Radiator Repair

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Did you see Mythbusters last night?

Succesfully repaired an automotive radiator leak (intentionally made with ice pick) with an egg! Added while hot, revved engine. Leak stopped almost immediately. Possible quick fix for a leaking hydronic system???

They tortured an engine to try to kill it. Sugar in the gas tank doesn't work. Bleach in the gas tank probably will. A few moth balls in the gas [appear] to increase octane and power. A penny in the carbuerator didn't seem to have an effect. Bleach in the crankcase will kill an engine.

Matt Undy

eggs, belach

The egg might plug the leak but it would also gunk up everything else small in the system, not something I'd want to clean out of somone's heating system.

I doubt the bleach in the crankcase did anything that a quart or 2 of water wouldn't have. In fact now that I'm thinking about it, I seem to recall that significant amounts of water in crancase oil form a mouse or gel like consistency that no longer pumps through the engine. They also never checked it after it cooled off to see if it ran (of course you'd probably have to pull the oil pan to get the bleach/oil mix out).

The penny for parctical purposes on an engine with a lot of milage could have destroyed it. It clearly did something to a valve since it had a nasty valve knock once they got the penny in there. That meant you'd need to rebuild that head. The increased vacuum and pressure of the new head would quickly destroy the old worn rings in the engine. Basically you need to rebuild the engine when the top end wears out in most cases.

I would much rather have seen them destroy an escort or a k-car than a 50's cadillac.

Matt