Anyone Ever Have Success Straightening Radiator Fins?

I have the radiator out to do the timing belt (awesome video Timmy the Toyotaman!). Has anyone ever had success straightening those fins, or should I just forget about it? I did hose the thing off, though.

 

small flathead, no beer, and take your time.

 

Do a search on automotive radiator brush/fin straightener.

 

thats interesting, I'm assuming this works on condensers as well?

 

Use an HVAC fin comb

 

Yes, that's what it's advertised as.

 

Wow! Way cool. Never heard of that tool before. Thanks.

 

Probably not worth it. You will likely not see any gain that you are looking for.

 

I've got one of those tools pictured above that I bought from HF over 10 yrs ago. It has been useless for me, has never matched the fins on any Japanes vehicle I've tried it on. Never tried it on American or European though.

I just use tweezers, time consuming but works for me. Just straightened my condenser a couple of months ago, luckily there wasn't a lot of bent fins.

 

Old credit or debit card works the best

 

no beer? You're no fun at all.

 

Your better just getting a new radiator now because they only cost around 100.00
The radiators need to be replaced sooner or later because of junk in them and the
plastic tanks do crack in time as they get older. If it’s an old radiator older than 10 years just replace it.

 

Here's some first-hand experience for you:

In 2012 I washed out my radiator using the garden hose and a nozzel. I bent a lot of fins in the process. I tried to straighten them out with a screwdriver and various other means including "combs", then after getting maybe a 1/4 of them somewhat straight I just gave up and reinstalled the radiator.

Since then, my driving areas and habits have not changed. I still go off-road in the hot hot SE Utah deserts in June and September/October and drive the interstate at 80 mph. If I use my imagination, and I mean REALLY use my imagination, it looks like the temperature gauge needle rose maybe 1/4 of its width up from where it ran before I "cleaned" the radiator, but in any event it never rises above the halfway point.

 

I mean, if you're looking for something to do, go ahead, but I wouldn't bother buying a special tool for it. I have 130k miles on my rad and never even considered doing this. It's got a few bends but nothing that would effect the cooling in any sort of measurable way.

If you feel have to straighten for fins more than once every 500k miles, maybe consider a grill guard.

 

An exacto knife worked the best for me.