I used a stop leak product from Barr or Bardahl - its the common primary
stop leak stuff sold at automotive stores. A brown liquid with what looked
like feed pellets (cylindrical chunks). The problem was some leakage on the
top seam of my Toyota Landcruiser radiator, nothing serious. Eventually
those little leaks opened up into a split seam that I finally had fixed
twice over the past 15 or so years at two different radiator shops.
The stuff worked very well. It stopped the leaks even when the seam started
splitting on the top of the radiator. But I know the stop leak effect
eventually wore off, usually after adding enough coolant at a later time
that the stop leak concentration became too dilute. Probably not a problem
with a MG - my Landcruiser did a lot of exploration in the rugged Utah
desert where it sometimes had to creep along at 2-4mph for long stretches
of rough road in fairly hot weather (at least the top comes off!!) so
eventually I had some gradual coolant loss. [great 4 wheel exploration
where a long day and plenty of gas got you maybe 60-100 miles into real
remote country]
One problem I noticed is that it seemed to run a bit hotter than normal.
The temperature gauge is not calibrated such that I can tell the real
temperature in degrees but I'm going to guess that the coolant seemed to
run maybe 10-15 degrees F hotter under high temp conditions which I thought
might have been related to the stop leak stuff maybe coating some of the
coolant surfaces and reducing the heat transfer efficiency (just a theory).
But it looks like the stop leak material flushes out of the system easily
enough.
I had the radiator repaired again about two or three years ago and no
problems. So I'd still recommend the stop leak as a quick fix for seepage
problems.
David
67 BGT
72 B
74 Toyota Landcruiser FJ40
At 05:02 PM 6/29/2002 -0600, james wrote:
>Does anyone have any experience with products that are intended to seal small
>coolant leaks? I have a very small leak on the sealing surface of the front
>cover of the V8. It is caused by a defect in the sealing surface and does not
>warrant pulling the thing apart and replacing it, but I would like to seal it
>for cleanliness' sake.
>
>TIA
>james
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