Has anyone changed a radiator?

Nice. Thanks. I plan on just patching it for now. Probably wait until after holidays to replace it.

 

You'll also want a new accumulator. The current one will be saturated with moisture (which is it's job) since the system has been opened to atmosphere.
Dad built a vacuum pump out of a water cooler compressor. It's mounted in an old aluminum casserole dish (yes, cookware ) so it has handles on it and sits flat on the floor. Hook up the gauges and that baby will pull a full 29 inches of vacuum. Not as fast as a shop machine, but just as well. I like to let mine sit overnight (unplugged). If the vacuum holds overnight, I know I don't have any leaky joints and it's ready to charge.

Fortunately I've not had to use it in a long time. I had about 3 failed compressors on different vehicles over a 5 year period; two I converted to 134a. But no problems with anything since then.

AC work isn't my fav, but I can do it, only because dad taught me how. As he did most of my other mechanical things. It's good to learn from someone as gifted as he was.

 

Thanks for the tip, makes sense to me. I will use this 55/45 mix. Like I said the last couple of years my truck has been cold soaked to -42 or so Celsius. It usually gets plugged in on a timer but some how my wife's RAV4 gets to live in the garage.

 

Got it changed, all good no more leak. Noticed the AC condenser was pushed back out of its bottom rubber clips so it was hitting the radiator... Popped it back and all good. Both the rad and condenser were bowed in at bottom, looks like the previous owner hit a snow bank or something and it also looks like that was the cause of my leak, the fan had hit the rad, scored it and caused it to leak... Then to add insult to injury he put slimy old stop leak in it. When I had the coolant system flushed to try to clear it out it must have caused it to stop sealing and start leaking again. If only people would fix things properly the first time...