Thread: my poor hot smurf

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

If your lucky you got away without engine damage.

See a radiator specialist (I suggest an old one)

Good advise.

I certainly wouldn't buy a replacement from a wrecker.

I found I had a pinhole leak from a tube in the core of my 80 series Lancruiser.

The grumpy old local radiator specialist gave me the options;

Pinch the tube to stop the leak, that potentially makes the rest of the radiator work a bit harder under load,then the next one has a leak etc...and it was 18 years old with 400k on it.

Re-core it with an Aftermarket core, which may last two months or two years, no guarantee given, due to the unknown wall thickness of the core tubes, and previous problems with them.

Replace it with a factory item... 24 month warranty on it.

I talked the price down 40% at the local Toyota dealership, and did it myself, piss easy.

Yes it wasn't as cheap as the other options, but they're false economy if you look at the potential repair bill of a cooked engine/cracked head.

I sold the truck recently with 496k on it, and the new owner was chuffed to see a receipt for the factory radiator and hoses.

B