Found my pliers...

Uh oh, what's that dripping from my Jeep? Looks like coolant. Better pop the hood and take a look...

Hey, there's my welding pliers! Oh wait a minute...(Puts 2+2 together)...berkeley!

Yes, they are indeed lodged in the radiator. Pulling them out seemed to only worsen the leak significantly, like pulling a blunt object out of an arterial wound.

As best I can surmise, I must have left them in there the weekend before last and they must have waited until today to fall into the fan, which in turn propelled them into the radiator. I would have thought this might have caused some damage to the fan or fan clutch, but fortunately both seem OK.

So what does the hive recommend for stock replacement radiators?

Doh!

The longest lasting aftermarket rad I've had in my ZJ has been the cheap, "Pro" brand one from Rockauto. Lived about 4 years until I accidentally dropped a harmonic balancer into it...

Even an expensive Griffin barely made the 2 year mark and all of the others I tried died around 18 months. The stock one made it 10 years though...

When things like this happen I can't help but think people are an Irishman like me and have the crazy series of events that lead up to the finale. Like this song I love: The sick note

I hate it when that happens.

Yeah, that sucks. I have just been going with the O'Reilly's radiators and have had good results, and a life time guarantee.

I once saw a coolant filter dropped into a fan shroud (though we thought it fell through to the service access area), when the old Mack was started up it pushed the filter through the radiator off the support back through the radiator into the fan again then thrown over the back of the double trailers. Luckily there was no one working in that area of the shop. Oh yeah, it was a one year only Mack and no one stocked a radiator for it. I had to have a new core made. Hate this sort of thing.

David S. Wallens wrote: Doh!

Yea, pretty much sums it up . Hard to even be pissed about it since it's my own stupid fault, just have to laugh it off.

Doh! +2 Yep... sometimes you just have to laugh and accept your fate.

I looked at buying a radiator for my Cummins some years ago, but a local radiator shop in NJ was able to beat Rockauto on price and had it the next day.

I did something like that. I was changing the fan clutch in my truck in the parking lot in zero degree winter weather. I figured my frozen hands would get the bottom nuts better if I bumped the engine over, but I never pulled the coil wire, so I started the engine and sent the half-attached fan flying through the radiator.

Sorry, man!

I once spent 4 years looking for my one set of vice grips.... Then i decided to do the brakes on a car that had been sitting a while...pulled the rear wheels and there was my vice grips on a rusted folded over brake line clamping it tight....

Also try Coolest Radiator. I've had a good experience with them. Matches OEM.