Rod out radiator. Replacement interval?

[parttime]

Is is common practice to "rod out" radiators on trucks? Should we consider this instead of replacement on high mileage truck?

[Maniac]

Replace it, rod out won't do anything but weaken it, don't even know if anybody even does that anymore.

New radiator is around $1000 over the counter.

[silvan]

New radiator is around $1000 over the counter.

Avoid bargains too. My last boss got some great deal on a radiator. It was a fantastic bargain, the deal of the century.

I took the truck from here to Dalton, GA, about seven hours, not sure how many miles. Truck was fine when I went to bed, fine when I got up. Drove a short way to a fuel stop to top up the tanks, truck was fine. Came back from paying, and my windshield was fogged up, and there was steam everywhere. Radiator was leaking like sieve.

They put me in a motel for two days to get the radiator taken off and soldered back together. There was no warranty on the radiator, and the manufacturer wouldn't pay a dime to compensate for this, on a brand new radiator that had something like 450 miles on it.

Got the truck back, finished the route. Truck ran hot. That summer, I had to be really careful how I pulled hills, because it was extremely easy to overheat it to the point of shutting it down. It ran 10-20 degrees too hot all the time, and built up heat way too fast on any kind of pull.

It eventually blew the same seam again, and he got it fixed again. Then it blew a third time. He finally spent $1500 on a real radiator, and that solved all the problems. The money man was only willing to pony up the $1500 if he could get another six months out of the truck. As it happened, I got another 4-5 years out of that truck, and took it close to the 2,000,000 mark on the original motor before we finally put it out to pasture, days before it would have finally given up the ghost for good.

That was a good old truck, once she had a real radiator.

Not that the $1,000 suggested isn't enough to buy a real radiator. I'm just saying you should not be penny wise and pound foolish by putting some bargain basement El Cheapass POS in your truck. It's not worth it.

[Maniac]

Avoid bargains too.

Yes, stay FAR away from those "offshore" radiator cores.

I figured $1000 was a ball park figure, now that I remember my buddy paid $1250 for one for his 379 Pete.