It's been almost a year since I was wheeling the old Clampy truck in Moab, busted the radiator, and limped it back to town with the engine steaming. I swapped in a new radiator 10-months ago, but when I cranked the old girl over she bubbled out the radiator cap, blown head gasket. I was devastated, my truck was broken and it was no-one's fault but my own, here was the truck that had stood by me in every type of inclement weather and now I had done the unthinkable and brought her home broken. Now the one saving grace I found was that the oil was still clean, so I have a leak from the combustion chamber into the coolant system, but not all the way into the oil passages. In a state of self-disgust I pushed her into the corner, drained the fluids and pondered my options over a warm can of PBR. Now it's about a month before Moab 2007 and I found myself at home early so I decided to see what I could do for my reliable old Toy. I had considered everything, fix the head gasket, rebuild the engine, swap in a late model Tacoma 4-cylinder, swap in an all aluminum Chevy LS1 V-8 (about the same weight as the current 22RE), build some hopped up 22re stroker. But then I decided to go the easy route first, Block Sealer. I know I know, it's probably not what I should do, and some co-workers explained using block sealer similar to eating butter to help stop a bleeding cut. I guess it's similar; as it clogs up the hole, will it also clog up the radiator, water pump, etc? But I felt two things, first if I ever get asked if the stuff really works I should at the very least have some experience to rely on, and two, I want to go wheeling this weekend, and nothing I own wheels as well as Clampy.
So I took a few hours and went through the steps of using this sludge in a can. Basically the steps involved filling the radiator with water, running the engine (after jumpstarting it, draining it repeat until the coolant is all flushed out. then mixing the Block Sealer with hot water and running it through the engine for 20 minutes. Unfortunately half way through the repair I had to add more water to the radiator and it was already too warm, thus spewing hot block sealer mix all over the engine bay and giving Clampy a chalky white film when I opened the cap. Argh! Plus I was working inside, so even with multiple fans blowing fresh air into the shop I was still feeling the ill affects of the exhaust in the warehome .Finally I drained the coolant system and now I have to let it cool and set for 24-hours.Will it work? We’ll have to wait and see, but if not, I’ll start the research on repair versus replacement.
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