Hello All,
I've done this before. It really isn't that hard. I think the most dificult thing to do as far as the labor is to emove the tanks from the core without melting (some people get carried away with the torch and just heat the Crap out of them), and or warping, cracking, or damaging them.
Apart from that, the trick is to find someone willing to supply you with the correct core. For me that required a friend who worked at a radiator shop. After explaining things to his boss, he was able to piggyback my order to their regular order. My understanding at the time was that my core was actually made after ordering and wasn't a shelf item. They called it a cellular conversion core, that allowed the use of original Harrison tanks to mate onto a non-honeycomb type core.
As far as reassembly. It wasn't too bad. The trick was cleaning. It's basically like sweating a huge pipe that sinks heat very well, so getting the temperature just right so that the solder flows is really the trick. Using a good flux is very important for cleaning the metal so the solder could flow.
Pressure testing is not really that difficult. Use an expansion plug on the openings to seal them and use compressed air to pressure test. I've also seen this trick tool used at radiator shops to find leaks. It's basically a hand operated pump that is attached to an expansion plug that is placed in position of the radiator cap. They place it on your rad, squeeze it a few times, and take it to pressure and look for antifreeze. I dunked mine in water looked for bubbles. You don't have to go crazy with the pressure, because on the cellular conversions your only going to use a 7lb cap at maximum, and probably a 4lb or 0lb.
I did this before joing Stovebolt, so taking pictures was not even in my mind then.
Hope this helps, and I'm sure someone else out here has done this before and probably better than I,
54Monster
