Author Topic: Cracked radiator  (Read 13094 times)

Gerald Farris

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Re: Cracked radiator
« Reply #30 on: March 08, 2019, 11:44:09 PM »
Greg,
The plastic radiator surge tank on your coach is off of a Ford medium duty truck, and it's high failure rate has been addressed many times here on the forum. The only way that I have found to make one last more than a few years is to replace the original 13 PSI radiator cap with a 7 PSI cap, and I would recommend that you do that if you find a plastic tank as a replacement. However, I think that Ford has discontinued the plastic tank, so you may need to replace it with one of the metal tanks that are available from several sources.

Gerald   

Fred Cook

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Re: Cracked radiator
« Reply #31 on: March 09, 2019, 12:51:22 PM »
Greg,
The plastic radiator surge tank on your coach is off of a Ford medium duty truck, and it's high failure rate has been addressed many times here on the forum. The only way that I have found to make one last more than a few years is to replace the original 13 PSI radiator cap with a 7 PSI cap, and I would recommend that you do that if you find a plastic tank as a replacement. However, I think that Ford has discontinued the plastic tank, so you may need to replace it with one of the metal tanks that are available from several sources.

Gerald   

Beaver Coach Sales in Oregon sells the metal tanks for about $400. I bought one and it is solid and.... it should last forever.
Fred & Cindy
2002 Beaver Patriot Thunder 455, C12 CAT
Towing 2019 Chevy Equinox, AWD Diesel
South Central Missouri, US Army Retired

Greg Kamper

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Re: Cracked radiator
« Reply #32 on: March 09, 2019, 03:34:22 PM »
Thanks Gerald, Fred, I called BCS and they have them in stock. I will order one when I get home. Hopefully some J-B weld and the emergency tape will get me home! :D I will check the cap too. Even at 55 mph going up the grapevine the temp never got over 186.

Gerald Farris

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Re: Cracked radiator
« Reply #33 on: March 09, 2019, 06:31:12 PM »
Greg,
The C 12 coaches normally run cool, that is the reason that I started running a 7 PSI radiator cap long before the metal tanks became available and the only replacement was another Ford plastic tank. I have never had a surge tank failure with a 7 PSI cap since I started running one 10 or 12 years ago, and because neither of the coaches that I have owned in that time ever reach a temperature to boil over even without a cap, I do not see a need for the 13PSI cap.

Gerald   

Bill Borden

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Re: Cracked radiator
« Reply #34 on: March 09, 2019, 11:12:50 PM »
The Metal surge tank is made for BCS by Macs Radiator shop in Oregon.

The price is lower than BCS.


http://macsradiatorshop.com/surge-overflow-tanks/ford-truck-coolant-surge-tank/ford-truck-expansion-tank.html
Regards,

Bill Borden
2000 Patriot Thunder
C-12 425 hp 
Cool, California
The following users thanked this post: Joel Ashley

Greg Kamper

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Re: Cracked radiator
« Reply #35 on: March 14, 2019, 10:36:55 PM »
Thanks Bill, I should have looked at this post again when I got home. Oh well, it was only $30.00 more... At least it's here for others in the future.

Greg Kamper

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Re: Cracked radiator
« Reply #36 on: March 24, 2019, 08:29:44 PM »
The metal surge tank is in. Pretty easy switch, maybe 30 minutes to swap it out. The longest time was spent pouring in the antifreeze.