Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Roadster Radiator leak

Came home on Friday after a drive out, and parked up, but later notice a pool of water under the car, couldn't see any thing, so put it away and next morning, again pool of coolant under the car, so yesterday put the car on the lift and removed the cowl and then could see where it was leaking from (drain plug area) so strip the front end of and removed the radiator.
This morning took it in to a local radiator repair stop, and they comfirmed the leak from the drain plug area, needs resoldering, and told me to leave and pick it up later today

I take it the rad is copper/brass. Brass tanks with copper gills in the core. When made new the pipes, drain plug, sensor bosses would have been soldered with high temperature solder. The tanks are then soldered onto the core with normal solder. Much better than the plastic tanks crimped onto the core.
I worked in a rad factory and we made rads for BL mainly but aftermarket ones for anything and everything. Triumph Acclaim was the first plastic tank version we did. Left there in 1984 and the factory is still going.

Mal, I had exactly the same on my previous '04 Roadster, the bonus is these are proper brass & copper construction as per Sospan's description & repair well

I'm pretty sure my OE drain plug boss as only soft lead soldered & there was a pinhole in this joint

One thing to note is not to use modern OAT longlife anti-freeze (contains organic acids) as these are known to attack some mixed metal rads containing soft lead solder

Yes brass with copper core, leaking on drain plug.

Thanks for the advice re Anti-freeze

Which Anti-freeze do you recommend

Just to complicate things: OAT antifreeze is what is recommended for a modern engine mainly made of aluminium - just as the Roadster. As far as I know the Roadster 3l enginge comes from the Ford Mondeo, and if you look that up on the net, OAT is recommended for that specific engine. I do not think matters change when you put it into a Morgan. So what to do? I worried more about the engine block than the rad, so I put in OAT, but of course I do not know what harmful effects could have occured with non-OAT. Comments?
By the way, I had exactly the same problem on my Roadster. Easy fix. Got the rad out, brushed the black paint away around the drain plug to expose brass. It is soft lead soldered, so it took me ten minutes with (a large!) soldering iron and some lead. Has not leaked since. The biggest job was to get the rad in and out. Or more correctly, down and up, as I took it out from below...

I've used Comma, Super Coldmaster and Car Plan, Blue Star

Both are spec'd to BS6580 and are based on basic ethylene glycol which is safe on alloys, but especially brass / copper / multi metal systems

I use the Ford top of the range anti freeze, which is a purple blue colour.

At some stage I'll probably get an aluminium radiator for my Roadster.

Many thanks for recommendations and advice 👍👍👍

To add some detail Mal..............

Ford Super Plus Premium Antifreeze. This is what my Roadster came with, and is a translucent blue/violet colour.

Contains Ethanediol

ethanediol (ˈiːθeɪnˌdaɪɒl; ˈɛθ-)
n
(Elements & Compounds) a clear colourless syrupy soluble liquid substance, used as an antifreeze and solvent. Formula: CH2OHCH2OH. Also called: glycol or ethylene glycol

I wrote a guide to antifreeze a while ago in Miscellany, it might even be on TM. I'll see if I can find it. Basically colour means nothing, there are versions of traditional and OAT coolants in most colours, so always read the spec sheet.

Morgan back up and running, thanks for all the advice,
went with the ford super plus antifreeze.