Plastic for cooling sucks.

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pishta

pishta

I know I'm right....
Joined
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Here's a new one. Not your ordinary plastic rad cracking and leaking....no this was a complete blow out of a plastic stat housing on my SC400. WTH? Make these in metal! You can get these in cast AL for $99 AUS.
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Boy just idling waiting for Mom and he hears a pop and steam starts coming out of hood. Shuts it down and calls Dad.....Drove it 1/2 mile home after it cooled and found one at local yard off an LS400. $4.90 new on Rock but 8 days shipping. $49 at Vatozone special order possibly Monday, too late.
 
Ford was plagued with blown plastic intakes on V8 1990's engines.
I bought a Dodge D350 with a blown engine. The owner just had a new plastic/aluminum radiator installed and it failed in the first 100 miles.Top tank split. He was so mad he just drove it till it locked up.
If they could make all plastic engines manufactures would.:mad:
 
Just replaced the pressurized plastic expansion tank on my grandson's BMW.
To remove it from the rad connection it breaks the plastic thermostat housing. Wholesale parts were over $300.
Later that day, I found another old tank and housing in the trunk, from the previous owner, I presume.

Last week I had to replace the oil cooler/filter seals UNDER the intake manifold of my daughter 3.6 Caravan .
Thank you You-tube ! !

Who designs these things ? ?
 
T
inertia said:
Just replaced the pressurized plastic expansion tank on my grandson's BMW.
To remove it from the rad connection it breaks the plastic thermostat housing. Wholesale parts were over $300.
Later that day, I found another old tank and housing in the trunk, from the previous owner, I presume.

Last week I had to replace the oil cooler/filter seals UNDER the intake manifold of my daughter 3.6 Caravan .
Thank you You-tube ! !

Who designs these things ? ?
Click to expand...


The smarter the engineers think they are the more complicated they make things .
 
Anyone having to replace this oil cooler /filter housing on a 3.6, USE an OEM (Chrysler part)! I found real nice aluminum units (Chinese) on Ebay. I had it off 3 times, replacing seals before someone told me to use the OEM part. Problem solved. Them S.O.B's suck replacing, even I got a lot faster at it the last time. Beware!
inertia said:
Just replaced the pressurized plastic expansion tank on my grandson's BMW.
To remove it from the rad connection it breaks the plastic thermostat housing. Wholesale parts were over $300.
Later that day, I found another old tank and housing in the trunk, from the previous owner, I presume.

Last week I had to replace the oil cooler/filter seals UNDER the intake manifold of my daughter 3.6 Caravan .
Thank you You-tube ! !

Who designs these things ? ?
Click to expand...
 
inertia said:
Who designs these things
Click to expand...
People right out of college who have never worked on a car in their lives

AND


they follow the form over function philosophy (It's so pretty!)

All automotive engineers should have to work as mechanics for 5 years before they touch a CAD program
 
Dana67Dart said:
People right out of college who have never worked on a car in their lives

AND


they follow the form over function philosophy (It's so pretty!)

All automotive engineers should have to work as mechanics for 5 years before they touch a CAD program
Click to expand...
100% agree with everything posted....
 
Ford also uses plastic prolifically in their cooling systems now. It's pretty stupid.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Ford also uses plastic prolifically in their cooling systems now. It's pretty stupid
Click to expand...
My daughter's 2007 Taurus has the tank with the rad cap on it.

For some reason the plastic started to desintargrate in one spot, like what happens to plastic that has been in the sun for 50 years. It was about 1/2 as thick as the rest of the plastic.
Rather then wait till it blows I replaced the tank.
 
Dana67Dart said:
My daughter's 2007 Taurus has the tank with the rad cap on it.

For some reason the plastic started to desintargrate in one spot, like what happens to plastic that has been in the sun for 50 years. It was about 1/2 as thick as the rest of the plastic.
Rather then wait till it blows I replaced the tank.
Click to expand...
My 2002 Taurus has the plastic expansion tank too, so far it's in good shape.
 
Plastic items are cheap, fast, and easy to produce.
It is all about bottom line to the manufacturers.
And it only has to last until the warranty is over.
E-Body door panels come to mind.
Cheap and easy, but look lousy and don't last...
 
The plastic "T" where the fill cap goes in the top hose on my mom's '03 Dakota failed and split just as I was loosening the cap while it was hot. Scalded the HELL out of my arm.

That hose assembly was almost $100 at the time. It had already been replaced once.

I replaced it with an aluminum T from Jegs, for $20, and each side hose is now $12.

Did the same thing preventatively on my 2000 Dakota.
 
Mopar 3.6 thermostats are the same junk. Just like the mini van heater hoses by the firewall that blow up.
 
I work in the plastics world and though it’s a great material, it has its limitations. Most of this in due to trying to lowering production costs and light weighting to meet CAFE standards for gas mileage, so thank big brother for most of this.
 
I worked on medium and heavy trucks (class 7&8) for 40 years at a municipal garage. International and Freightliner had plastic coolant tanks. I might have replaced one International in that time. Freightliner's lasted about 3 years and would get pin holes in them. The Peterbilts had metal tanks and never leaked. The plastic/aluminum radiators are a toss up. Some last and some don't. FYI a Freightliner radiator 5 years ago was $2300.
 
I have a 78 fury 2 door hardtop.
A few years ago I had trouble with it running hot. 2 years in a row I pulled it at the beginning of cruisin season and sent it to a radiator shop to be rodded/boiled out. Did no good. This is a 2 owner car I'm the 2nd owner. I got it with 38k original miles in 07, it now has 56k on it. I went to several parts stores to see what they had to offer for a replacement radiator. I couldn't believe it that even on a 70s American car all any could offer me is something that would fit the hole but looked like it would be more at home in a freaking Toyota. No way in HE11 I was putting a Toyota-ish looking radiator in my car. No way no how. So I wound up buying a Champion all aluminum one for about the same money and that was with delivery to my door. All aluminum (I'd rather have copper/brass but at least this one has no plastic) and American made with life time warranty. And a whole lot better looking than a Toyota radiator. And boy did it ever help with temps..... This car has AC and the factory fan on it is a 4 blade solid mount no fan clutch.
My son had a 90 w250 with a 360 gas engine. He too needed a radiator while he had that truck. Stuck one of those Toyota looking POS' in it, didn't cool we'll at all and didn't last long either.
He wound up finding a HD 3 row original copper/brass one in a very similar truck in the boneyard. He put that in and no more problems.
 
bobsgtx said:
I worked on medium and heavy trucks (class 7&8) for 40 years at a municipal garage. International and Freightliner had plastic coolant tanks. I might have replaced one International in that time. Freightliner's lasted about 3 years and would get pin holes in them. The Peterbilts had metal tanks and never leaked. The plastic/aluminum radiators are a toss up. Some last and some don't. FYI a Freightliner radiator 5 years ago was $2300.
Click to expand...
Most if not all of the heavy trucks I've been driving for the last 10 years or more all have plastic reservoir tanks. The old Freightliner that I drove for 5 years needed a new rad about 2 years ago, dunno what it cost the company, but I don't think they were happy. Their problem, not mine, keeping a 20 year old truck on the road.
 
slantsixdan said:
What year SC400, with how many miles on it?
Click to expand...

At least someone here is thinking!

Uh yeah, turns out parts on cars that are 23-30 years old fail occasionally.

Hell, even an aluminum part could have corroded and failed in that time. I’m sure the failure would have looked more like a leak than an explosion, but you’d still have to replace it.

As for the engineer bashing, it sounds like most of you have no clue what you’re talking about. Engineers have to listen to the bean counters all the time and change designs to make the cheaper (vs better). No doubt there are engineers and designers that would benefit from more hands on work, but engineering something that’s mass produced for a profit has as much or more to do with making it cheap as it does with making any one part more durable.
 
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