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How to repair cast aluminum radiator bottom on 1923 Mack AB


Guest Hockeye

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Guest Hockeye

Good Morning, Gents!

We dragged out my Mack AB to find that the radiator is leaking like a.... well, you know. The liquid is pouring through the lower tank or portion which is made of now fully perforated cast aluminum.

That lower part is full of crystalline copper sulfate and god knows what other toxic and hideous materials. Looks like someone in the past used JB Weld, smeared all over the bottom.... What a mess!

I know the big guys are able to weld up problems like this in aluminum, but I don't know about anyone here in Green Acres.

What about some sort of resin, epoxy or such? Think about a cast aluminum trough with the bottom rotted out.

I think a search for a replacement, uh, no.... not too likely.

Sure appreciate you guys!

Steve

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Assuming the bottom is removable, remove ALL the JB weld you can by grinding, the rest by bead blast inner and outer, tig weld holes closed. If big holes tig patches on inside. Tig weldinig is common almost everywhere or ship it there. If it's totally shot do what restorer32 says, have maybe 10 cast up and hope to sell them.................Bob

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Guest Hockeye
Why not have a new one cast?

Hi there, Mr. Restorer! thanks for the "get-back". Yes, I am a geezer, and I do remember CB lingo. Anyway:

Who can I hire to make a new aluminum casting.

And further, I have a 29 Hudson Super Six with a broken exhaust manifold. who can fix it? Or cast a replacement? It's a waste without it. With it it would run like a Deere!

Thanks again,

Steve

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Depending on the size and complexity we can have a new one cast. We work with a local foundry that will do castings using originals as patterns. We would have to allow for the shrinkage in the casting which is about 3/16" per foot. I am vaguely familiar with this tank. Pics? Exhaust manifold is a different kettle of fish requiring a complex and very expensive core box for the hollow interior. Figure 2-5 hundred $ for the rad tank, again depending on size and the amount of machining necessary.

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If you want a cheap fix and the bottom tank is removable you could clean it out, (bead blast etc) cut a piece of sheet aluminium the right size, squirt some plumbers/ sheetmetal type silicone (no acid type) in and bed the sheet aluminium down into it and seal it around the edges.

When the silicone dries you could then patch the holes with filler from the underside, smooth it off and give it a coat of aluminium paint. As there is no pressure in the radiator it should last a long time.

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In the case of the exhaust manifold I would suggest Crow Custom Cast Welding. He is very professional. Welding cast iron and aluminum is all he does. 715-425-6653

From the condition you describe, the radiator tank is too far gone for repair. Casting a new one is the route I would take. I suspect a pattern would have to be made to compensate for the shrinkage.

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Your hudson manifold is very fixable.

Make sure it's done by a pro. It must be clamped to s strong strait edge to maintain it's trueness to the head. After it's wielded, get it surfaced planed at a machine shop. Is it broken in the center where the heat riser bolts on?

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We ran across a project that is going to be very expensive to repair.

It is a Pierce Arrow Truck radiator. Both the top and the bottom castings are aluminum.

The bottom is a straight forward pan and should not be a problem to have recast.

The top is a very detailed part, with cores needed to recast it. It has been taken to a foundry here in town that will digitize it for the making of cores and a cost estimate to reproduce one of each.

The top is so badly corroded that the mounting flange across the front is gone.

Also, the upper hose neck is cast as part of the top.

Will post pictures in a while. An estimate of the cost will be interesting.

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Any time you need cores the cost rises geometrically. We use a foundry that is very good at improvising. We needed a similarly complicated casting made. They suggested that we have it made in 2 pieces and weld the 2 new castings into one unit thereby eliminating the need for what would have been a very expensive core. Worked out well.

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This all emphasises how important it is for people to learn patternmaking and foundry skills. Today if you combine these with CNC computer expertise you can do anything that you need to do. One of our friends, Jim Willetts, came to Australia many decades ago as a "ten pound Pom'', and this country has received its ten pounds investment value from Jim a million times. He ran the foundry course at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology for many decades; and he had just arrived in Peking on contract from the UN to establish multiple foundry courses across China, when the notorious "Gang of Howevermany" to crush the democracy demonstrators with their tanks. Jim was whisked away in a "limo"with darkened glass, and left on the first safety flight to Thailand. Jim is a resource who is only to willing to help us learn these skills. We have all his course material on discs, including all the patternmaking course modules. That said, most people have to learn this sort of thing "hands-on". Recently I bought a complete one-man foundry from the estate clearance sale of a mutual friend. So after the season improves enough to get a concrete truck in for foundations and a bit of concrete floor for equipment storage, Jim is going to spend time with my son and I to provide high speed, high level education in all this. Stirling is also brilliant in the CNC model code writing. Using most of an old planing machine with ball thread movements and computer control, it will be possible for us to re-make big dimension stuff with total loss patterns.

Cast iron fusion welding with the oxy-acetylene torch is fairly straight forward, unless the metal has been contaminated badly with lead. The first one I did was from an AS160 International petrol engine. It is much easier to do to today with die grinders and angle grinders with zirconia grit wheels.

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