Pepper in the radiator fix

[robbz28]

Alright, I know some of you have heard of putting pepper in a radiator to repair a small leak. Well, I had a small leak...but not in the radiator, in the gasket between the timing cover and the block and it would pool up about an ounce of water over a week...not really a bad leak more of a seep (should have replaced that gasket when I had the chance) Anyway, I put a tablespoon of pepper in the radiator and now, not a trace of water after a week of running the car over 200 miles. So, since the pepper helped seal up my leak, I'm curious if anyone else has done this and how long this little trick worked for? Any adverse effects of this trick? I know I will eventually need to replace the gasket proper, but as long as this holds up, why not run it?
On a related note, I took my thermostat out this past summer because it failed, and i never put a new one in, I also put in a 2 row aluminum radiator, i went to work this morning in the stang (35 degrees outside) and when I started going down the road, my temp dropped below 100 and my heater almost started blowing cold.....guess i need to get to autozone and get myself a 170 degree thermostat, lol.

 

[Slobin3d]

Never heard of pepper, Eggs I've seen before.

 

[danond]

Geezus.

--
Dan in ND
'89 'vert GT undergoing full resto.

 

[robbz28]

I had heard of eggs too...but I didnt like the thought of a huge chunk of egg globbing up and stopping up a couple of my rows, at least the pepper can be like stop-leak, use what it needs to stop the leak and a little pepper floating around in there can't be any worse than the other rust/crud that floats around in there normally after time. Despite my best efforts to get my cooling system spotlessly clean I still end up with debris in my system. I took off my lower rad hose and shoved a fire hose inside it and ran the engine for about 10 minutes and let that clean water circulate...but still I have little bits of rust or whatever floating around in there.

 

[2+2GT]

My Grandad used water glass. I must say, the results are amazing, but it's hard to find.

 

[robbz28]

Water Glass aka Sodium Silicate, you can buy it from ebay all day long in gallon jugs for like 25 bucks. It does work good for most kinds of leaks, but this being in a gasket, that sodium silicate likes metal to metal, not sure how it would have done on this gasket. I actually had a leak in my heater core on my old camaro and I used the pepper trick....I kept that car for 3 years after that and it never leaked on me, so we'll see!
BTW...Ebay is a great place to get "chemistry supplies" Thats where I get my dark aluminum powder for my exploding targets (like the ones they use on top shot)

 

[N8Dogg98]

I'd also suggest sprinkling some salt and paprika in that baby... should fix it up nice

 

[robbz28]

Oh yeah...well how about this one right here...

Season Shot - Ammo with flavor.

Click it, its worth it.

 

[N8Dogg98]

that's great!

 

[robbz28]

Hey N8Dogg, r u a no-limit soulja?

 

[N8Dogg98]

no, but it went with my internet handle I've had for many years

 

[Hack]

I've heard of it just like I've heard of using ATF for purposes outside of the automatic transmission. I wouldn't use either, though.

I would always buy a product designed specifically for what I'm trying to do especially when the product only costs a couple bucks. I like Barr's Leaks for cooling system seepage. Usually I will replace the actual part causing the leak rather than using a stop leak product, though. Stop leak products can build up and reduce the cooling system's effectiveness.

Good story though, bra.

 

[Noobz347]

I've used the stop leak stuff before. It came in a little plastic vial and looked like metal shavings. Well I front ended an International Scout at a rock quarry I was mudding in, and this stuff sealed up about a dozen pretty major leaks in about 5 min. It was pretty kewl to watch and the gysers sealed themselves up.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

My truck's old radiator started leaking between the tank and core last week. You know how I fixed it? I replaced it.

Stop-gap fixes usually suck. The PO of my pickup blew the head gasket and instead of fixing right, he put a $60 bottle of Blue Devil in the coolant. Not only did it fail to stop the HG leak, it clogged up the heater core and coated the rest of the cooling system with crud. Six years and an engine later I am still finding evidence of that stuff.

 

[Edster]

This stuff is designed to get ya hpme or around until payday in my opinion. I've used several of them and wound up having to replace the part.

 

[robbz28]

Wow...got to get used to the new format here. Anyway, I have used "stop leak" before and ended up with several rows of my radiator being plugged up. I also nearly got a melted face because of it...I used to work at a jiffy lube in my college days and one of the duties was to check the coolant level, the car had one of those lever style caps that releases pressure, well there was no pressure, after i removed the cap I saw a huge chunk of globbed up stop leak in the radiator neck, about half a second later it blew! Got boiling hot coolant all over me, fortunately not all over my face or bare skin anywhere. Anyway 300 miles and my "pepper" is still holding up. I know that a tablespoon of pepper won't ever clog up a rad-neck.

 

[65fastbackresto]

My dad and grandad both used the pepper trick for temp fixes anyway. I`ve seen it work and know it works in a pinch. Bars leak is crap as far as I`ve seen, never had a good exp with that stuff.

 

[KStang65B]

I've never used Pepper. I've used Bar's Liquid Copper which has Sodium Silicate in it. I had a slow head gasket leak in my truck that's been leak free for 4 years since putting this in it.