As you might know im doing up my dad's XW Fairmont, and have discovered that the radiator is cactus, after taking it to a radiator repair place to get it chemically flushed. They also discovered that the radiator was 80% blocked, which would explain why the water was not flowing freely, hence the car overheating after 10 mins.

Turns out I need the cores replaced, I was quoted $420 to get them done.
It is a 4 Core XY GTHO Radiator.

It seems pretty overpriced to me, as when mydad bought the radiator he got it for $280 with a full re-core, this was only 5 years ago. Does anyone know of any decent places in Melbourne to get the radiator's core replaced, which is not going to rip me off.

Thanks in advance

this seems about right for the 351 style radiator.

phone around some more places, but i think you will find this price is about the norm.

i paid $200 just for the 4core no tanks but i put the tanks on myself , and i knew kees weel ,kj radiators, pritty well , heat the solder up on the tanks with an oxy torch , i used an all in one small gas cylinder and torch head,when you see the solder start to shine wire brush the solder off as you heat tanks it will come off fairly eazy get a bit of wire to push threw the inside of the cooling fins to dislodge the larger particals ive seen the radiator shops do this.

Thanks alot for the replys guys this puts my mind at ease a bit more.

If anyone is interested there is another topic on the XW project -----> here

I'd go to aussie desert coolers on murray road preston. they specialise in high performance radiators.. I wouldnt use a KJ core, i dont care how cheap it was!!

my old man taught me to do this, so long as the core isn't stuffed, ie rotted away, you can rip the top and bottom tanks off, use and old dipstick to push out the crap and then refit the tanks, but we use a oxy/acetaline gear, I reckon even a butane torch would do.

damn sight cheaper than paying someone to do it

If only I posted on here a few days ago I could have saved myself 80$

cheers

Took the radiator in to get flushed and repaired.

They said all the cores need to be completely replaced.

Cost me $20 instead of $80 because they stuffed me around alot and didn't call me back and let me know of a price.

So I re-fit the radiator, fill the radiator with water (seemed to fit alot more water than prior to the chemical flush) and run the car for about 10 mins then revved the s**t out of it, 15 mins later the car is still sitting on about 120degrees...

Conclusion: Don't always believe what someone tells you! The radiator appears to have NO LEAKS at all and it running nice and cool. I could even rest my hand on the radiator without it burning like hell.