456 GTA Modificato rad out for repair

I have never done it myself, but I suggest you remove the front bumper, as it is very easy and will provide you with lots of access.

 

Hej,

it is quite a long and tedious process to remove the radiator because there are so many air shields that sits on radiator, the top one is really hard to remove as the seal will probably have melted firmly on the radiator. You need to remove the bumper and be aware that the oil cooler contains a lot of oil, the tough part is removing the aircon radiator as the attachments do sit in a very tight spot.

good luck.

 

Lard – I am not sure if you have a workshop manual. If not, you can download one here: www.ferraridatabase.com. I did not check if there is a section about the water radiator.

Markus

 

Please post pictures, especially while you are taking it apart. Could be very useful for others and for yourself in case you need to know what goes where.

 

That's the cooler for the power steering.

 

Hi

Can you confirm that you can remove the water radiator without emptying / removing the AC radiator?

Regards. Ole Andreas

 

If they can do an acid flush, it might be worth trying. None of the tech literature on our V12s says to change the coolant, so it was not done on quite a few cars for quite a few years. With no coolant additives, corrosion products almost like calcium deposits can build up on the interior of the radiator that do not respond well to normal flush techniques. Needless to say, this scale does not have good heat transfer properties.

 

@ Playframe: What was your initial reason for pulling? Were you overheating, or was it a leak?

FWIW (and I'm sure your radiator shop will probably do this) get all the crud blown out of the core and the fins combed straight again, if possible.

Had my 550's radiator "professionally" cleaned & serviced by a radiator shop, and it made not a whit of difference in my overheating problem. That was only my situation of course, YMMV.

 

The fan runs a lot on all the cars I've seen so i doubt you'll see much difference in running time. I always thought the radiator fan was needlessly noisy and am looking to replace it with one with a better blade, there are plenty of universal fans on Ebay with blades that look as if they will produce less noise than the SPAL unit in there.
Hope you found the source of the leak!

 

Hope the fix works out well for you. Replacement rads have a pretty punchy price point !

 

yes your recore/rebuild is definately the way to go. Have been exploring a couple of M's lately, they seem great cars.

 

This may sound a bit crazy, but has anyone used a vinegar flush in the radiator to remove built up scale?
With tankless water heaters the maintenance procedure on a yearly basis, is to cycle vinegar through the copper heater core, to remove scale build up from minerals in tap water. Vinegar dissolves the deposits on contact.
It works well for this application. Just wondering if the same would be beneficial to auto radiators.

 

I have the same leak at the top of my 456m radiator, did your shop repair the leak
with epoxy, shops here in the us say are rads can't take a weld.
Ron Davis quoted me $1.700 for a new aluminum custom radiator.
D.

 

Daniel- The Ron Davis radiators have worked well for several owners. If you decide to go that route, best to send him, or at least heavily photograph, your old one so he can get the connectors correct. Seems like there were a lot of minor changes to the hose connectors on the 456/456M series of radiators.