THE DAYTONA 500

It goes off this Sunday. For years I've hosted a Daytona 500 party, my version of a superbowl party. Fortunately my bro picked it up this year and is hosting, as there's no way I'd have the time to do it this year. Thanks KK! While there is much about NASCAR racing I'd change, no one in power has asked, so I'll skip my laments for now.
-
While I'd prefer to see something like the photo above, I still like the competiveness of today's NASCAR, and the TV coverage is unbelieveable. A multitude of cameras shoot from viewpoints I only used to imagine. Much better than the grainy, long shot from the infield which is all I used to see watching Wide World of Sports. I admit I still get a bit of a rush watching a field of 40+ cars come zooming down the front stretch, bumper to bumper, past the green flag for the start. I hope most of you car enthusiasts feel the same, and I hope you all can spend some fun time with friends this Sunday watching.
-
As a follow-up to the radiator follies, I will tell you right out my budget fix failed miserably. Or failed fantastically, I'm not sure which. Anyway, it didn't work. I bought a new radiator and put it in Thursday morning. Yes it was over $300, but it's brand new. Also, it's physically HUGE, so at least I got a lot of radiator for my money. No wonder the truck would never overheat, even with a cracked radiator; it holds so much water it could never get hot enough. It didn't take long to change it, and I had all the tools required. I would have had it done in about an hour, but a balky lower radiator hose really gave me a fight. I never feel bad about the cost of putting a new radiator in a vehicle. Instead I feel a sense of security, like, at least I never have to worry about this again for as long as I'll own it. I often drive the truck on long trips, towing a trailer, so reliability is a primary concern. Thank goodness that awful smell of hot coolant is gone!
-
photo: Somewhere on the HAMB

Tech; radiator fix, maybe

So I've been driving the big white truck, and it's been going great. It actually has a very comfortable ride. I've been noticing a faint coolant smell from time to time though. Man I hate that smell. That is the worst car smell, in my opinion. Then I found the coolant leaking yesterday. I took the upper radiator hose off at the radiator end and inspected it. It looked ok, and the radiator didn't appear to be leaking, so I put the hose back on and suspected that the hose clamp had just not been on completely.
-
Today I found the radiator leaking again, and a closer inspection in good light revealed that the plastic radiator tank was cracked. Not right at the hose outlet to tank junction like I expected, but right next to that on the tank proper. You see that little curving vertical black line to the right of the hose outlet? That's the crack. I could not get a new radiator same day, so I tried plan B: fix it myself.

I drained the radiator so the coolant level would be below the crack, so it might seal better. I have this siphon pump I use. Get one of these, it's way better than siphoning stuff with your mouth.

I had picked up this pack of epoxy one day at a store for possible future use. I don't remember how long it's been hanging on my garage wall. Today's your day, big guy. I am using the epoxy for 3 reasons: 1. A new radiator costs about $300, and I can't get it today anyway. 2. The coolant system only goes to about 16psi, not a very high pressure. 3. I already have the epoxy.

I sprayed the cracked area with brake cleaner, then sanded it lightly to give it some tooth, again to promote the epoxy adhesion. This is what sanding looks like, in case you somehow could never visualize it. Epoxy. Epoxy. Epoxy, epoxy, epoxy. What an odd word.

After nearly destroying the epoxy pack trying to get the 2 parts out, I finally squeezed some on to this lid and mixed it well with this craft stick. The epoxy had that great chemical smell I remember from when I was kid and my dad would mix up some epoxy for some repair job. Mixing the epoxy up made it look like that nice shiny, pearlescent salt water taffy you can see mixing at the store on the boardwalk.

I applied it liberally to the cracked area, and most of the area around it as well. Mmmm, smells nice. Why did I use so much? Because that's how much I mixed up. Actually, I used the old drag racer's motto: If some is good, more is better, and too much is just right.

-

I'll put the hose on, refill the radiator, and give it a road test tonight. We'll see it it makes it to Newburgh and back, about a 20 mile round trip.