should i attempt this? hmmmm

[greengiant]

the situation is i'm at college which is 150 miles from home, my radiator is shot and i have just about all the tools i think i should need but my car is minus a jack. i bought the radiator and i'm planning on putting it in tuesday. i think the recent cold weather has made the one tiny crack it had into several larger ones, so this needs to get done. Does anyone think i should try to get it home and do this where i have a full garage, my search of past posts seems to say this job is easy but i don't have a jack and that lower rad hose looks like its gonna suck. any words of wisdom?

 

[firebat45]

Go ahead and do it. It's only a few bits of disassembly (overflow, rad fan, then rad itself) and maybe 8 bolts total. You'll need something to drain the rad into though. Not including draining/refilling the coolant I bet it could be done in 15 minutes.

Vicegrips work great for those stupid plier clamps that come on the rad hoses, but it's still do-able with pliers easily enough.

 

[expy916]

I installed a dual core and didnt need to jack up the car.

 

[greengiant]

alright thanks guys good to know, gives me confidence

 

[TopGunnYFZ]

Yeah rads are easy im used to doing them on atx's so the mtx is a bit easier. So do work son can't drive a car with a cracked radiator!

 

[itwonder]

I don't think you'll have any trouble changing it. If you need to raise the front, pick up four pieces of 2x10 scraps from a construction site. Drive onto two stacked on each side and it will raise it 3" which is enough to make access underneath a lot easier.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

Depends how bad it's cracked and at what level it's cracked as in how high up on the rad. I drove my old 93 atx home 120 miles with a cracked rad stopping only 2 times to check the level and it seemed that it sealed up better when it got warm. I also ran 120 basically all highway, so I ran with the rad cap off so there was no pressure and it didn't spew out everywhere.

But as far as changing a rad it's not TOO bad but it depends on how you're school is with working on a car in the lot. When I did the starter on my 93 atx in my school lot, I got a few looks from cops and one asked me not to spill oil on the lot, (he thought I was doign an oil change).

 

[greengiant]

it only leaks when its cold, it was fine all summer, i think i filled it once over 3 months, now that its really cold its once a week. as for the school its vermont, no one cares about much of anything, theres a security guard on campus and i've seen more intelligence out of my dog.

 

[Redneck1465]

Its real easy just go ahead and put the new radiator in.

 

[typhoon5000]

I've done a complete motor swap in my buddy's Gulf in our campus parking lot with help of a few friends. If we can do that, you can do a radiator, no prob.