Okay, so life after Katrina is still pretty bad down here in Mississippi. A whole year later we still have many people living in tents and hotels, seemingly forgotten by the media in favor of the much more interesting human-aided disaster in NOLA. My life was affected in a very negative way and the effects are still rippling through it on a weekly basis, if no longer daily, thankfully.

Last year I decided that I needed to get my 1990 740 running again; I wanted it to be as reliable as I could get it so that I could sell my new car and free up some badly needed funds. This would have gotten me through a pretty bad period after that damn storm. So I purchased a whole mess of parts on credit at IPD to do the resurrection.

So I was happy as a clam, dinking around with my car and improving it a little each afternoon. Then I leaned on my upper radiator hose and learned that my rad was ORIGINAL and about three years past the Freshness Date.

So I used up the last of the credit on my MasterCard to buy a three row HD from IPD.

It did not fit; not at all. For various reasons I have not been able to get under the hood since about December and had to leave the car without coolant in it over the winter (which was very, very mild this year).

My problems with both the radiator and my car:

1. Lower hose has no room as the pipe from the radiator firmly touches the car (zero damage to car, no alignment problems) and tranny lines must be bent to fit.
2. Heat sensor WILL NOT screw in more than three quarters of the way (not cross-threaded).
3. The plastic area where the top brackets screw into place has brass inserts in the plastic and it is cracking around the inserts.
4. Thermostat stud broke off with about 1/4" sticking up above the head.

Today I plan on using PB Blaster on the stud and pulling the radiator to work on the heat sensor. If these things go well I ought to be able to get this thing running by tomorrow after charging the battery. When that is accomplished I will change all of the rubber under the hood and start from that point with my refit of this car.

Questions for the Jury:

1. Using PB Blaster on my t-stat stud . . . can I just use a cloth in the hole to keep over-spray/runoff out of the engine?
2. Heat Sensor? Can a thread chaser be purchased at Sears (wherever) for this thing? Despite what IPD told me about Nissens quality, it has solder all in the threads and needs to be cleaned out. I do not want to use a torch for fear of weakening something. Can a radiator shop do this for me?
3. Cracking around the mounting threads? Uh . . . now what can I do about that? Should I worry or is this normal?
4. There is a square, C-shaped strip of metal running along near my lower hose port on the radiator. It seems to do nothing and has nothing mounted to it. It is far too small to be or structural importance. Can I just use a BFH on it and bend that last two inches of its length out of the way? Everything will then fit nicely. But I am afraid to just take a hammer to that area. (Actually, I would have to set a pry bar against it and hammer on that to get to it.)
5. The car spent the entire (again, VERY mild) winter with no fluids in it (no coolant and low oil). How do I get these back in and be certain of having no air in my system?
6. Does the T-stat need a gasket on the 740? It looked like it has some sort of sealant on it. What was that? Do I need it?

After all of this abuse and neglect, if I get her running I plan on getting the car checked out at a dealership and have a pre-purchase inspection done. Those have always proven to be helpful guides to me for fixing up older cars.

Any advice or answers to my questions?

Thanks in advance, folks!

Wade
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Mama always told me to eschew obfuscation . . .