll take the radiator out and take it to a shop to see if there is a defect or crack that I cannot see. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Thanks All.

When solving a crime they say "follow the money", i guess when finding a leak "follow the fluid".... I have always been viewing the leak from under the car and only seeing the result of the leak and assuming that was where the leak was. But a leak may appear in one place but the actual problem may be elsewhere and traveling to a place that it becomes visible.
That's what appears to have happened here. I was trying to fix where the leak was appearing and did not realize that the leak was actually occurring elsewhere. So the Good news is the leak is gone from the outlet because it was never there. While under the car for about the 50th time, my shop light hit the radiator just right and I noticed a "greenish" hue from the weld above the outlet. When I reached up to investigate my finger came back with antifreeze on it. Not a lot but it was basically seeping from weld. When I placed a paper towel below the weld seepage the dripping stopped! It looks like when it was manufactured they tried to grind down the excess welding material and now it is seeping ever so slowly for about 6"-8" along the weld. It would then travel down the radiator to the outlet and then around it to the bottom and drip. So good news I know what is causing the drip. Now I just have to remove the radiator and take it to be fixed.

Update:
Well….. I went to 2 radiator shops and neither would work on the aluminum radiator. ☹ They said they couldn’t warranty the work or guarantee that it would last and All aluminum radiators are brittle and don't flex like a hybrid plastic/aluminum radiator or a brass and copper ones. And the process to weld is at such a high temp, they couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t damage other parts of the radiator since the heat travels so fast with aluminum. Both shops said they stopped selling total aluminum radiators because they would last the year of the warranty and begin leaking and they were getting angry customers and it was a hurting their reputation. One shop said he could possibly custom build a copper and brass one, but he said it would be quite expensive and was even hesitant to do that.

Not sure what to do now (JBweld anyone?) . Any recommendations? Has anyone replaced their F5 supplied radiator with another aftermarket one?