Having blonde moment with radiator

[Stev8s]

Have had a slight leak from radiator for ages on my V8S thought about a recore did not want to pay for posh ally one.Then bought one from david Gerald TVR.Did not think much of it at time but as evenings are getting lighter thought I would tackle replacement.Managed to get old one out in no time offered it up to new one this is when blonde moment occurred.New radiator spouts are in opposite corners to the one on car.Have looked at Barkychocs pics from previus threads and mine is same.My dilemma is do I have wrong radiator,can the pipes be reversed ie left to right plus new one does not seem to have bleed valve just a small spout.I probably have wrong radiator maybe there are left or right handed ones easiest option is to return it and go down recore route.Just thought I would check first!!!

[tvrgit]

Not sure what you mean by "reversing connections" - you can swap left to right, but you can't connect the bottom hose to the top stub and the top hose to the bottom stub - the radiator won't work properly if you reverse the direction of flow through it.

[Stev8s]

Top hose is on right but on new radiator it is on left opposite applies to bottom did not know whether pipework would allow you to reverse plus not sure about bleed valve.

[Gerald-TVR]

Picture would help - I have see a radiator installed the 'wrong way round' ie the bleed valve bottom right not top left. Sounds like the wrong rad

[Stev8s]

Sorry but have not yet mastered the art of adding pictures If you search radiator in thread second page dated feb 2009 there are some nice radiator pics my existing radiator is exactly the same with the bleed valve top left and top spout on the right it has the same mounting as new rad pins at bottom and top hat bolt mountings at top but top spout is on the left with some tiny spout on top right.I dont think pipe routing will allow me to reverse.New rad has V8S label on it It is same as old one just spouts are in opposite corners.I would say it is wrong one will have to speak to them in morning

[tvrgit]

This is the photo from the other thread:



If yours doesn't look like that then it sounds like it's the wrong one.

[Barkychoc]

The rad does have the pipe unions in the wrong corners - but I think it could be overcome if you wanted to go that route (was the rad cheap? I suspect not).

The pipe coming off the bottom of the engine needs to go to the bottom union of the rad - and the top rad connection needs to go to the front of the swirl pot. You may be able to juggle the pipes around to make it fit.
If you need some rigid pipe I have some 35mm copper pipe that will tide you over if required - you're not a million miles away from me.

Chris

[tvrgit]

Right this is getting confusing (maybe it's just me).

See that pic of Barkychoc's radiator I posted up? Is that the same as what's on the car, or the same as the one you bought?

That pic is the same as mine (an S3C). Is the V8 radiator different?

[ketvrin]

and heres some further cofusion for you... you know you said that if it was connected the wrong way around it would not flow correctly... its an upside down Sherpa Van radiator... so is the flow for the TVR the wrong way already ???

The radiator in the photo is the same as mine on the S3

K

[Barkychoc]

My response was based on Steves rad being the opposite of my rad pic - so with pipe unions top left and bottom right on Steve's rad.

My understanding is the rad needs hot water in at the top from the top of the engine (Via the swirl pot) and cool water out at the bottom back to the block.
Whether the unions are left or right doesn't matter if the pipework can be made to fit hot in to top, cool out of the bottom.

[tvrgit]

ketvrin said:

and heres some further cofusion for you... you know you said that if it was connected the wrong way around it would not flow correctly... its an upside down Sherpa Van radiator... so is the flow for the TVR the wrong way already ???

The radiator in the photo is the same as mine on the S3

K

No, what I meant was that the water flow through a vehicle radiator has to go IN the top and OUT the bottom. As the water is cooled by the airflow through the radiator, it sinks (convection, see?) and comes out the bottom, and goes back into the engine to be heated up again where it rises (convection again see!).

If you have hot water going in the bottom of the radiator, you're asking it to go UPWARDS as it cools, but it's then mixing with colder water trying to go DOWNWARDS by convection. Although the system is helped by the water pump, you're pumping against the laws of thermodynamics and it won't worky so goodly.

So turning the radiator upside down makes no difference The only reason the Sherpa radiator is upside down is so that what was once a drain tap, now serves as a bleed valve.

Plumbing it in upside down, does make a difference (or at least might, and in a cooling system as marginal as a TVR's, you don't want to be taking that chance!)

ETA - yeah what Chris said.

Edited by tvrgit on Friday 3rd April 12:45

[ketvrin]

Aha Gotcha thanks...

told you I was confused

K

[Stev8s]

Thanks guys for help my radiator off car is same as pic the one they sent even though marked up as V8S had top spout on left rather than right and bottom spout vice versa have got David Gerald Tvr to look at pic and have phoned to say have one the same so are posting out today.Sorry to cause some plumbing issues look forward to meeting you all at S club