[dagnabbitt]

It has been awhile: the diesel does not like winter much, so I have not been driving it. But when the block heater is plugged in it will start up fine, so I decided to do that one day a couple months back. It was about-20F so I left it running and I went inside to let it get nice and warm. Once in the shop I realized that I did not turn on the electric fans. No reason to worry, I thought: it is damn cold out and that engine runs cool anyway.

Big mistake. I looked out the window not too much later and saw that steam was coming out of the hood. When I got to the truck the temp gauge was pegged and the top of the rad was cracked. I turned on the fans, pulled the cap off and added coolant to get the temp back down. Against all odds it does not seem like I damaged the engine: it runs fine... I think I got to it in time.

The rad, though, was another matter. I saw that it had failed at the top, near the upper rad hose. Looking closer it seems like it was an old farmer repair that had given way. It's a copper four core rad and I have no reason to believe that it is not original to the truck.

I pulled it and took it to the one remaining rad shop in my city to have it refurbished. The shop in question mostly works on rads for semis and Caterpillars so they need to be cajoled to do little jobs for me.

To those who may be wondering: the cost to repair it was roughly 95% of the cost to purchase a new aluminum one. In most cases that kind of equation would lead me to choose to simply replace the part altogether. But by fixing the old one I have an original copper rad that I know will fit in my truck: and I do not have to deal with shipping, damage in transit, or fighting with warranty if something is wrong with it. Being in Canada makes those issues important considerations. If there are any problems at all I just take it back out and bring it back to Kelly at the rad shop, I don't have to put it on a slow boat to China.

So, lesson learned. Hope to install this weekend.