Radiator coolant filter?

[Yroundrdn]

Just getting to know the new toy and found the radiator was clogged, thus overheating a bit on hillls. Fortunately it never got too hot, just boiled over at the top of some hills. I looked and sure enough, clogged up.

I ordered a 2 row aluminum off Amazon that is sold by Shepherd and comes with a life time warranty for $129. Before I install it, I have a question.

In the jeep world the motors collect a lot of crap and will clog a new radiator in a few months. Common sense would tell me there is junk in the motor with this one too but then again thought I would check to see if any of you have run into that problem. If so, did has anyone gone with a filter in the hose that worked well for you?

My hope is the 2 core will be less prone to clogging on the older motor, (160k miles), but still concerned I may need a filter.

 

[flyinhawaiian01]

You shoudn't need a filter at all, the system is sealed, and if its working properly there should never be anything in the system except water and antifreeze.

If you see stuff floating around in there, its from a blown head gasket! Check the cap, if there's a bunch of stuff on the cap that looks like sludge, you need to do a compression test on the engine!

If there's just a slight amount of oil sludge on the cap (like a couple of specs here and there), you either had a blown head gasket at one time and whoever owned it before did not flush the system out completely, or you have a head gasket that's already headin' south on ya!

I'd do a compression test on all cylinders first, and if that passes with no issues, then I'd go ahead and do a full radiator system flush. Make sure when you do this to put the heater on full heat, or you will introduce all the crap that's in the heater core in the vehicle to the radiator system the fiirst time you put it to hot!

Once its flushed, pull the old radiator out, put the new on in, then put fresh antifreeze into the new radiator. I know some may disagree here, but run the Toyota Red antifreeze! I've blown head gaskets with Dexcool (orange stuff) due to electrolysis between the head and block! I've also had issues with Water Wetter (from Redline) doing the same thing, and the standard green antifreeze isn't much better. I have never had an issue with Toyota Red antifreeze, and since you're doing everything right, might as well go with good, quality stuff for a couple bucks more, right?

You may also wanna replace the thermostat while you're doing this, just to make sure its working correctly. They're cheap and easy to replace!

And never, EVER, run straight water in your system! That will turn to rust in a matter of days! If that's what you are seeing in your radiator (brown, muddy-looking crap), someone did not put antifreeze into the system and things are rusty! You will DEFINITELY need to flush the system (perhaps 2 or 3 times) to get it cleaned out!

 

[Yroundrdn]

Thanks for the advice. Head gasket is fine the p/o had water in there thus the mess. I will make a way to flush without the radiator so I'm not jus circulating crap. Good point on the heater core, I hadn't thought about that.

 

[fourwd1]

If it's dirty add some radiator cleaner before you remove the radiator.
Then flush it several times.

 

[Yroundrdn]

Well forget the Aluminum radiator from Shepherd. I wasn't impressed with the quality but the bigger issue is they sent the one for the 2X4 even after me calling 2 reps to insure I had the right one. Arrrggg! So there was no way I was going to wait another week so off to ORileys and now she runs perfectly with a $125 plastic top but it does have a lifetime warranty so should be fine.