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Life of Blackstone radiator (with OEM metal inserts in inlet & outlet)? 200 1979

posted by  sutherml on  Thu Mar 21 05:01 CST 2013
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last visit: Sat Jun 29 19:15 CST 2013
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The forums consider Blackstone to be the best aluminium and plastic radiator, but some posters put life expectancy of 10 years and others as 20 years. Not stated if the 10 year life is for those without metal tube inserts in the neck, since early Blackstones did not have such metal inserts??

My Blackstone is 13 years old so don't want to tempt fate, especially when holidaying on isolated gravel roads in desert areas, but won't blow A$335 on new OEM radiator unless advised to replace radiator.

The forums mention the necks suddenly snapping off with catastrophic coolant loss.

Nevertheless the (fibre reinforced?) plastic must be tough as I found a crushed Blackstone in the junkyard and to test toughness I belted the plastic tank hard several times with a hammer - no effect. I then used a 1cm wide screwdriver blade & hammer - took about 6 blows to penetrate plastic.








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    Life of Blackstone radiator (with OEM metal inserts in inlet & outlet)? 200 1979

    posted by  pageda on  Thu Mar 21 15:09 CST 2013
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    last visit: Fri Oct 24 13:18 CST 2014
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    I have never had a catastrophic failure with a plastic radiator. A friend of mine just had one go, the neck cracked and leaked enough to know he was loosing fluid.

    20+ years is common for the Blackstone. I would look for a recent replacement at the bone yard and keep it on hand.
    Dan








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    Life of Blackstone radiator (with OEM metal inserts in inlet & outlet)? 200 1979

    posted by  42 on  Thu Mar 21 14:40 CST 2013
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    The original Blackstone radiator in my 1990 240 was still water-tight at 23 years, but the temp gauge was starting to climb past its usual point with the AC on in traffic or on long hills. I replaced it with a Nissens this year.








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    Life of Blackstone radiator (with OEM metal inserts in inlet & outlet)? 200 1979

    posted by  Onkel Udo II on  Thu Mar 21 05:19 CST 2013
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    last visit: Fri Oct 24 08:50 CST 2014
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    Three things to consider:

    The necks rarely snaps suddenly unless they have had pressure put on them...like someone lying across them to do maintenance work in the engine bay.

    The reinforced plastic fails due to heating and cooling cycles making the plastic brittle over time...If you drive you car once and it only goes through one heating and one cooling cycle a day, you radiator will likely last longer than a pizza delivery guy's radiator.

    If you have an automatic, the in-radiator tranny cooler failing seems to be the only surefire way to kill the bulletproof AW7X transmission. Why tempt fate when a decent Nissens radiator is cheap insurance (around here $130-200 delivered)?







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