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Best method to straighten radiator fins?

GM Guy

GM Guy

Manual Trans. 2WD Enthusiast
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Location
NW Kansas and SC Idaho
Hey all,

I will be pulling the radiator tomorrow to straighten some fins and clean some crap out.

on another project radiator (the ongoing 1996 project) , I used a tiny pair of pliers and a dull tiny flat blade screwdriver, but still ended up with some crinkled fins.

is there a better way to straighten the fins on these?

any input appreciated, thanks!
 
on a side note, who re-uses coolant? what is the best way to cleanly capture it? I am thinking a clean 5 gallon bucket and pull the hose from the surge tank off the lower radiator hose.
 
I've reused coolant a lot. trick is to find a suitable filter material to sift out the chunks of debris you always seem to get when it's drained. coarse paper towels work OK.
 
I never used one myself but I had a friend that ran a radiator shop and he once said to never bother trying to straighten fins unless you had one of these when I asked him WTH it was.
 
I used them alot. In the desert you get good at it. Buy it, then go to the junkyard and play with it on your next trip.

Place half of the teeth in good rows and half in the damaged rows. Start with the pointed edge away from you and curl under the bent fins wiggling up and down as you go. Take note that the fins have a z pattern to them. After a bit you'll learn to wiggle sidways at the same time to recreate it. Not hard at all, but wear a glove the first time or two.
And btw, this is one of the few tools that is exactly the same from harbor freight as on the tool trucks.
 
unfortunately the fin comb only seems to work on older systems with fins sticking out away from the tubes. with the tubes being flush with the fins on the radiator, the tool is not useable.
 
Good point on the comb not working in every application.

For the coolant, I've found that filtering the used coolant back in through a paint filter works pretty well. If you don't have any sitting around, they can be had from your local big box store. Local paint stores might give you a handful.
 
I spent the better part of and evening and a 12 pack doing my rad.. with a pair of looping pliers.. I was cross eyed when I finished. :D
 
I had to google looping pliers, looks nifty. I think our tiny needle nose pliers should do the same hopefully.

I did forget, the buck pocketknife was involved as well, I think I used it as a backing plate and pushed the fins flat with the tiny screwdriver.

looks like I will just have at it with the tiny tools. :)
 
Depending on the distance between the fins, I have used 2 old butter knives, a pair of ground down old bastard files, flatnose pliers, and a spring hook. Basically always putting a piece of metal on each side of the bent fin.

I've filtered old coolant with a recently outgrown t-shirt (not worn out) over a bucket, AFTER letting the sediment settle out. The additive on some coolant tends to break down. I remember the coolant filters on the CAT and Detroit engines on trucks I used to run. I looked up one that should work on our trucks;
Wix 24070
"Fits Heavy duty World Trucks, Freightliner trucks and buses, Navistar, heavy duty John Deere, Kenworth, Liebherr, Peterbilt, Sterling, Versatile, Western Star applications."

I'm sure Baldwin has one too. I found some new old Fleetguard filter heads with 4 mounting holes.
 
Seen holes eroded through wet sleeve diesels due to electrolysis. Recently a 60 series Detoilet and more recently a 4 cyl John Deere 410 hoe engine.

They say it was from neglected coolant. :dunno:
 
oh yeah, I am well aware of electrolosis, we have a 855 cummins down right now because of it. (with no hope of getting fixed any time soon, due to dad being a tightwad)

it seems to affect sleeved engines way worse, but apparently the non-sleeved 7.3L navistar is affected.

I personally havent heard of the 5.9L cummins or 6.2/6.5L over being lost to electrolosis.

I want to find a coolant filter of an old GMC truck that had a detroit in it, so i have a GM filter base on a GM truck, purely to satisfy the self diagnosed OCD. :) the reason for the filter would mainly be for keeping crap out of the system for long water pump life. a side benefit would be that most commerical coolant filters come with a SCA pre-charge to keep the SCA levels good to prevent electrolosis.
 
well, either ya'll have magic hands, magic tools, way less folded fins, or a combo of the above, or I am just a slow-ass. :)

multiple hours, and I am only 1/3 of the way across the 1st side.

no used coolant will be going back in, looked like shit. luckily I got 4 gallons of new, probably should have gotten 1 jug of 50/50 to make 5 gallons of prepared product. might try and get more out of the block ,and buy another jug of straight and a jug of distilled water so I have plenty.

can i put air pressure to the upper rad hose to get coolant out of the block, or will I blow out the pump seal? so far I have just been blowing with lung pressure on the heater return hose and burp hose from the top right corner of the rad.

can a guy get the surge tank to completely empty?

does a guy need to pull the grille to get all the crap out, or can it be left? got a brush guard, so it will be a PITA to pull.
 
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