• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Thoughts on this product?

Share this page

They have good feedback which says something.
 
it is good to 450hp :smile:
 
Didn't the later Model Midget have a totally different radiator design from the early cars with their top tank raditor?

FWIW, I have a buddy, who has bought a good many of the Chinese aluminum radiators for the Minis, and has good luck with them, no issues, thisa company has also offered MGB unit in the past as well, i heard fo a few folks buying them and heard no complaints. The chinese are blwing the aluminum radiator prices out big time, hard not to take a look at them for those prices.

I uise a 1980 VW Rabbit radiators in hte Midget race cars, it's a Valeo brand, aluminum center core with palstic side tanks, cross flow design, and only weighs like 5-6 pounds, and cool the crap out of the race cars. We ran them for years in the Midget race cars, but keep in mind we remove all the original radiator shrouding, which some guys may not want to do with street car.
 
Yup, it is a different model than the down flow units, but I need a new crossflow unit for my Midget. However, I have seen some bugeyes converted to crossflow.
 
I'm having issues with temps creeping up significantly on Bugsy my '68 with BE Bonnet on it and a 1098. Thinking about taking a look at a different radiator. Fine around town but at 65 mph + temps creep up halfway between N and very warm. Around town gauge stays below N. Has not overheated but higher than when I first added the BE Bonnet.

And no Trevor I never got that kink out of the top hose. That will be my first step. I have an issue with radiator outlet direction on a 1098 when used with a crossflow radiator. Even though outlet is turned to almost point in the correct direction, hose narrows significantly in one point. I need to come up with a different top hose combination to get the narrowing out, perhaps a 45 degree copper elbow and cut the current hose.

Anyone use a 1098 with a Crossflow radiator? Tricks?
 
I would think it needs to be a bigger surface area. Aluminum does not conduct as good as copper or brass. My brother just bought a big aluminum one for his 70 challenger with a 440 engine and its running hot. The cops used to run the heck out of those 440s and run me down with the brass/copper radiators running a/c and all that. They do look nice and someone had a 4 core one at the meet up a couple years ago. I have been running the heck out of mine now that I got the head gasket problem solved and its not running hot at all. Mine was just bought from Tony a while back. I still got the 1/2" copper lines run through the tunnel to the back and connected to the extra heater core I have back there, but I don't need it now and I was down in SC yesterday and it was HOTTT!
 
And where oh where is the source of such a spring?
 
Almost embarrassed to ask, but seemed like a good time to ask. What is normal operating temperature with 7 psi cap? If I recall correctly, water boils at 212F @ 0 psig and ~ 230F @ 7 psig. I'm concerned since my temp has started to creep up.

Thanks,


p.s. Bryan, hello, just realized you had earlier post.
 
Man that's cheap. My radiator guy estimates that much to recore a downflow I have with a bad core to more efficient core's. Swapping them back and forth is'nt difficult just need shroud, cross pipe, header tank, hoses and themostat elbow. [I've got piles of parts!]
Kurt.
 
regularman said:
...I would think it needs to be a bigger surface area. Aluminum does not conduct as good as copper or brass. ...
Click to expand...
Bulk thermal conductivity is not the only factor, or even the most significant factor, in radiator performance.

A higher conductivity material can flow less heat overall if there's a poorer connection path through it between the heat source and sink.

Probably the most important factor in a fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger is volume to surface area ratio. (not just frontal cross sectional surface area, but all surface area exposed to flow)

Because of its much greater structural strength compared to copper or brass, aluminum can be formed into tubes of smaller size and thinner section, arranged in greater density while still maintaining mechanical integrity. (Keep in mind these are pressurized systems. Surface area, which is good for cooling, is bad for strength.)

The practical result is that a <span style="font-style: italic">well designed</span> aluminum radiator can dissipate more heat in the same space.

Unfortunately, just because a radiator is made of aluminum doesn't mean it's designed or constructed well or even made of an appropriate alloy. And usable engineering specs are completely nonexistent for aftermarket radiators.

So buying one comes down to how much you trust your vendor.


pc.
 
OK Trevor. Buy one of these and test it for the rest of us!!!
KURT.
 
PC said:
regularman said:
...I would think it needs to be a bigger surface area. Aluminum does not conduct as good as copper or brass. ...
Click to expand...
Bulk thermal conductivity is not the only factor, or even the most significant factor, in radiator performance.

A higher conductivity material can flow less heat overall if there's a poorer connection path through it between the heat source and sink.

Probably the most important factor in a fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger is volume to surface area ratio. (not just frontal cross sectional surface area, but all surface area exposed to flow)

Because of its much greater structural strength compared to copper or brass, aluminum can be formed into tubes of smaller size and thinner section, arranged in greater density while still maintaining mechanical integrity. (Keep in mind these are pressurized systems. Surface area, which is good for cooling, is bad for strength.)

The practical result is that a <span style="font-style: italic">well designed</span> aluminum radiator can dissipate more heat in the same space.

Unfortunately, just because a radiator is made of aluminum doesn't mean it's designed or constructed well or even made of an appropriate alloy. And usable engineering specs are completely nonexistent for aftermarket radiators.

So buying one comes down to how much you trust your vendor.


pc.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I have seen some of the welding on the tanks parts of the aluminum radiators that looks like I did it at home. Most motorcycle radiators are aluminum and they work good as long as you take care of them but corrosion is crippling to them inside. They can't be soldered or worked on (I have tried with a tig freq unit) and I would feel better with copper or brass. I am old fashioned I guess. Most new cars got aluminum radiators with plastic tanks on the side, but I think its a cost savings rather than better quality. Looking over my brother's, I couldn't see that the core was any smaller. I know what you mean by smaller density of the tubes, some of those Mercedes heater cores were amazing for their size but they were copper. If they did that with aluminum that would be awesome but I have not seen a real smaller size in a car radiator.
 
Back
Top