Posted by David Sheman on Sunday, March 21, 2004 at 10:18AM :
In Reply to: Do it right! posted by MoparNorm on Sunday, March 21, 2004 at 7:23AM :
When you say silver solder, do you mean silver-bearing soft solder such as is used on air conditioner lines, or do you mean hard silver solder like they use on jewelry? I don't see how you could use hard solder (brazing) without melting the radiator. I've only used regular old 50/50 plumbing solder and so far my fixes have held, but I'm no pro at it, just patched my own radiators now and then. I don't doubt that silver-bearing soft solder would be stronger, and might be necessary in a high-stress place like where the filler neck attaches.
I agree about not using various goos and gums, with one exception. I have one truck that has a hairline crack in the block that was professionally "stitched" 25 years ago but it never totally sealed it up. Every 3 years or so it starts leaking again and I put in a bottle of barrs leak, which "fixes" it for another 3 years. I don't like having something that isn't fixed right, but in this case a bottle of leak plugger every few years is vastly cheaper than anything better I could do to it. Barrs leak also fixed a leak between the pony motor and the clutch housing of my D4 cat. It's held for 5 years now, and was a lot easier then pulling the pony motor off again and getting new gaskets.
Follow Ups: