Industrial truck radiator too many holes!

This is a typical OTR (over the road truck) radiator. It was leaking from the tank gasket which is also not unusual. The first thing we do when a radiator come in the shop is to look it over visually, pressure test it in out test tank to make sure it will survive the next faze of the rebuild process.

Here it is with the tanks off to inspect the gasket tape that's causing the leak. Notice all the bolt holes on the end?

Wow there's doubles! That's not right? Did some other shop sell this person the wrong radiator core and then made it fit anyway? Sure looks that way and this practice is not uncommon. If the shop had a core laying around they needed to get rid of they will pass it off like this. Shame Shame on you!

We will fix the trouble so this won't come back on us, the radiator has a good core so we will solder the extra holes shut before we re-gasket to save the customer the expense of having to buy a new radiator core.

Where the end of the screwdirver is was the point of the leak. It was leaking between the bolt holes. They also ovaled out the holes we will have to fix them to.

Yep you need to be carfule which shop you trust  with your work. This radiator core would cost between $1,600.00 - $1,900.00 to replace their not cheap. We see this more and more as the radiator repair industry slows down and more repairs are becoming complete radiator replacements the radiator repair men are getting scarce. There is no new blood coming into the field. We rely on the older radiator men (like me!) to lead the way but who know what will happen when we retire.
If you have a good radiator repair shop then good for you. If you don't you can always call us and we will be glad to refer you if your not near us.
Need questions answered? Call us anytime. Have a great day! David
http://www.intermountainradiator..com

Starting Fluid is a NO NO!

So I got a call today and there was a mechanic on the other end of the phone asking me if I could fix a charge air cooler that had an incident with some starting fluid.  He went on to say that he was working on a Volvo White ORT and it wasen't starting so he shot in  some starting fluid and the next thing he knew the end of the charge air cooler exploded .... could I fix it?

Well I told him we can fix almost anything but I would need to see what it was before making a decision so he brought in the cooler himself and sure enough the end of the tank was gone! and the cooling tubes were blown up into the tank. This was something that welding alone wouldn't fix we were going to have to install a new core.

So we put the order in for our replacement core and started to cut the old unit apart.

Here we go the new core arrived Fed Ex and that's me tigging it together . This core ended up saving my customer almost half of what a new one from the dealer would have cost. This one wasn't available aftermarket so a core was the only option that we had at our disposal.

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We welded up a new end for thew tank out of some 3/8 flat stock we had laying around the shop. Also there were some cracks that had to be repaired as well this is a mounting boss that needed attention.

And here we have it the finished product tested to 60psi painted and ready to do a cool job for some lucky diesel. 

This is a great way to save money and you get a great cooler too. Most of the time we can save our customers 1/2 of the cost of brand new.
Questions? always glad to help. Give us a call the number is on our web site. David
http://www.intermountainradiator.com

Industrial Charge Air Cooler

When people talk about charge air coolers most would be thinking of the above photo, air to air cooling for a turbo diesel.

But this unit above is the cooler I'm talking about. It fits a piece of fire suppression equipment belonging to the US NAVY on the Coronado Navel Base here ion San Diego. This unit was severely under engineered so we built them one to take its place that would preform better and keep the engine cooler.

This is an air  to water cooler that pumps salt water from the ocean through tube inside the shell where the turbo air is circulated to transfer the heat out to the sea.

Here is the Cummings diesel that powers the fire suppression.

And these are the turbines that pump sea water to outside fire lines that would put any fires out.

The above picture is a comparison of the before and
after, the black cooler is the new one we designed.
Notice the difference in dimensions almost double the size.










The new cooler was also a lot heaver than the old one by about 4 times, the original one man could lift and the replacement too 5 of us to set it in place.

There it is in place and almost ready to fire up. All that's left is to plumb the turbo air to the cooler.
Have questions? give us a call we are always glad to help out. David
http://www.intermountainradiator.com

Your cash taken for a ride

I've been in the automotive repair industry for 32+ years now and I'm starting to see a disturbing trend happening to the general public concerning their cars and their wallets. Some unscrupulous repair shops out there are really trying hard to pad your repair bill even going so far as to create things to charge you for.
And it seems most of the complaints I'm hearing about are canted toward  the larger chain stores like Fire___  or Pep___  you know the kind of stores that have district managers that ask you every time they visit your store if your  "up Or down" I know because I have worked in that environment. Managers expect to see your numbers up and your cost down or there is hell to pay!
This trend is good for me as I'm a small guy and my repair business is based on "Honest Service" no matter what, we don't sell you something you don't need ever. I'm seeing an increase in new customers because of this and I can't help but think there is a lot of people being over charged and they don't know it. It is so bad that a  lady that came in yesterday needed $150.00 worth of air conditioning work pretty easy cut and dried but this other place wanted to sell her... are you ready $1,600.00 worth of repairs!  told her she needed all kinds of stuff she really didn't. I don't know how long this search for the short term buck will last? will big business figure out there is more to life than money? how long will the public stand for this kind of treatment?
I think the economy is pushing every one to be more money savvy and to watch out on spending, I hope this kind of business will change soon.
I feel bad for those out there that just don't know. I'm proud of my trade and think every one should get a fair deal so find a mechanic that you can trust, stay away from the chain stores unless you know someone there and get second opinions before saying its OK to fix my car. Lots of shops will look for free I know I do.
Till next time David
http://www.intermountainradiator.com

Don't try to line a gas tank yourself

This fuel tank is out of an early model show car 1930's-1940's vintage. It looked fantastic from the outside, high gloss black paint, very smooth for an old tank. The complaint was it was clogging up fuel filters so the customer sent it to us to clean out.

This is what we found inside after the tank went through our boil out tank. That is tank liner coming off in sheets plugging up the fuel system. Also the outside was full of bondo (no wonder it looked so good!)

 This is a shot inside the tank itself the brownish white is the liner peeling away from the tanks inner surface (this would not have happened if this was done by a professional and had been cleaned and prepped properly). This is a white variety of tank liner that sells over the counter and that leads me to believe this tank was done by a novice.

This tank has two baffles in it to keep the fuel from sloshing about. That also makes it hard to clean and almost impossible to get liner out of. The choice now with this tank is to build the customer a new one.

We used thick material for this build 12gauge. After the tank has been welded together and pressure tested we lined it to keep the rust out.

And here we have the finished tank ready for install. Please if you are thinking of getting your gas tank cleaned and lined don't try to do it yourself it will cost you money in the long run. We don't line tanks unless we have to and a lot of tanks don't really need lining, only a qualified person who has experience in tank restoration can make that call.

If you have any questions or need help with your fuel system please give us a call we are always glad to help. David
 http://www.intermountainradiator.com

Industrial Gen-Set Recore

This radiator belongs to the Local NAVEL Station here in San Diego. After we picked this radiator up for service and found that the sea air did the worst and rotted the fins and tubes in the core.

Notice how I can stick my finger into the fins of this core. You shouldn't be able to do this. So this means that as long as the tanks and side straps are in good shape we can recore this unit saving our military thousands of dollars on a new radiator.

 This is a before and an after on the radiator tanks and side straps. They get sanded down prepped and a fresh coat of protective paint is applied.

Here is a good before and after on the completed radiator core.

I would guess that this job saved the customer $5,000.00 - $9,000.00 dollars. Maybe we can help you with you heavy duty industrial radiator? Call us or visit our web site. We are always glad to answer questions and help out how ever we can. We are cooling system professionals that have dedicated our lives to our chosen profession, we strive to be of service the best way we know how.
http://www.intermountainradiator.com

Sugar in your gas tank

Ever had someone tell you that you can get back at someone by putting sugar in their fuel tank of there car?
Well it can stop the car from running by plugging up fuel lines but sugar really doesn't dissolve in gasoline.

Here is the poisoned fuel tank. Notice the sugar on the cardboard. Does it look like it dissolved to you? This tank was sent to the shop by one of our customers in a dealership.

Looks like someone was mad at this person they used close to five pounds of sugar, this is what we pulled out and there was more where that came from. After we pulled out as much of the offending substance as we could the next step is to dunk the fuel tank in our hot caustic tank and that cleans the rest of it up.

The fuel sending unit we sent back and instructed the customer to replace it as we couldn't guarantee the cleanliness of the sock filter there on the end or if the fuel pump that is also part of the apparatus would function and pump fuel like it is supposed to.

If this happens to you and you believe that someone sabotaged your fuel tank, don't drive or start the car as this can move the sugar crystals around and will make a bigger mess to clean up. Call your local radiator shop for assistance, or contact us we are always happy to lend a hand. David
http://www.intermountainradiator.com