So....my replacement arrived today. It has what appears to be some sort of mineral deposits on the edges. Is this normal or should this set off alarm bells? Last thing I want is to spend all the time getting the damn thing in only to realize someone returned a used/defective one and it got sent out to me.

 

So....tackled this today. Used the radiator above and it appears its fine. Took it out of the box at install time and realized one of the bottom feet were broken (FML). Called around to a few local stores and they could only have it in 2 days. Called the dealership and the heavy duty version cost 475 dollars (I paid 120 for this one)....so we're rolling with this one. Used everything adhesive in my garage. Cross your fingers.

I watched some videos on YouTube (one durango hemi and one jeep grand Cherokee) that showed replacement simply by taking the cross member off. No evacuation of the AC lines and no removal of grill etc. I went for it and it worked. While I was in there I went ahead and replaced my water pump (90k miles on the ride so why not) and my upper and lower radiator hoses (again, why not). Got the water pump for 67 bucks on amazon, not feeling too confident about its quality but we'll see.

Total repair took around 8 hours, and I'm a bad mechanic. Its honestly really straight forward but I'm working in a tight garage and my car is on jacks. You CAN do the entire repair by yourself, but I did have my brother help reseat the engine fan. Everything else I was able to do on my own. That one would be a bit of a bitch to do by yourself.


So- earlier this week I needed motor mounts and a radiator and thought I was looking at (what I thought would be) 2500 bucks in repairs. I considered trading the ride in and getting something new, but in the end I'm simply too cheap. 700 bucks later I've got a new radiator, mounts, water pump, and no car payment. I'll take it.

 

On a side note- everyone in this forum should be subscribed to the Motor City Mechanic channel on Youtube. The guy is phenomenal.

3.2 and 3.6 liter Pentastar engine

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