# Emergency Radiator Repair



## UncleJoe

I don't know how well known this is, and didn't find it in any old threads, so I thought I'd pass it along. 
If you develop a small leak in your radiator core, it can be repaired in about 5 minutes with ordinary black pepper. I'm not talking about a major blow out in a seam, but if you have a small leak in one of the ribs from corrosion, pepper will seal it right up. If all your coolant has leaked out or boiled away, it must be replaced. There has to be some type of liquid in the system to disperse it. Once it is filled back up, just pour in about 5-6 tablespoons of pepper, wait 5 minutes or so and it stops leaking. If it doesn't, add a little more. 
I've done this several times in my life and can attest to its effectiveness. Last summer was my latest "repair". I was grinding out a tree stump when I started seeing a lot of steam coming off the machine. I opened the cap, shut it down, and sure enough - no coolant. I ran to the store while the machine cooled down and got my pepper, filled the radiator with water, poured in the "sealant" and finished the job. It is still not leaking after 9 months.
Put a can of pepper in your BOV. It will get you back on the road quickly.


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## pointman

*showing my age*

have used oatmeal for the same problemwith the same results.....pointman


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## Canadian

I heard a raw egg works too.


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## The_Blob

these 'country' fixes work pretty good in a pinch, but remember, they are only supposed to be temporary & for emergencies only! If you have the means to get it fixed properly, please do so, because some of these things have the potential gum up valves in the coolant system (like the thermostat).

btw... 90% of coolant system trouble I have seen that was not a leak was due to a malfunctioning thermostat. It's a cheap part & almost always VERY easy to replace.


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## UncleJoe

The_Blob said:


> these 'country' fixes work pretty good in a pinch, but remember, they are only supposed to be temporary & for emergencies only!


Even though I know this is 100% true, I still haven't taken the time to pull the radiator and fix or replace it. One of these days it's going to come back and bite me in the a**.


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## 10101

bars leak works very well, the pepper and eggs routine work sometimes but who the hell has a carton of eggs on ice and a pound of pepper in there vehicle?

Put a bottle of bars leak in the glove box. Once home replace the radiator.


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## UncleJoe

Well  Actually  I have a 6 oz. box of pepper in each of our vehicles now. I keep it in a box with the jumper cables, oil, anti-freeze, and other such things. 
I tried the barrs leak a long time ago on someones recommendation. When I did get around to getting the radiator fixed, the guy who did it is the one who told me about the pepper. He said it doesn't gum everything up the way barrs leak does.


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## GatorDude

At autoparts stores you can (or used to be able to) get a kit that had two pieces of play-doh-like metallic stuff. You'd mix them together form a ball and put it over the leak like a wad of gum. It would harden into metal and fix your radiator for a good long time. As long as you didn't expose the metals to air, I believe they would keep indefinitely.


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## northernontario

FYI... I tried the blackpepper in my wife's car. It has a tiny coolant leak. Not so much that it meant fixing right away... and not enough that I could find the darn thing! Just a tiny leak that dropped the coolant level over time. 

I poured in some black pepper in June... and haven't had to top up the coolant since.


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## UncleJoe

Since this is back up, I thought I'd update. My machine started leaking again earlier this month. Instead of going with the pepper again, I pulled the radiator and took it to a repair guy. It was shot. most of the fins were separating from the top tank and there was nothing he could do with it except recore it. $460. The "pepper patch" held for a full year.


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## The_Blob

UncleJoe said:


> Since this is back up, I thought I'd update. My machine started leaking again earlier this month. Instead of going with the pepper again, I pulled the radiator and took it to a repair guy. It was shot. most of the fins were separating from the top tank and there was nothing he could do with it except recore it. $460. The "pepper patch" held for a full year.


wow, $460 seems a little steep, what kind of vehicle is it?


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## UncleJoe

It's not a vehicle, it's a Vermeer stump grinder. Anything related to the tree care industry is overpriced by about 40%. I called Vermeer to ask what a replacement radiator would cost. $785  That's why I gave it to the radiator guy. I know he's an honest man. A few years ago I took a heater core from one of my trucks to have a leak fixed. He told me $60 but also mentioned that he could get a new one for $30. I had him order the new one.


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## Old Sarge

Canadian is correct about raw eggs. Years ago, I drove a coast to coast semi, which occasionally had mechanical problems. The owner was a cheap skate and wouldn't fix it when we were home. In desperation, I dumped a couple raw eggs in the radiator for a leak, and it cured it. It does work!!


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## The_Blob

oh yeah, it works, my earlier cautionary note was just to remind some (probably not any members on this forum tho) that these are all still meant to only be temporary fixes, like rubbing a bar of soap on your gas tank if you have a pinhole leak in it...

yes, I AM guilty of doing that when I was a po' (so broke I couldn't even afford the last two letters in 'poor'   ) college student, twice day for about two months I would crawl under my car & rub it with a bar of soap


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## UncleJoe

The_Blob said:


> like rubbing a bar of soap on your gas tank if you have a pinhole leak in it...


That's a new one on me.  Soap to seal a gas tank?


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## fun4wheelerguy

UncleJoe said:


> That's a new one on me.  Soap to seal a gas tank?


Yes a bar of soap can be rubbed on a small fuel tank leak........ My additional repair after the soap stops the leak is I clean the area around the leak really good with a wire brush and get it to bare metal. Then I mix up a batch of JB Quick and seal it the rest of the way. I had a problem with my chevy van and had done this repair and it held for 4 years !


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## szabotage

I carry a tube of bulldog glue. it fixes almost everything JB weld does for a fraction of the price and 10 times the amount of glue. offroading in the bush it has saved me and my friends on several occasions including pierced rad, oil pan, diff housings, and fuel tanks. keep in mind this is only a temporary fix (especially with gas tanks) although my buddy is still running bulldog on his rad since his accident a year ago.


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## UncleJoe

fun4wheelerguy said:


> Yes a bar of soap can be rubbed on a small fuel tank leak.


Geez. Just when you think you know everything there is to know, someone comes along and slaps your ego upside the head.


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## Riverdale

Canadian said:


> I heard a raw egg works too.


Use the whites only, the yolk is bad for the radiator......


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## Jason

I only use the whites in my scrambled eggs...the yolks were bad for my cholesterol. 

Guess it plugs up the rad cores like your arteries...


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## GREASEMONKEY

I have had the radiator cap on my kenworth go bad. The seal on the cap decided to fail half way between van horn, and el paso TX. Years ago it was no mans land. I figured out the problem in short order, filled the radiator, and used a few layers of plastic bags over the filler. It was sufficient to make me through el paso.


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## jeff47041

Old thread, but I thought I'd bump it because it was interesting. I've never heard of any of these temporary fixes.


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