Its been a month now since I bought my Maverick (still haven't named her). She's still running hot though. First, I tried adding a thermostat. There wasn't even one in there to replace. That seemed to help at idle. I checked back a few days later and my radiator was really low on water. So, I asked around and found out that Autozone will loan you a tool. I borrowed a radiator pressure test kit. I had leaks around both freeze plugs. I was all geared up to replace them. I jacked up the car and took the starter off. That's when I noticed that the bolt on the freeze plugs was only hand tight. I could literally turn it with my fingers. So, I figured what the hell, sometimes you get lucky. I tightened them both down and pressure tested again. No problems. So I fixed 2 problems, a missing thermostat, and nasty freeze plug leaks. It still runs hot. I noticed a lot of rust looking stuff floating around in the radiator. So I think the next step may be having the radiator checked out. I called the radiator repair shop and asked questions. They said if I would bring it in they would "rod it out" for $50 if it looked solid. They said they would pressure test it and run some other tests before rodding it out to make sure that's the problem. Has anyone had success with this "rodding out" before? My car is also missing the fan shroud. I've asked around on these forums and the dixiemaverick site. It seems those buggers are not easy to come by. At least not for under $100. I should be able to upgrade to an electric fan for that price. I'll start another thread about electric fans and which ones work best on a maverick.
Hey whats up?... I hope your radiator is solid as they say. I had to buy a new one, price isnt too bad for a new one in my opinion. Of course its been a year or so since I purchased mine and havent run it yet lol. There are several different electric fan mods you can do i'm sure. Sounds like youl prevail on this one...good luck
Rodding out works fairly well. We do our own now. If you can solder a radiator, pop the top, take an old tranny dipstick, cut off the crooked part, straighten it out as well as you can. Should be a good fit. Run water through the bottom radiator hose outlet (need to fabricate a hose and link to the water hose) and get to work. Usually takes about an hour, and last time I did one it was cold outside, so I recommend doing it during the summer. Sucks to do this kind of thing and have your hands go numb and shoes get soaked.
Darn radiator shop took a look at it yesterday. They said they would do it but couldn't guarantee that it would work when I got it back. They showed me some "high pressure" leaks at the end of each tube. They said when they heat it up to take the tank off, that those spots could become a real problem. I hate it when the repair shop refuses my business! It always means its going to be more expensive...
Oh yeah. And if he would have done the work and broke my radiator at the same time, he'd still want his money... It is nice to deal with an honest repair shop.
I've done'em before, its not easy to solder rotten, it aint easy to weld rust, and its really hard to polish a turd. At least he told you up front. The local guys were too cautious, they told me my truck radiator wasn't worth fixing as it leaked down the side of the cap. The solder had cracked, quick fix and would have to be done anyway after rodding it out. They closed shop about two weeks later, the son didn't want to run the father's business. Wish he would have told me that rather than come up with some BS after barely glancing at my radiator.
