while i was workin on my car, i noticed that there were 2 small rubber plugs that were on of 2 metal things sticking out of the radiator. one was on each side of drain plug. one of the rubber plugs was ripped. i was just wondering if these were critical to the radiator or the cooling system. anyone have any ideas??
thanks

 

those things are what keeps the radiator from vibrating, if is ripped and is not bad, it's ok, if is really bad the go to a junkyard and buy it, is nothing to serious, the radiator sit in those.

see it
the rubber goes there:


and it fits on those two holes

 

i was referring to the metal think sticking out in the middle of the picture that curves up. there are 2 of those things

 

then you have an AUTO car, those are the trannies passages for cooling, yeah, change it cuz if you break it then you would lose tranny fluid and possibly blew the tranny

 

my car isnt auto. that metal thingy is just plugged. i was wondeirng why it was there.

 

if is plugged then is doing nothing, but that is a auto accord radiator, you can make engine oil flow through it, but is up to you

 

cool, thanks

 

Hey man, you either have the auto accord radiator, or an aftermarket one that is made for use in either auto or manual...mine does not need caps on the auto hook-ups but you might want to get them just for good measure...that is, if you have a manual

 

My 5 speed has nothign like this, interesting

 

weird, I noticed mine has those thingies too. It is a non-oem part. Probably like stated earlier, they can be used on the manual or auto cars.

Do not use the auto tranny portion of the radiator as a oil cooler, the fluids are not the same, they have different viscositys.

 

my radiator is stock. it has never been changed since it was brand new. i dont know why its a auto radiator, but it is.

 

That's how it is with Aftermarket radiators. They build one radiator for both the manual and auto (Unless it's a radiator built for total drag racing, then it's only manual). If you have a manual, just leave that thing alone and don't worry about it.... at least that's what I did and I've been fine.

 

True, BUT, remember that at operating temp the engine oil has about the same viscosity as ATF oil.
Secondly, have you seen the inside of that passages in a radiator? is just a straigh line with a pipe of about 1 cm (i'm metric guys), so it won't mather.
As for the ones that had this in their radiator and your car is manual, WEIRD, i pulled my radiator out and it didn't have them, mine is a 95 LX manual