While replacing my radiator, I noticed the lower hose pipe was touching the crossmember, right where the hose clamp sits. Is this normal? I looked at the rubber bushings that the rad sits on and it doesn’t look like they would lose any “spring” to them, since the rad is not heavy.
You can see in the attached pic where the clamp used to be is where I saw it touching.
And yes my rad was bad. I don’t know how the car never over heated. But now I can clean everything out and clean the engine block properly. Make it shine.
pretty strange. if the rubber bushing that it sits in is installed correctly then maybe the tab itself is bent and bending up a little will fix this…
i’ve never seen a radiator that bad before btw…
I think the lower radiator hose should be the least of your concern!
I’ve had a new rad in the box since last summer. Luckily I only drive the car a couple times a year and haven’t driven it yet this summer except around the block. It should take me a few weeks to clean out the whole area (clean, sandblast and paint any rusted parts, clean engine block…before putting in the new rad. I’ll see then if it is still touching. If so I’ll likely shim it a bit with some rubber washers just enough so it doesn’t rub.
The rad crumbles as I move it.
yeah that shouldnt touch there, but then again i dont think there should be a hole in your radiator like that…
*** i also believe on each side of the radiator there are two rubber stoppers/bushings whateveryoumaycallthem, that these two little tiny posts on the bottom of your rad go into, that helps raise the radiator and be properly supported.
I have the rubber supports and they look ok. That’s the odd thing. When I put it back together I’ll see if it’s the rad that is sitting low or my cross-memeber is high (something bent?).
could be a possibility, i also cant see but does your radiator have that bottom black piece that covers the whole length of the bottom, in a few minutes ill go check outside and try to see if maybe theres something you are missing
The only thing that was there was the rad itself and the two round rubber supports. I’ll check the rad tonight to see if I missed something stuck to the bottom of it.
Here is a pick of the full rad as-is, I don’t see anything at the bottom in the pic.
Just got under my car, heres my clearance as you can see.
my guess is without the rubber pieces that go into the support might be missing, or not properly lining up, causing your radiator to sit lower.
Thanks for the pics. Now I know how much clearance is expected. It looks like a good 3/4". I’ll probably add rubber washers to the rubber bumpers that are already there.
