grounding your radiator

[scarborough]

any picture on how to ground a alumi radiator. just before putting the car in storage for the winter i noticed the radiator had leak coming from somewhere . i called a shop today ask about getting it repaired i was told the leak was probably cause by not having the radiator grounded (what ....) never heard of that, its only 5/6 yrs old and i only drive the car a couple days a week in the summer. wondering if anyone else has had that problem and how did you correct it. any info would be appreciated

 

[oldsofb]

Here's an interesting thread from somewhere else. They used a lot of smart talk.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/grounding-radiator-and-heater-core.42064/

Our cars came with grounded heater core's. Outside of that I'm not sure about the radiator.

Hutch

 

[abbey castro]

The original h

eater copper core had a ground wire to the firewall. When I replaced the core I reinstalled the ground wire to the aluminum replacement core. The radiator sits on four (4) rubber pads . If it needed to have a ground then GM would have put one. If it makes you feel good, ground it to the radiator header. The light harness is grounded there.

 

[melloelky]

radiator ground?that's a new one by me..

 

[84cutspreme]

I installed one of these as a cheap safeguard due to dissimilar metals and corrosion fear

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/flx-106781

 

[86 Salon]

View attachment 234666 The original h View attachment 234670 eater copper core had a ground wire to the firewall. When I replaced the core I reinstalled the ground wire to the aluminum replacement core. The radiator sits on four (4) rubber pads . If it needed to have a ground then GM would have put one. If it makes you feel good, ground it to the radiator header. The light harness is grounded there.

Do not ground the radiator or heater core. Back in the late 90's, I worked at a Chevy dealer. I put 2 heater cores in a Monte Carlo. They would last less than a year. I called GM Technical Assistance and was told to install a ground wire on the core which I did. A week or so later, the Service Manager gets a call from Technical Assistance and they want the customer to bring the car back to remove the ground wire. Apparently, the ground wire is old technology for brass heater cores. I was told to use a volt meter from battery + to the coolant in the radiator. IIRC, .1 of a volt was max. If it was higher than that, it meant that the coolant could be old and acidic or there was a bad ground on the car which was causing current flow through the radiator or heater core. I had to turn on everything on the car to make sure that no component had a bad ground. I actually found corroded grounds at the transmission. It never came back for a leaking heater core. So don't ground an aluminum radiator or heater core.

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Do not ground the radiator or heater core. Back in the late 90's, I worked at a Chevy dealer. I put 2 heater cores in a Monte Carlo. They would last less than a year. I called GM Technical Assistance and was told to install a ground wire on the core which I did. A week or so later, the Service Manager gets a call from Technical Assistance and they want the customer to bring the car back to remove the ground wire. Apparently, the ground wire is old technology for brass heater cores. I was told to use a volt meter from battery + to the coolant in the radiator. IIRC, .1 of a volt was max. If it was higher than that, it meant that the coolant could be old and acidic or there was a bad ground on the car which was causing current flow through the radiator or heater core. I had to turn on everything on the car to make sure that no component had a bad ground. I actually found corroded grounds at the transmission. It never came back for a leaking heater core. So don't ground an aluminum radiator or heater core.

Brass and copper are more noble than cast iron which is more noble than aluminum.

 

[86 Salon]

Brass and copper are more noble than cast iron which is more noble than aluminum.

That's why later GM, and probably all rear wheel drive vehicles and trucks have rubber in the trans cooler lines. FWD vehicles need to have rubber in the cooler lines because the engines move and would break the lines, but in a RWD, there would be no reason to have any rubber in the lines for breakage.

 

[Built6spdMCSS]

I guess I'm going to start selling left handed Radiator Ground Straps now... that's great..

 

[SoFloG]

12v industry forever and never heard of grounding a radiator. Seems like it would turn it in to a conductor, and lead to rapid corrosion and electrical gremlins.