I think I have a small-medium size leak in the cooling system. I am getting ready to install a new engine and used some Bar's Leak to get by until I do the new install. I will just add a new radiator when I do the new engine. Does anyone else have good experience with Bar's Leak?

USAF_Maro

 

yeah it works pretty well, just dont wait too long to get a new radiator, it plugged mine up pretty quick afterwards.

 

A buddy of mine told me its not good for aluminum rads. How do you know what years came with aluminum or did any thirdgen's come with aluminum?? I have a very small almost pin size hole in my rad. At the moment I am not buying a new rad, so will bar's leak work well enough?? till next spring at least

 

I'd prefer shoving some steel epoxy into a hole rather than putting some crap that could get all over your cooling system in there.

 

I was told by a reputable radiator shop that GM and Ford both put the equivalent of 1/2 a bottle of Bar's Leak in their cars right off the assembly line to keep people from bringing their new cars back to the dealers for little, one drip on the new concrete driveway, type leaks... (That is, before GM switched to Dexcool, I won't even go into what a load of crap that stuff is). Get the stuff in the brown bottle called Bars Leak stop leak and conditioner. DO NOT buy the "liquid aluminum" or "heavy duty" stuff. It says to put the whole bottle in, but you should only need 1/4 to 1/2 of the bottle... I'd start with 1/4. As long as you do a good cooling system flush every 30K this stuff shouldn't hurt anything at all.

Later,
Harry

 

Beware of Bars Leak. Works great with plugging a hole in the radiator, but it will block up your heater core! Believe I know....but that may have been because I used 3 bottles of it. LOL.