What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

Leaking/smoking radiator

TJ1978

TJ1978

I have MANY questions
 Premium
GMOTM Winner
Joined
Oct 27, 2019
Posts
5,816
Reaction score
7,377
Location
East Valley, Arizona
Ha! Case in point why ive been MIA. I can't afford this stuff hahahahaha. Might be time to sell either thr blazer or the c10.

Got the time to finally start these trucks up. 69' c10 fine... Blazer was a bit sluggish after sleeping for 8-9 months. Anyway Blazer fired up.

I was getting some smoke at both header collectors,it seems internal but..

Then I was getting smoke from the passenger side radiator fan. This made me paranoid so I shut the truck off and disconnected the battery. I didn't see any fire or burning wire smells. I could smell coolant. Not sure why but I found a leak, bottom passenger side.

this champion radiator is about 5 years old well 5 years outside in Arizona old. And has about 300-400 miles on it maybe more.

I know people don't like these radiators for this reason.

Solution, radiators had to come out. drain it, take fans off put new radiator in put fans back on?

Also with my iPhone 15 every pic I try to upload the site says "file too big"

IMG_1600.jpeg

IMG_1603.jpeg

IMG_1601.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Good to see you back! :thumb:

That's all aftermarket / custom stuff so "go fish". I would think those screws need to come out but I'd remove that factory black top plate so you can see what's going on with the screws, you're going to pull the radiator anyway.

Hopefully, it'll be something a local shop can fix for a fraction of the cost of a replacement radiator.
 
Got a couple pics. The weld down there looks corroded to shit. Lifted the radiator and it's sitting in coolant down there. The radiator is full though.
Not sure why one fan was smoking they didn't even kick on until the truck hits 180ish degrees
IMG_1608.jpeg

IMG_1606.jpeg

IMG_1609.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Should I leave the fans open like this and start it up again to see if I can tell where that smoke was coming from? If it is the fans smoking wouldn't it smell like burning plastic or wires?

I see some discoloration on these fins back here where the smoke was coming from, maybe unrelated

IMG_1613.jpeg

IMG_1616.jpeg

IMG_1615.jpeg

IMG_1614.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Try to clean dry everything as best as you can, an then pressurize the system, hopefully this will let you know we're the coolant leak is coming from.
As for the fans smoking go over all the connections, might be a loose terminal
Or a rodent got to all the tasty wires being sat for so long.
Hopefully something quick and easy without throwing any Mula at it
 
MEMO43 said:
Try to clean dry everything as best as you can, an then pressurize the system, hopefully this will let you know we're the coolant leak is coming from.
As for the fans smoking go over all the connections, might be a loose terminal
Or a rodent got to all the tasty wires being sat for so long.
Hopefully something quick and easy without throwing any Mula at it
Click to expand...
The wires all look fine on the fans. Now that everything is open and I can see behind the fans and the radiator. I think I'll start it up again and see if anything reveals itself.

Only one fan had smoke which appears to be coming from it and it didn't smell like plastic or wires melting. The fans weren't even on, they weren't moving yet the truck wasn't hot enough.

I'll start it up again later today.

Maybe the video will play?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1597.mov
    10 MB
Last edited:
The video makes it seem like the fan motor is locked up,
Can you spin the blades freely at all?
 
MEMO43 said:
The video makes it seem like the fan motor is locked up,
Can you spin the blades freely at all?
Click to expand...
Wouldn't both be smoking? Also the truck wasn't hot enough yet for them to kick on, well I don't think it was hahahah.

When I get home I'll see if I can manually spin the fans, to rule that out.
 
Depends on how they are wired to work.
When i had my electric fans, they would come on at set temps or if I used the override switch.
How do you have them set to turn on?
Truck doesn't have to be hot if there's a short in the the relay or system being used to trigger them.
Definitely check to see if the fans will spin freely, will help trouble shoot if it's the fan motor or something else that triggers them when to come on
 
Good that they manually
Have you tried starting the truck again, or better yet just check the fans with the ignition on but the engine not running,
See if that will trigger the same effect
 
Got home started the truck. Smoking again. I don't see any fluid coming from either side of the radiator but the smoke has that old coolant smell. Truck was at about 185ish when the fans normally kick on and that seems to be when the smoke started. I'm not sure if it's related or not yet.

How do I disconnect the fans? I want to see if the truck can get up to roughly that same temp and smoke or not.

If I disconnect the fans and it starts smoking, ill know if it's the fans or if the radiator has soured and is burning coolant.

IMG_1620.jpeg
 
B
MEMO43 said:
Good that they manually
Have you tried starting the truck again, or better yet just check the fans with the ignition on but the engine not running,
See if that will trigger the same effect
Click to expand...
By having electricity alone running through the fans? I can't turn them on manually.

Temp on dash says 185 and fans should kick on even with the truck not running. They didn't kick on or smoke. Maybe it's not hot enough. I'm going to run it some more so it gets hot and see what happens

Bad thermostat?
Bad water pump?
Clogged radiator?
Coolant level is fin
 
Last edited:
Bad thermostat will prevent it from opening an over heat the engine, you can confirm if it's working with an IR temp gun. Check what the temp on the IR says vs what the dash says.
Or if it's stuck open it will not allow the engine to get up yo operation temps.
Bad water pump
If you open the rad cap and allow the engine to run you can observe the flow of coolant flow. (Do this with the engine coolant first, that way you don't boil out an burn yourself)
Clogged radiator you can check this by opening up the drain petcock an see if you get a constant stream of coolant once it's open.

All of these are symptoms of a cooling system either allow your rig to overheat.
But will have nothing to do with the electric fans, since this is an add on.

Have you tried running the truck an letting it get back up to temp, with out the fans running ie remove the power source so that they don't come on.
 
@MEMO43
I posted a pic of the fans power source above. I don't know how to unplug that so the fans have no power.
 
Can you trace the wires back to either the battery or a fuse. Maybe the relays.
I can see the wires coming from the individual fan motors but not were they run too
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom