best stop leak....

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i'm tired of a 92 accord that i bought. I think it now needs a water pump,due to it weeping under the crank pulley area. I want to seal it and maybe get rid of it.Besides small things,it is dependable.So what's a good sealer? It has a new rad.
 
I have never seen or heard of a sealant that solves water pump leaks. Try stop leak products if you like, but I am very sure you need a replacement water pump, what a shame Honda makes that engine so that the timing belt needs replacement at the same time.
 
Stop leak can fix small pinholes and gasket leaks. The water pump shaft is constantly turning in that seal, I would be very surprised if any brand of stop leak would work.
Bars leak and Alumiseal have worked well in the past, also the Gm stop leak pellets seem to work well.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Ya it won't seal a water pump leak. I'd stay away from the Bars leak pellets. That stuff can really plug up heaters and radiators.

That is totally untrue plugging up a heater core. I wish I knew how these types of rumors started. We sell over 1 million bottles per year of the pelletized radiator stop leak that has been produced for over 50 years. Believe me if we caused issues we would not be in business. We have tested the product in the newest heater cores which are .9mm (round .035) in size and it will flow through without any issues. The only time you would have an issue with any stop leak type additive is the the system is old and partially plugged, then you would never want to add anything without cleaning it first.
 
Originally Posted By: daves66nova
i'm tired of a 92 accord that i bought. I think it now needs a water pump,due to it weeping under the crank pulley area. I want to seal it and maybe get rid of it.Besides small things,it is dependable.So what's a good sealer? It has a new rad.

For the most part if it is a water pump seal itself being worn out, then you are going to need to replace the pump. One of two things usually happen with this. Either the bearing is bad and is causing the seal to leak, or the leak is from a bad seal and it can wipe out the bearing. If it is a water pump or timing cover type gasket leak, then the Pelletized stop leak would surely take care of that.
 
I honestly think your product - the original ginger-based Bar's Leak is probably the most benign product out there, unlike some of the others.
 
Most competitive products use wood pulp or other types of material that swell when installed in water. The ginger in Bar's Leaks is very unique as it will shrink in water and then it expands about 15% when it is dry. Also, we grind this to pass through a 24 mesh screen so that it will not clog any cooling passages.
 
Originally Posted By: cparksjr
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Ya it won't seal a water pump leak. I'd stay away from the Bars leak pellets. That stuff can really plug up heaters and radiators.

That is totally untrue plugging up a heater core. I wish I knew how these types of rumors started. We sell over 1 million bottles per year of the pelletized radiator stop leak that has been produced for over 50 years. Believe me if we caused issues we would not be in business. We have tested the product in the newest heater cores which are .9mm (round .035) in size and it will flow through without any issues. The only time you would have an issue with any stop leak type additive is the the system is old and partially plugged, then you would never want to add anything without cleaning it first.
My opologies but I call them as I see them at my Radiator and AC shop.

Every time we get a plugged heater or radiator we ask the customer what they put in it and it's usually Bars leak thats plugging it up.

A 1/2 dozen tubes on Alumaseal plug em up nicely too
LOL.gif
 
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That is a good point as we have heard that. Most times it is like Kool Aid or Kleenex, the consumer uses any types of stop leak and calls it Bar's Leaks. This should not happen unless mixed with other stop leak products or the system is dirty or partially clogged already. If you have another one of these, please PM me as I would like to get a sample to test. The last one I had ended up being the consumer thought they bought Bar's Leaks and it ended up being Prestone Pellets.
 
Though it has already been stated, the stop leak will not work for a seal.

However, I have found that the pelletized Barr's is excellent stuff, and have not had it plug the heater core on any of the vehicles.
I used it to seal the notorious 3.1L GM V6 lower intake gasket leak. Held strong for 4 years.
 
I used the Bar's brand of stop leak to seal up the front cover gasket (aka timing cover) on my '96 3.8L winstar.
I caught it when it was just a slight seepage.
It has held for well over 100K miles.
It did not solve the leaking lower intake manifold gaskets...but did slow it down a LOT.

I think that the old story about clogged heater cores came from the days when we used the high silicate green coolant (the modern green coolant has lower silicate levels...and it more stable) that settled out.....and also the old style heater controls that stopped coolant flow through the heater core when you set the temperature control to "cold"....
Now, the coolants have lower (or none at all) silicate level, and most heater temperature controls set the level of air flow over the always HOT heater core......in other words....coolant flows through the heater core all the time....so you don't go months at a time with no flow through the heater core.

As mentioned above....there are a number of brands of "stop leak" out there.
I tell folks to take the time to look for the "Bar's" name on the label of the product that they are buying.
It is a proven product.

If you have a leak around the shaft of your water pump....the seals are shot...and coolant is likely not doing good things to the bearing.....so best route is to replace the pump.
 
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It depends on the car. Japanese cars have coolant circulating thoroughout the core at all times - unless the temp is set to cool, then a valve blocks it off - just like in older cars.

Mercedes and BMWs use a auxiliary water pump and a bimetallic "mono" valve to control the heater.
 
I used Bar's stop leak for an dodge dynasty gasket leak. It immediately plugged up the heater core. I freaked out, but got it to a shop who immediately back flushed it and freed it out.
We drained all that stuff out of there and put anti freeze back in.

Now I didn't use pellets I think the color of the bottle was silver for some reason. That was two years ago. I may have a head gasket leak on the Volvo but hesitate to use a stop leak on it.
 
Scroll down the PDF to the "All-Weather" seal in a bottle.Worked good in my sons Pontiac Sunfire 2.2L headgasket leaker.Bought this stuff at CarQuest.
 
Originally Posted By: volvomix
I used Bar's stop leak for an dodge dynasty gasket leak. It immediately plugged up the heater core. I freaked out, but got it to a shop who immediately back flushed it and freed it out.
We drained all that stuff out of there and put anti freeze back in.

Now I didn't use pellets I think the color of the bottle was silver for some reason. That was two years ago. I may have a head gasket leak on the Volvo but hesitate to use a stop leak on it.



Yeah, stay away from the bottled stuff. The pellets are a totally different product, and correct me if I'm wrong, cparksjr, but I believe the GM pellets are made by Bar's Leak, which they put in every engine that came off the line for years.
 
Also notice that GM's dosage recommendataions are much lower than Bar's Leak's. I could see overdosage causing a problem, too.
 
Yes we produce the GM tablets and many others which are shipped all over the world. This covers many domestic, import and heavy duty brands. The dosage does change depending on if the tablets are being used to solve an actual leak problem or if they are being used for preventative maintenance. The preventative maintenance dosage is basically 1/2 the normal dose and is used to take care of casting porosity, bolt threads, fittings, and other very minor issues.
 
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