ecrusty's coolant loss saga

[ecrusty]

At last I have found the cause of the coolant loss in my GU 3.0 TD that I was whinging about in my intro and I thought I would fill you all in.
After crawling over, in, through, around and under the engine bay for a couple of hours I have found a pin hole in the radiator, behind the edge of the radiator shroud. The edge of the inner shroud has been rubbing on the core and eventually made a tiny hole. When cool the pressure of the shroud sitting over the hole was enough for it not to leak but when up to operating temp and pressurised it would leak out over a couple of days of driving.
Now a question for you all. The shroud seems to be quite loose and rattles around a bit and I am concerned that the edge of the shroud can sit against the core. Is there supposed to be some sort of soft foam packing between them like that around the front of the radiator?

[Bigrig]

I'd say (if the radiator is in decent enough nick other than the hole), get the hole fixed up if possible, and get the radiator ripped out and reseated properly ... it shouldn't be moving at all really so more than likely the mounts need looking into ... other than that - time for a new radiator and the mob you use should seat it properly anyway ... my old radiator had the wobbles from the two top mounting points, but all good now I have the new one ...

[ecrusty]

Thanks for the reply Bigrig.
I have a new radiator going in on Tuesday. I thought this was a better option after reading about the problems with overheating on this forum.
The radiator isn't moving at all, it is the fan shroud that is moving around and rubbing on it. That is why I was wondering if there was supposed to be foam between the radiator and shroud to isolate them.

[YNOT]

The shroud on mine is bolted to the radiator and is supposed to move with the radiator. If yours is moving and rubbing on the radiator then you need to inspect all the shroud mounts to make sure all the bolts are in and tight, the shroud is not broken etc. You may need to trim the shroud or pack it out with washers to give it clearence. Foam packing is an option, what ever works in your case.

Tony

[ecrusty]

Thanks, Tony. Mine is the same, all mounts/bolts tight. I considered trimming the offending item but thought that it really shouldn't be rubbing on the radiator in the first place. That is why I thought I would ask about the foam. I am thinking about going down to my local Nissan dealer tomorrow afternoon to have a quick look at what a new one has. I don't really want to pack it out with washers as this will allow air to be drawn in around the back of the radiator instead of through it. The soft foam packing would have gone some way to surpressing this.