Bargain Alloy Radiator
Discussion
Picked one up earlier, had to open the box to check there was something in it as it felt so light 
Was expecting a little family run business so thought I might be able to bid them down even further turning up with paper money, didn't work but they're really nice people and I ended up chatting with them for quite a while, just mentioning Pistonheads got me a good discount. Don't think that they're stocking the one with the bent bottom pipe without the sensor hole in it anymore, but he gave me a bung to fit in the hole if I decide not to use it. Might polish the bits that will be on show
Was expecting a little family run business so thought I might be able to bid them down even further turning up with paper money, didn't work but they're really nice people and I ended up chatting with them for quite a while, just mentioning Pistonheads got me a good discount. Don't think that they're stocking the one with the bent bottom pipe without the sensor hole in it anymore, but he gave me a bung to fit in the hole if I decide not to use it. Might polish the bits that will be on show
As someone posted on the page before, check the width of the top brackets. Mine needed a bit of a trim! http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
)Fitted this last night and it took me about 3 hours in the end, 2 hours to get the old one out and an hour to fit the new one and bleed the system. The biggest problem that I had was getting the old one out, the hoses have been on there 16ish years so were welded solid and the tabs where there bolt holes are make it very difficult to remove the radiator without damaging all of the paintwork.
A few things to note: As someone else said, the bolts for the fans won't fit the new radiator. I had been doing a bit of roofing and some of the tek screws that I had fitted perfectly. If you've got aircon then the condenser is fitted with bolt holes that go through the fitting tabs for the radiator, which aren't there on the new radiator so you'll have to drill them. The bleed screw in the top of the new radiator hasn't got a hole in it, it's just a plastic screw with a bit of ptfe on it so you have to screw it all of the way out to bleed the system.
The new radiator was 10 times easier to fit than the old one was to remove. It took 2 of us wiggling and pulling to remove the old one, I dropped the new one in on my own in a couple of minutes. The radiator comes out and goes in with the fans fitted, the hoses all fitted perfectly and all of the holes were in the right place. I think that it sits a little bit further back than the old radiator. I have a finger sized gap between the front panel and the radiator, but it may have been like that before and I've only noticed it now because I've thrown the old air condenser in the bin. There are inch thick rubber washers positioning the radiator so it will be easy to change this.
The new radiator works much better than the old one, but I don't have much to compare it to as I've removed the knackered condenser that was sitting in front of it and my old radiator was all bunged up and leaked like a sieve
A few things to note: As someone else said, the bolts for the fans won't fit the new radiator. I had been doing a bit of roofing and some of the tek screws that I had fitted perfectly. If you've got aircon then the condenser is fitted with bolt holes that go through the fitting tabs for the radiator, which aren't there on the new radiator so you'll have to drill them. The bleed screw in the top of the new radiator hasn't got a hole in it, it's just a plastic screw with a bit of ptfe on it so you have to screw it all of the way out to bleed the system.
The new radiator was 10 times easier to fit than the old one was to remove. It took 2 of us wiggling and pulling to remove the old one, I dropped the new one in on my own in a couple of minutes. The radiator comes out and goes in with the fans fitted, the hoses all fitted perfectly and all of the holes were in the right place. I think that it sits a little bit further back than the old radiator. I have a finger sized gap between the front panel and the radiator, but it may have been like that before and I've only noticed it now because I've thrown the old air condenser in the bin. There are inch thick rubber washers positioning the radiator so it will be easy to change this.
The new radiator works much better than the old one, but I don't have much to compare it to as I've removed the knackered condenser that was sitting in front of it and my old radiator was all bunged up and leaked like a sieve
VictorMeldrew said:
A Caution. I had an alloy rad made years back, before they were readily available, and it was quite expensive. Made by a reputable and experienced outfit who copied my existing rad as a template. Unfortunately it didn't last long before leaking.
I now have a RadTec replacement, which I haven't yet fitted I'll admit, but having spoken to the manufacturer I was assured that these were designed specifically for the TVR to avoid leaks. The fact that he described exactly what would fail if his "tweaks" were not used, and that the failures described exactly what HAD failed on mine, was reassuring. I'm not going to give away his trade secrets on an open forum but if the manufacturers of your rad are not aware of the Chimarea's foibles you may find the rad isn't quite such a bargain. I hope I'm wrong, so please post back in a few months!
As a update to this a radtec rad fitted for three years and it has failed fyiI now have a RadTec replacement, which I haven't yet fitted I'll admit, but having spoken to the manufacturer I was assured that these were designed specifically for the TVR to avoid leaks. The fact that he described exactly what would fail if his "tweaks" were not used, and that the failures described exactly what HAD failed on mine, was reassuring. I'm not going to give away his trade secrets on an open forum but if the manufacturers of your rad are not aware of the Chimarea's foibles you may find the rad isn't quite such a bargain. I hope I'm wrong, so please post back in a few months!
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