Radiator replacement

[SteveC]

My radiator blew on me yesterday. '88 Volvo 740. I took the old one out and unhooked these two hard lines going toward the auto tranns. I'm going to the salvage yard to match up a new one. Question. Should I be concerned when I hook up the tranny lines to the radiator?( if thats what they are) . Some fluid leaked outwhen I removed them, but it wasnt the traditional red stuff.......
I installed a new thermostat and will use all new hoses. What about air in the system? how can I eliminate that?
Any advice would be mucho appreciated!! I need my car to get up to the NS classic this sunday!
Steve Cobble

[SteveC]

As you may have detected, I'm not much of a car mechanic.....but this seems fairly easy......just dont want to get too much over my head ;D

[felixatvtc]

"Should I be concerned when I hook up the tranny lines to the radiator?( if thats what they are) . Some fluid leaked outwhen I removed them, but it wasnt the traditional red stuff....."

They could be one of two things. Power steering lines, or Tranny cooling lines. Either way it will NOT destroy the system to have leaked out a tiny bit of fluid. If you are really worried, just check the fluid levels in both mentioned above.

"I installed a new thermostat and will use all new hoses. What about air in the system? how can I eliminate that?"

Air in the coolent system isn't the best thing last time i checked. But when i did my timing belt in my 85 supra last summer i pulled the radiator out. When I put it back in, topped off the fluid and never really worried about air in the system as long as it had enough fluid in the radiator & overflow resevour. 20k miles later...still going great 8)

[SteveC]

Another thought. I installed the thermostat before geting the (used=60 bucks!)radiator. I think I should have waited til I installed everything else, then do that last, to make sure the engine is full of coolant....otherwise the thermostat won't work right and I'll overheat again...? ..does that make sense? :-\
I guess its been a long time since I've done this......but it will be a heckofalot cheaper than having a volvo tech do it.......

[Dave]

Steve, the order in which you do things should not really matter. The simplest thing I can advise you to do is when you're done with all the work, and you've added all your new coolant, be sure to rinse everything with fresh water, drive the car for a day, and the next morning, check the coolant level in the radiator and overflow, I say morning because you want to check it when the engine is cold. That way, a day of driving will allow plenty of circulation of coolant through the system and typically the engine block and radiator are full, you'll get the rest in the overflow. Anyway, if the radiator is full and you have a bit of coolant in your overflow, you should be fine.
Another thing to look for is leaks, given that you've rinsed everything off with clean water, you should be able to detect and leaks fairly easily if they exist, I've never bought a radiator from a bone yard, so I'm not sure what type of warranty they give you, but given that you're buying all the other parts new, my guess would be to keep an eye on the radiator for a little while. I'm no expert on Volvo's, but many of the radiator problems I've seen occur with the tanks on the sides where they attach to the finned area, that is commonly a weak point where they can crack from normal wear and tear.

[truckboy]

I think you're fine.

Air will work it's way out I think and you can top off the tranny and power steering reserviors. The thermostat is made to open when the coolant in the engine block gets to the right temp so it will work unless there is so little coolant in there that the water pump isn't moving anything. You could always take the thermostat out and fill up the block if you're concerned I guess.

[SteveC]

Thanks guys for all your advice! The car is nowrunning and hasnt blown up yet or even started smoking !!!!
Steve