Hello all, new to this forum. I ordered a new GM radiator for my truck among other cooling system parts. I have a 96 Chev K3500 with diesel and a 480 auto trans.
The radiator looks identical and when I ordered it, it stated that the drain petcock was not included, so I also ordered one of those. Went to install today, and there is a (shipping?) plug where the petcock goes, that I can't seem to get out. It does have the channel for the pin on the petcock to ride as you twist to install/remove it. I tried needle noe pliers as well as an easy out just to see if it would start turning, and it did not. Picture enclosed. And help would be greatly appreciated.


As you can see, this radiator should have a petcock. I ran water thru the radiator to flush anything out and to see if water would drain out this port.

 

So did water come out of the drain? I see there’s water droplets above the valve but you didn’t actually clarify if it did.

There’s only 2 possibilities I can think of, both of which will require contacting GM or a radiator repair shop to verify.

1) Radiator drains aren’t as common as they used to be, and that radiator probably fits several different years and types of trucks. The drain may not be accessible depending on the truck, so it’s molded with a closed drain and requires drilling out for those that want the drain valve functional. Of course that would depend on if the drain nipple is actually closed off.

2) Defect of manufacturing - it was supposed to be open and was overlooked during manufacturing. Your choices would be to drill it out yourself or request a replacement.