The radiator in my car is just about shot, and we just about got stranded in Orem yesterday because of it. I had worked the day in the office while Traci was at her brother’s house with Michael. On my way from Provo to Orem to pick up Traci and Michael (only about 15 miles or so), my car started overheating badly enough on I-15 that I had to turn the heater on full blast to keep the engine temperature down. When I got to Orem, I told Traci that we’d either have to wait until later in the day when the temperature was much lower in order to make it home, or else stop every 10 minutes to let the engine cool down. But I got thinking, and I came up with a way to make it home without having to stop–I disconnected the windshield washer fluid hose from where it splits off to the nozzles on the hood, and routed the hose so it would spray water right onto the front of my radiator. I had to unplug the wiper motor so my wipers didn’t scrape across a dry windshield when I activated the washer button, but it actually cooled the engine off enough that we made it home without any problems.
I’m ordering a new radiator today, and I’ll be installing it next week. I’m getting a double-row radiator (apparently only used as OEM in the turbo model), so that should pretty much solve any cooling problems I have. I’ll have to use a hacksaw to cut off the old fan clutch, because the bolts are still stripped–I was able to re-use it last time I took the radiator out (when I replaced the head gaskets) because I had to take the water pump and timing covers off anyway, so the fan clutch came off with the water pump. This time, there’s no way I’m going through that much trouble just to replace the radiator, but I can borrow the fan clutch from my ’87 Subaru, but eventually I’ll have to get a replacement one from the junkyard.