97 Camry Radiator leak

My son's 97 Corolla developed a hairline leak in the upper radiator
tank. We were going to have a local shop change the plastic tank out (he
told me not many shops are changing just the tanks)While we were waiting
for the part to come in, I decided to patch it in the meantime. I pulled
out the drained radiator and used a hair drier to speed up the drying
around the cr-acks. I sanded the entire area, scored the cr-acks with a
cheap Dremel knockoff, being careful not to go too deep.(although I
didn't drill holes at the end of each cr-ack)I then cleaned the area very
well with denatured alcohol. I applied J-B Weld along with some mesh I
had laying around. After that dried I applied more until it was built up
nicely. It's been a few months now and we haven't heard from the
radiator shop and the repair is still holding. Now to get our deposit
money back...


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TPAJR
Message Origin: TRAVEL.com

TPAJR wrote:
I sanded the entire area, scored the cr-acks with a
> cheap Dremel knockoff, being careful not to go too deep.(although I
> didn't drill holes at the end of each cr-ack)I then cleaned the area very
> well with denatured alcohol. I applied J-B Weld along with some mesh
======
Sounds like that would be the best possible repair approach.
Just remember once the plastic ages it usually has incipient cr-acking
over a dispersed area, ie., several places.
Had a friend wound up replacing the engine after it overheated on the
way to San Diego, so if you miss the warning signs overheated engines
cost more than radiators.