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RV-12 Radiator Leak

John@JohnKean.com

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Member
Radiator is leaking one drop a day from the lower hose flange. There is a pin hole in the weld which secures the lower hose flange to the radiator housing. Any recommendations to repair the leak. The plane is 2 years old with only 45 hours.
 
Radiator repair

I've been in the radiator repair business for 30 years. If it is aluminum I would use low temp aluminum rod with appropriate flux. I would not recommend attempting this yourself unless you are good at aluminum welding. Any good radiator repair shop should be able to do the job for you.
 
I have repaired pin holes in vehicles just fine with J B Weld. Curt knows his stuff so his recommendation is probably a good one. Me? This is an airplane, and pinholes have a tendency to get larger. I would have it welded and pressure tested. You don't want to have to worry about cooking your cylinder heads when you least expect it.
Dick Seiders
 
Radiator Leak Solution

Thank for everyone's input. We have removed the radiator and have sent it out to a local shop to be re-welded. Dick, your right - it's only going to get worse. I'll heed Robert's advice and make the repair permanent.
 
Just an "addition" to this thread ... same scenario .... tiny leak from the bottom weld. Pinhole leak fixed by a local radiator shop. He said the paint hid it well. Might send a note to vans and let them know about it. Not sure how many other out there might have this issue. 330 hours on the Hobbs / flying since 2012
 
If it was me I would add stop leak and see if it sops. Before you guys start yelling "Heretic" read "Nautilus 90 North". It stopped a nuclear leak!
 
Well, now I have a slight leak on the upper radiator hose connection. I tightened the hose clamp, but given that it had not leaked in 5 years and 540 hours I'm thinking I may have a hair line crack on the weld between the radiator outlet nozzle and the radiator. I plan to fly a few hours while monitoring the overflow bottle cold level and connection to see if tightening the hose clamp worked. If not, I'll do a dye penetrant test of the weld at annual in a couple of months and decide whether I have to go beyond the Stop Leak option.
 
Stop-Leak in your aircraft engine, you can't be serious. I wouldn't use this stuff in my 15 year old car unless it was an emergency.

It's easier to grab a big mac, prepared in 20 seconds, than to go home and cook a meal... the long term effects can come back to haunt you.
 
Well, for once Murphy took pity on me. Looks like my leak stopped after tightening the hose clamp. Regarding my Stop Leak comments I'd like to clarify that I regard it as a temporary fix to get to annual if the defect morphology was not a threat to structural integrity. In plain English I would not use it to address a circumferential crack on a radiator nozzle, but I would use it to stop a radiator tube pinhole leak until replacement at annual.
 
RFSchaller said:
Well, for once Murphy took pity on me. Looks like my leak stopped after tightening the hose clamp. Regarding my Stop Leak comments I'd like to clarify that I regard it as a temporary fix to get to annual if the defect morphology was not a threat to structural integrity. In plain English I would not use it to address a circumferential crack on a radiator nozzle, but I would use it to stop a radiator tube pinhole leak until replacement at annual.
Click to expand...

Bob, you might want to investigate, and invest in, some constant force hose clamps. The elastomers used in hoses ( many esp silicone) will creep and loose contact pressure with a normal hose clamp. There are some threads here on VAF that address this. The clamps are a little more expensive, but outstanding for retaining their load under thermal cycling and time. This is an old issue.

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Dale, the radiator hoses are Vans scope of supply, not ROTAX, so they are screw type as opposed to the ROTAX clamps on the 5/8" hoses ( yeah, purists, I know they are metric, but 5/8" is close enough for us Yanks!).
 
Ah -- my mistake. You did specifically say it was the RADIATOR hose clamp, not a coolant hose clamp. Silly me. Carry on. :)
 
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