Radiator repair

I have never done one but would suggest a soldering iron might work much better to control and position the heat as you soldered.
Having all the parts super clean would be the next thing.
Some pictures might help.
Finding a radiator shop might be the thing to do too?
Regards,
Chris

Tbone95 wrote: Regular solder should be just fine....Your choice of heat is up to you. Sugarmaker may be right, but would take one hell of a soldering iron to get it hot enough IMO.

You must be thinkin of an electric corded iron, this is what would work. Of course a different torch can be used. I helped an old timer during a demonstration on soldering at a club meeting one day. He said the BEST flux was made at home by chipping up an old zinc canning jar lid and dissolving it in Muriatic acid . A small amount of acid in a glass jar, and add zinc till it won't dissolve anymore.

I have fixed lots of copper/brass radiators with acid core solder. Rosin core will be a battle to get it to take. Get a brass wire brush and shine up the joint. If you're going to use an iron, it would take a very big one to get enough heat. I've always used a propane torch.

oxy/actelene torch with very small flame.Takes a lot to get a cast iron neck to take solder.Gotta know when to take away the flame to control heat.Mucho acid along with acid core solder.Wash it all up when done.

Cleanliness at the joint is the number one requirement for soldering. Then acid core solder, acid flux, rosin flux, or even rosin core solder can work. The metals to be soldered have to be clean down to bare metal, free of paint, rust, and other oxides. Generally accomplished by abrasives better than acid flux. To simplify the assembly the contacting surfaces can be tinned, that is coated with a thin solder film then heat the parts and melt that tinning and add some wire solder, flux cored or not. Paste flux keeps the surfaces clean while they are being heated. Some modern lead free plumbing solders take a higher temperature than the classic 60/40 alloy but are also stronger than lead / tin solders.

I've made soldering acid from zinc can lids and muriatic acid. It definitely works but can damage stuff in the vicinity and zinc canning lids are collectors items these days. Plumbing paste flux is easier to control and works very well.

I have a web site on electronic soldering and it has connections to 118 minutes of youtube videos. The first video is very good on the selection of the soldering iron and the fundamentals of soldering. Most of the rest of the videos and the text don't apply to radiator fixing. http://www.geraldj.networkiowa.com/soldering.html

The pressure in a pressurized cooling system comes from expansion of the coolant, not from the water pump, so a leaking filler cap doesn't guarantee a leak. The higher operating pressure raises the boiling point of the coolant which improves the engine efficiency and makes the radiator more effective at cooling the liquid brew.

It requires a permanent antifreeze to use the pressurized system. In the early Allis days the most common antifreeze was alcohol based and that required 160 degree thermostats to keep from boiling the coolant at atmospheric pressure.

Gerald J.