Anyone ever have to deal with something stuck on the front of the radiator? In my case it looks almost like silly putty or gum, it's brown and it's kind of curled up like dog doo. It's the size of a cigarette lighter but laid out like an oval. It's large, it sticks out maybe an inch high.

I put a screwdriver through the grill and tried to scrape it off but it's on hard. I'm afraid it's going to break the radiator fins.

So does anyone think this will weaken the radiator at that spot because it might get too hot there? Here's my idea: It's cold now so it's stuck on but I'm going to drive it to work and pull it off when the radiator is hotter. If I'm lucky it will peel right off with a bit of coercion.

 

Strange.....be sure not to damage the rad when trying this.

If the "hot" rad doesn't work, next might be running some water on it, if it is dried on there this might help.

Pic's?

 

So here's what happened with this one.

The heat from the rad probably helped loosen it a little in the back but the front of the thing was already cold by the time I got home. I gave it some pressure with a flat head and it started peeling off! I peeled from all edges and eventually the sucker popped off and fell on the splash guard. I slammed on the splashguard and it eventually fell out. It's bubble gum! It's actually smaller than I remember it.

The cool part is the gum was just sitting on the rad. It hadn't actually melted through the fins. Probably because it's rubber? I don't know. There's still a little gum in the rad, probably about 1/16th of an inch. I can live with that.

But the relieving part is I had thought maybe there was a hole in the rad or they were missing fins so they decided to plug it with some kind of epoxy. I'm so glad it's off.

 

Coooool, glad it looks good for you