TR2/3/3A TR3 rad recore

[Adrio]

I am about to have my TR3 rad recored. Any advice and/or experience from those who have gone this way before.

I am leaning towards having them put the starter hole in the rad. My current rad has the hole as well as about ten repairs which I assume blocked off about four more channels in the rad and I have not had overheating problems (one advantage of being in Canada I guess). Other then decreased cooling are there any problems with having the rad recored with the starter hole (as in do modern shops know how to handle putting a hole in the rad etc.)

 

[Don Elliott]

Chhose where you have it done with great care. Make sure you talk to the man who is going to do it. Make sure he puts it in the right place. Give him the dimensions how big you want it and where your want it so the crank through the hole lines up with the large crank-bolt. If he puts the new hole in the core a bit too low, you can add rubber pads under the mounting points, but if he puts the hole in too high - well thats's bad luck.

I had a rad shop do mine in 1991 for about $400.00 here in the Montreal area. The local TR repair shop guy sent me there because that's the shop who had done several for him over the years.

Try to find out from the TR guys you know in Ottawa where they had their rads re-cored and how satisfied they were with the results.

 

[TR3driver]

but if he puts the hole in too high - well thats's bad luck.

While I would certainly agree the hole should be in the right place, too high isn't necessarily a disaster. The factory sometimes used shims in the motor mounts to line the dog up with the hole.

In fact, two of the original shims fell out of TS39781LO when I pulled it's motor today.

 

[Adrio]

I don't imagine it was original but my parts car had a rad with a rectangular hole in the rad for the starter (longer in the vertical dimension but the same width as the original. I figure that was to get around having to shim anything. Given the hole is blocking vertical channels it would not change the cooling any. That rad is long gone.

 

[angelfj1]

I don't imagine it was original but my parts car had a rad with a rectangular hole in the rad for the starter (longer in the vertical dimension but the same width as the original. I figure that was to get around having to shim anything. Given the hole is blocking vertical channels it would not change the cooling any. That rad is long gone.

buongiorno Adrio

When I found by 3A in 1986, it had been hit in the front and the original radiator was replaced with a replacement unit from Triumph. See below this one had a rectangular opening for the crank. My understanding is that this size/shape hole was used so that replacement radiators were compatible with both current (TR4) and earlier (TR3A)units. For the restoration, we found a good used original radiator and had it refurbished.

caio

Frank