I assume this world-renowned "Expert" KNOWS this person's financial situation (if a guy asks about trying to fix a radiator leak and not replace, it sounds like he's just trying to get by until he can or afford it). I gave options and he barged in with the typical social skills of a neanderthal, and bangs on people. Expected behavior for one from the Bay Area, as I have seen and work with people from that specific area. Not that all are that way. I'm sure he is a hit with all the 20-somethings in the shipping department and they look up to him as a God as he obviously has a self-image problem which most likely stems from his childhood (Dad: "You can't do anything right"). I appreciate this site and the contributions you make and keep it up, Jeep Momma!
Thanks for the scathing rebuke and psychology lesson. You're obviously butt hurt over my response and seem to be projecting your own issues onto someone that you don't even know. This is a public forum and it was an open question so there was no butting in. Your advice is still bad and you should probably have thicker skin on this forum and stay away from the fix-it-in-a-can aisle at the parts store. Jeep Momma has thicker skin than you do. Instead, consider chiming in with your first hand experience where your proposed solution actually worked.
Radiator stop-leak products can and do make a mess of the entire cooling system and it is very difficult to clean out when you finally do have to perform the repair properly. JB Weld or something similar may work temporarily to repair a crack in the plastic tank but there is usually no way to get the epoxy inside of the crack. It would be just a surface repair that won't hold up long term to the pressures seen in a modern cooling system and the coolant will probably start making its way past the surface repair. I've used JB Weld to repair leaks before and it didn't work at all - started leaking right away and the JB Weld came off.
Looking at the pics that Jeep Momma/Tammy posted, it appears that her radiator was leaking at the seam between the plastic tank and the aluminum core. That is where a lot them leak anyway, versus a crack in plastic tanks. There is no way to fix that without replacing the entire radiator. These plastic tanks aren't designed to be removed and re-sealed. And JB Weld wont fix that either. FWIW, I've taken these radiators apart (to recover the recyclable aluminum not to repair them) and they are not repairable in that way.
Before the advent of plastic tank / aluminum radiators, radiator repair shops were a lot more ubiquitous. They could remove the brass tanks, replace the radiator core, solder the tanks back into place and also braze any holes in the tanks. Shops that specialize in radiators are now mostly extinct.
I'm sure Tammy is a nice person. It's just fun to heckle her a little given her past history on this forum.
The OP made no indication that they were necessarily on a budget. Everyone wants to do a repair as inexpensively as possible. The radiator that I am suggesting, while more than the price of a can of stop-leak + JB Weld, is still relatively inexpensive @$183 compared to other options (such as Mopar radiator or a full aluminum radiator). It also has a lifetime warranty.
Buy Mishimoto R2957-MT Plastic End-Tank Radiator Compatible With Jeep Wrangler 2007-2018 at Amazon. Customer reviews and photos may be available to help you make the right purchase decision!
www.amazon.com
It's not that shops are trying to make the most money possible by sticking customers for the higher repair cost of replacing a radiator. The cheapest way to perform a repair is to do it properly and do it one time. Didn't your father tell you that? Mine did.
Oh, and I almost forgot....
You're the one who goofed here. If I was the forum police, you would have gotten a ticket for sure.
