S Series radiator options.

[phillpot]

Ceejay73 said:

mentall said:

What a wonderful forum this is! Thanks to all concerned.

So presumably, for those of a penny-piching persuasion like me, this could easily be made to fit? Adequate for a 218BHP Impreza Turbo.

That appears to be a standard rad with 26mm thick core, presumably single row and may not be man enough.
The one I used is the uprated aftermarket all alloy version for that model car.

At that price you could fit two

[mentall]

phillpot said:

At that price you could fit two

Mike, I don't think you've quite grasped the principle of penny-pinching..........

Sadly, my original (leaky) rad has a matrix about 45mm thick. So the uprated Subie rad is approximately the same cooling size. 26mm won't do.

However, mine is pretty clean: try a solder repair, perhaps.

[zombeh]

Ceejay73 said:

I will start by apologising, this post may go on a bit but thought it worth doing as it may be of use to someone.

It was, it sat around in the back of my mind somewhere and when all the water fell out of my shiny expensive alloy radiator "subaru impreza" eventually worked its way out.

I've just done very similar to my V8, I welded up the pin mounting holes in the chassis and redrilled them for the subaru rad (15mm closer together and a little closer to the front of the car) and made some aluminium inserts to go in the top that fit to the original mounts on the radiator frame.

The top hose on the V8 needs to be changed from a strangely shaped one to a normal 90 degree bend but other than that it fitted really nicely.

I went for a shiny blingy aluminium one with a similar thinkness core to the radtec one it replaced as I wasn't brave enough to stick a £50 Subaru one with the plastic tanks into a TVR engine bay. I don't believe the Impreza has any cooling issues with the standard rad but I expect it's all properly ducted and designed with maths and science rather than however TVR decided what size rad to use.

The Mishimoto radiator I've used is not as well made as the radtec one but for half the price I'm relatively happy.

[Ceejay73]

Nice one Steve. Glad the post was of use to somebody.

[TVRees]

Going off thread a little, but I just noticed this small gem of information .....

mk1fan said:

Fitting the Ford (or cheaper VW item) oil/coolant heat exchanger should help regulate / even out the temp across the engine and mitigate the overcooling of a larger rad.

What is the "Ford oil/coolant heat exchanger" ?
And, where is it fitted ?

[phillpot]

TVRees said:

What is the "Ford oil/coolant heat exchanger" ?
And, where is it fitted ?

Also known as a Modine oil cooler ...




Ford fitted it (on Granada's) directly between the oil filter and the block but no room on an S.

Edited by phillpot on Tuesday 10th May 23:44

[TVRees]

I think I might have one of those, from my 60 quid 1990 Scorpio wreck.

So, the question is " is it worth fitting ? "

and, if YES, can anyone point me in the right direction regarding the " the remote filter kit " which is mentioned.

[phillpot]

TVRees said:

can anyone point me in the right direction regarding the " the remote filter kit " which is mentioned.

Demon Tweeks
Burton Performance
Rallydesign
Merlin Motorsport
JJC Race and Rally...................





.............Or good old Ebay

TVRees said:

So, the question is " is it worth fitting ? "

Probably not to be honest, dozens of S's happily running around without one

Edited by phillpot on Friday 13th May 09:27

[mk1fan]

Mocal do a take off plate that you fit where the filter currently is. You then need two hoses to fun to where you decide to mount the filter. Then you need to fabricate a bracket to hold the remote filter boss (top piece in phillpot's photo). Again Mocal have a range.

Then fit the oil cooler. Then fit the filter.

Finally you need to sort some hoses to connect the coolant supply. I will use the 15mm hose from the swirlpot.

Locating the kit is up to you. I'll be putting my two installs where the battery tray is. I think that there is the space to locate it there if the battery remains.

[Kitchski]

Just my two penneth, but a radiator can't overcool an engine, that's why we have thermostats! The Cologne doesn't need a heat exchanger or anything like that, so if you do it, so it because you want to, not because you think it'll make it behave any better. It'll warm the oil a bit quicker, that's about it.

[GreenV8S]

Kitchski said:

Just my two penneth, but a radiator can't overcool an engine, that's why we have thermostats!

True, if the cooling system is designed correctly. But wasn't it the V6 S series that had a degas line that effectively bypassed the stat? I may be misremembering, and even if it's a problem the solution is to fix the cooling system design, not to try to work around it with radiator sizing, but don't take for granted that the cooling system is designed correctly.

Edited by GreenV8S on Friday 13th May 00:12

[greymrj]

I had a little bit of luck which may help someone else.
When I removed the rad I found the bottom locating plate (full width of the rad) had split off the rad at one side. No leaks but clearly not a good idea to have the rad loose so I googled and found the local specialist, Phoenix Radiators..

When I took it in he immediately said 'LDV or Freight Rover', when I said no he immediately said 'TVR then'!
This was in Chorley next door to Leyland and apparently he used to do a lot of work for Leyland motors. So that is the source, although not much good to us now as the rads were made for Leyland in S Wales and the company no longer exists.
However he happens to have a number in stock! I was in a rush so didn't go into details but he would be prepared to help any TVR owner.

He is at http://www.phoenix-radiators.co.uk/

His charge for my rad was very fair and looks a very neat job.
Incidentally he said mine had been re-cored at some time as it has a c50mm core. He can do that to other S rads.

[phillpot]

My understanding is that all the tvr rads had a thicker core than the Sherpa van rads?

[greymrj]

phillpot said:

My understanding is that all the tvr rads had a thicker core than the Sherpa van rads?

Quite possibly but I cant tell from mine. I do know it had a minor accident some years before I got it, hence the V8 bonnet, and I am pretty sure the rad isn't original as the matrix is in far too good condition and one mounting is in far better paint condition than the other.

[v8s4me]

I had an OE rad re-cored earlier in the year. The guy said it was a Sherpa core so I'm assuming it was a standard off the shelf Sherpa core he put in it. Anyway, the old-skool rad seems to run cooler than the fragile and very expensively pretty alloy one it replaced.

[GreenV8S]

Rads work much better when they're new, clean and free from corrosion. Even if the new OE rad was nominally a lower spec than the old alloy one, it could easily work better when new.

[phillpot]

Both "Alternative Parts" list quote it as Leyland van with extra core and I thought that was the general consensus of opinion from comments on here over the years?..................

[v8s4me]

How many cores did the standard one have? I think mine has three rows, exactly the same depth as the OE one. All other dimensions were the same as well.

Unfortunately this photo is out of focus but it does show the three water channels per row...



Better photo but number of channels less clear...



There is a note of the dimensions of the OE one on this post

Edited by v8s4me on Sunday 27th August 18:14

[christianyoung]

Ceejay73 said:

An added bonus of this rad is that it has a drain tap at the bottom and a small vent pipe at the top which will be joined into the vent from the thermostat housing to the swirl pot. When done this means that the rad will self bleed meaning nomore worries about radiator air locks.

i'm in the process of doing this to my car, from what i understand (im not with the car atm) there are two pipes coming from the thermostat to the swirlpot (3&7), which do you join in too, or are they obviously different sizes?

[Kitchski]

christianyoung said:

i'm in the process of doing this to my car, from what i understand (im not with the car atm) there are two pipes coming from the thermostat to the swirlpot (3&7), which do you join in too, or are they obviously different sizes?

Depends what swirl pot you have. I'm assuming that's the diagram for a V8S?