Mice and acorns in my radiator

[Dionk]

So I had to remove a mouse nest from my heater box and now it appears that my radiator in my garage attic has become home or potentially storage for a winter feast of acorns. 
 

long sigh. 
 

What should I do to address this or should I just buy a new radiator? 
 

 Here are pics of the radiator and it looks like it wasRepaired in Tennessee at some point in time

[Flunder]

Better to fix than just squirrel it away! Besides that interesting and old school repair tag from the rad shop in Memphis placed on the top tank it also has the BMW build date and part number. It's the Rosetta Stone of your '02.

[Dionk]

9 minutes ago, Flunder said:

BMW build date

Also my birthday!!!!

[Guest_anonymous]

I have a few if you're interested. stop by. I'm sure one may work

[Brandon]

I usually duck tape over the hose inlets before storing any radiators for the long term....of course I learned that the hard way like you!  You can get the nuts out but it will take a lot of time shaking and dumping them out and also flushing with water as you go.  You can bend a sturdy piece of wire and put some tape on the end with the adhesive facing out, with this you can stick the wire into the tank and grab any nuts with the sticky tape that you can’t shake out.  Have fun!

['76mintgrün'02]

Your story reminds me of this image someone posted here a while back.

[JerryC]

I once found a sizable acorn stash inside a front frame rail. Rusted it out from the inside real well.

[Mike Self]

Nice wakeup call for those of us with spare radiators and heaters up in an attic...

 

Suggestion:  once you've cleaned out all the nuts (and other stuff!) take coarse steel wool and stuff a wad in all the hose fittings--with a piece of wire inserted so you can pull it out again.  Mice will not chew on steel wool, and squirrels won't find a nice dark spot to stash their nuts...

 

mike

 

PS  I once recovered a 5 gallon bucket full of nuts an enterprising squirrel had delicately balanced on every horizontal surface in my truck's engine compartment.  All this in about 10 days when I wasn't driving the truck.  No chewing damage, fortunately.  My revenge:  placed the bucket full of nuts on top of a second overturned bucket and put it on our patio table, so I could watch the squirrels unsuccessfully try to scale two + feet of slick plastic to reach all those nuts...

Edited January 2, 2020 by mike

[golf73]

If it's a spare radiator, how 'bout just getting it re-cored to 3 rows, if $ isn't an issue. Take it back the same place! Looks pretty beat up.

 

Attached is the radiator that was in my car when I bought it - at the time I needed a rebuild I had Curt Ingraham of Silicon Garage in Oakland build me a 3-row from one of his cores. My car has been a Peninsula car since at least 1975, and I've always wondered how to decode the embossed tag...Supposedly San Carlos Radiator is still in business as well.

[ScottCLo]

I bought one of those "low milage" JDM engines for a Subaru powerd sand rail one time. It was completely packed full of acorns. Ended up having to do a full teardown on my drop in replacement...

[iinca]

Def' rebuild it. AND for sure go 3 row if you live in a hot climate.

 

*That air filter shot is just NUTS!!

Edited January 3, 2020 by iinca

[Dionk]

11 hours ago, golf73 said:

Looks pretty beat up.

I like the patina on some things and I know it works. 
 

I was stuck in traffic on 66 outside of Washington DC on a +100 degree day - not overheating issues and I was using this rad.   I checked to see if that rad store was still open. Unfortunately they are closed down, but the painted name on the building is still there according to google maps  Kinda cool! 
 

I have never heard of a “three row” I’ll research. 

Edited January 3, 2020 by Dionk

[Stevenc22]

Unfortunately a recore of a radiator these days is more expensive than a WN new radiator. I had mine recored and it runs amazingly well but the place that did my recore for $300 just quoted another club member over $500 for a recore. Hard to justify when WN radiators start at $230

 

 

[kbmb02]

1 hour ago, Stevenc22 said:

Unfortunately a recore of a radiator these days is more expensive than a WN new radiator. I had mine recored and it runs amazingly well but the place that did my recore for $300 just quoted another club member over $500 for a recore. Hard to justify when WN radiators start at $230

 

 

 

I’ve used the W&N unit without issue, good price when on sale.

 

Yet, I like keeping it local when possible .... a local shop does re-cores with a high-efficiency 2 row* core for $275-300. -KB

[Conserv]

Three-row re-cores are so.... ‘80’s. After two three-row re-cores (over 30 years), the last re-core of the ‘76’s “original radiator” — by which I mean solely the original top and bottom tanks — was a two-row re-core. The miniaturization of fins and tubing over the last 30 years, however, has enabled increases in surface area that allow a two-row core to have the heat exchange capacity of the traditional three-row cores.

 

If you’re thinking, “Yeah, right!”, that’s precisely what I thought when Korman told me in 2012 that my ‘76’s radiator had just received a “two-row re-core as good as a three-row”! But they were absolutely correct: the two-row re-core worked perfectly until 2017, when the top tank, then 41 years old, started getting pinhole leaks, everywhere! I replaced the “original radiator” with a Walloth & Nesch heavy-duty radiator. And it’s the best radiator the ‘76 has ever had. So, to Steven’s point above, given what I know now about the condition of even a well-cared-for, “one-owner” original radiator, I’d probably skip the re-core steps and go straight to the W & N heavy duty!

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited January 3, 2020 by Conserv