rad fitting advice appreciated

[mickey]

hi,as mentioned in a previous thread,i have a recon radiator supplied by roughtrax,they need mine back pretty soon.i've had a looksie,and dome some searches,and feel i may undertake the fitting with the help of a mate........now,i assume its,remove the plastic shroud around the fan,4 bolts.....drain the rad,after removing bashplate,should be about 10 litres of coolant?.....remove hoses,and 4 bolts holding radiator to body.......flush coolant from block,via hosepipe into top hose.......refit new rad.....heater on hot,i've only got the front one.......refill,slowly,squeez ing pipes to remove air......run engine to warm up,refill as necessary?...........couple of questions,i live in a hard water area,is it worth using distilled,........i was thinking of using halfords top range coolant after recomandations on the forums,is this info still current?..........and mainly,my mate thinks we will lose oil from the auto-box when we take the pipes off,what the hell do we do about that?thats not something i'd anticipated,so any advice would be welcome.

[marky]

Stick a BOLT or old SPARKPLUG in the end of the gearbox oil pipe to stop leakage, Use around 50/50 antifreeze mix.

[mart 870]

Like Marky says use a bolt or something to plug the hoses, you`ll only loose a little but it`ll be worth checking the level in the box after anyway.

The rad cowling is in two halfs (top and bottom) and the bottom half is just clipped into place. Remove the bottom half and the once you have removed the 4 rad retaining bolts you can slide the rad upwards with the top half of the cowling in place and then remove that when the rads out.

I found if diffecult to flush the block through because of the thermostat being shut (it just blew the water back through the top hose for me) I ended up taking the thermostat hosing off (its below the turbo, its a long alloy casting, 3 bolts hold it in place and one more that holds a hose in place. dont worry about a gasket because it uses a resuable rubber o ring) then the water gushed through, i changed the thermostat while it way out as mine was a bit lazy.

I guess i`ve left it a bit late and you have about done by now but hopefully it`ll be of some help to you.

Good luck.

[*Turandot*]

Vauxhall dealers have a special offer at the moment. They are offering premixed 5 year red coolant which is exactly the same as Toyota long life red coolant. 5 litres is £5.90 Trade Club which would make it about £10.00 to non members from any Vauxhall parts counter.

[mickey]

boys,thanks.i'm doing it next saturday,roughtrax need mine back by the following tuesday....mart,appreciate the help,hadn't even considered the thermo being shut,i would have been scratching my head over that one!....turandot,i'll be getting two bottles of red mate,ta for taking the time to share that......i just about feel confident about the job now.may order a new thermostat,although mine seems fine,no,maybe i'll stick to the,"if it aint broke,dont fix it" school of thought!....next job,change the auto box oil,so i'll be back soon i guess!...oh,just a thought,given that i'll lose a "little oil" from the box,even using marky's tip,where do i top it up from?....and its dextron,right?

[TonyN]

Dextron II and it goes down the dipstick tube.

[laser_jock99]

Changing the rad is a lot easier if you can get the engine fan off too. You'll need an offset 12mm spanner (or make one from a normal spanner and length of copper pipe- like I did!).

[NiftyNev]

may order a new thermostat,although mine seems fine,no,maybe i'll stick to the,"if it aint broke,dont fix it" school of thought!....

Test it!Get a saucepan and fill with water.Suspend thermostat in water with some wire so it's not touching sides or bottom.Heat slowly and it should start to open at (82 degC for the 3 Ltr??) and be fully open a few deg higher than this.If not then replace.Tested a couple for the 2.4 today and they open at 88 degC and are fully open at 95 degC.

Neville

[mickey]

lads,i'm getting panick attacks!.i cant take the fan off,i dont even know what an off-set spanner is?i'm asuming the rad will still come off with the fan in-situ?....i'm going to get in a right pickle with this,you boys have been fantastic,but if i've got too many bits lying around i wont be able to get em all back together again.....i can cope with the dextron11 down the filler,and to be safe i'll stick a milners thermo on while i'm at it.....once again lads,cheers for the time you've all taken to help me with this,having a forum like this certainly makes surfing less daunting.

[mart 870]

You shouldnt need to remove the fan to take out the rad, just the bottom half of the cowling and the rad will lift up out of the way.

Thermostats have the opening temp stamped on them, mine said 82 but didnt start to open until it was into the late 80`s, i tried the new one before fitting it and it opened spot on.