RADIATOR

My all metal radiator I was boasting about leaked .The solder was minimal so
the brass lifted away .I was amazed how little solder there was holding it
together .So maybe the plastic Volvo OEM is not so bad as long as it doesn't
burst .

 

after market parts are highly variable, but, in this case, the oem
part has a catastrofic fault, the possibilty of castastrofic failure.
when mine failed i was <20 km from a "Volvo's only" mechanic. i have
lived 100treds of km from civilization. grade 8? ... hah, hah, hah.
metric?...what is you boy some type of commie? solder they understand.
oh, & my after market was brazed not soldered.

 

NO WE USE THE TERM SOLDER AS THAT IS WHAT IT WAS ,HEAVY SOLDER.If I meant
brazed I would have said so .No I am not a commie as such a peoples never
existed they were just extreme capitalists .True communism only ever existed
in Judaism whilst in the desert .

 

i was making a joke not a political comment. my point was that it is
a big continent & while i live in a Volvo ghetto much of North America
has never seen one (hyperbole again). sometimes the most technically
elegant solution is not the right one. there are other factors to
consider, the nature & consquences of failure & the possibility of
repair.

your new radiator may very well have been put together w/ "HEAVY
SOLDER". i wouldn't & didn't buy such a part. it screams of small
shop fabrication. the difference between soldering & brazing is
temperature. brazing raises the joint temperature high enough to form
a "chemical" (a wood term & not really correct) bond. this is much
stronger. an industrial concern has the resources (mainly an inert gas
kiln) to do this w/ fewer & lower-skill manhours.

i could actually repair an oem radiator (well not every time) but i
wouldn't. the possibility of another failure (thermal cycling) & the
time required aren't worth it. it might have made sense when i was 16
but i didn't know enough back then. go figure!