Repairing heat exchanger

[beerwolf]

Hi guys, have a tiny hole on top of the tunnel of my '07 summit. Has anybody used jb weld or something similar to repair? I don't have a welder that will do aluminum.
Do I need to drain all coolant out first?

 

[ippielb]

Take the sled to someone with a tig welder, they should be able to fix it for $10. Just make sure you disconnect your ECU before welding. Why risk a JB weld on such a crucial part. Your coolant system gets pressured 10+ psi when hot. Lose that pressure and you instantly boil over and air pockets form on the cylinder walls and hot spots happen and boom goes the dynamite. Then you gotta redo your motor and fix the heat exchanger again. Lol

 

[beerwolf]

Take the sled to someone with a tig welder, they should be able to fix it for $10. Just make sure you disconnect your ECU before welding. Why risk a JB weld on such a crucial part. Your coolant system gets pressured 10+ psi when hot. Lose that pressure and you instantly boil over and air pockets form on the cylinder walls and hot spots happen and boom goes the dynamite. Then you gotta redo your motor and fix the heat exchanger again. Lol

Thanks for the advice ippielb, I'm not much of a mechanic where would I disconnect the ecu?

 

[Bnorth]

Thanks for the advice ippielb, I'm not much of a mechanic where would I disconnect the ecu?

Unless it's been relocated it's under the headlight. If relocated it's near the oil resevoir.

 

[beerwolf]

Is the cooler one piece in the center of the tunnel? If I were to remove it the tunnel would be open where exchanger was?

 

[ippielb]

As far as i know yes, if the cooler is riveted on you can take it off by drilling out the rivets, then there will be a hole in the tunnel where the heat exchanger was. Best to take a better look at your sled and see which way you think would be best to repair it. I still think just taking it to a welder the whole sled, leave the cooler on, then get him to weld it. 5 minutes tops for the welder to weld it up, just needs to switch the tip on his tig torch and grab the aluminum fill rod lol. No way i'd try to use jb weld.

 

[rsaint]

Is it a XRS had to repair rear cooler also drilled rivits out and took it to a welder to get repaired hairline crack.

 

[sled_wrangler]

I did this on my 04 cat …. the best thing to do is take the cooler right off the sled or at the very least remove the tunnel so they can get right at the cooler … If you around edmonton area call Gee Gee racing out in leduc and see if they can do it … also you will need to make sure there is no coolant in it cause it will screw the weld ….. DO NOT JB WELD !!!!!!!

 

[beerwolf]

Thanks everyone for the help. I got it welded up and hopefully it holds. Funny thing though when I was idling machine to check for leakage it just died a couple times but would start right up again. Never had this happen before ('07 sdi 600) Would it shut off if coolant was a bit low? Do I need to bleed the system?

 

[ippielb]

If you get an air pocket it could air lock yes. so ultimately Yes I would for sure burp it. Leave coolant cap on first notch, warm up the sled until the thermostat opens. Get the front end as high as you can when it's warm. Let it run make sure it doesn't overheat. Then lift the rear as high ad you can. Then then back to front and then to the back.