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Driving my 53 1/2 ton from Denver to Boulder and truck overheated about one hour into drive. 235 engine with original water pump. Apparently hit a bump as I heard scrapping sound. Pulled over and determined that my fan had been hitting bottom of radiator. Thus the leak and overheat. Aware that I needed a short shaft water pump but had not been a problem for past couple years.
Would JB Weld patch my radiator' s cut from fan? Will order short shaft pump.
Scott

JB Is wonderful stuff but not a legit permanent radiator repair. Time for a new core or whole new radiator.

If the repair needs to be done on the tank, not the core, then a good epoxy putty might be a good fix.

Many radiator cores have been repaired with JB Weld and have held up for years. Just be sure to clean the area to be repaired very well. With the price of cores where they are at, it's no surprise that replacing the core is not the first choice for may of us. I'd try a repair first. If it ends up leaking again down the road, at least it probably won't be a full on gash that's leaking- it'll just be a seep from the JB Weld repair. Good luck. Plenty to You Tube videos showing radiator repair with that stuff. My radiator has a JB Weld repair. We'll see how long it lasts...

Investing in a good cooling system in an area like Denver's climate makes some sense? Main concern if it overheats ........from a poor radiator repair .........the next overheat might crack the head. Which will make the radiator repair look cheap and compared to engine work.

If rebuild core or new is out of the budget........good radiator shop can often repair the core if it's not too far gone.

If you can still find a radiator shop where somebody remembers what a torch and solder looks like, it's pretty amazing what they can do. Fan arc damage to the core usually covers several tubes, and the only effective repair is to pinch off the damaged tubes top and bottom and solder them shut. This reduces the cooling capacity in direct proportion to how many tubes you have to disable.

If the damage is on one of the tanks or the header, it's possible to do some patching, but there are places that get damaged where there's nothing to do but do a recore. I'm just old school enough to absolutely refuse to use JB weld- - - - -fix it right or replace it.
Jerry

There is a good radiator repair shop in Fort Collins, 970-482-6783. They know what brass and solder are, no plastic.

Ed