Re-core a rad ... but with less tubes?

[Ireland]

I enquired about getting my old rad re-cored but the crowd who do them wanted to use a core with less tubes than the original.

They are saying"oh it'll be fine, it's been done before and there were no problems".

I've held off getting it done, my thinking is that more tubes, i.e. more cooling, is good but less tubes with surely reduce the amount of cooling

Am I right?

[Jhonno]

By "tubes" I assume you mean cores? Less wil give less surface area to conduct heat.. Unless they are bigger cores, which might counteract it.

[Ireland]

They just said it was less tubes, 12 less than the original rad

I'm reluctant to go for anything less than what was in it, the original was ok but only ok and I'm thinking that I could live to regret anything less

The day I'm sitting there with a seriously overheated engine and possibly a blown head gasket could be the day I think back to taking a chance on a rad

[jamieduff1981]

Sounds like a bodge using some old crap they have lying around to me.

[morebeanz]

Forget it will be ok, if they can't tell you why it would be better, then tell them to sod off.

The Cerb is marginal unless everything is brand new. so you don't need to add stress to the system...

[kstearn]

Seems to me you already know the answer. You're gut feeling is usually the right one.
Two ways to look at this:
If your Rad is on a bench looking sad, christmas around the corner, need a quick fix, then the less tubes re-core from bodge-it and scarper. might be the way ahead.

Option 2 which is where you'll probably end up anyway, when your sick to death of staring at the temperature gauge is to spend now and get an ally performance rad from ACT or wherever they're all the same, about 400 quid but looks great and enough feedback on here, tells you they work pretty well also.

Ive just stuck one in mine, with a new air con condenser in front of it, and it looks great, your're choice, but money will inevitably have to be spent, all the best.
Karl

[Ireland]

kstearn said:

Seems to me you already know the answer. You're gut feeling is usually the right one.

Yeah I think I sort of had my mind made up already to say no to this option.

The car hasn't been on the road in awhile and really I'm just thinking of having it mobile again for next summer so there's no rush.

[Byker28i]

I had extra cores put in mine for additional cooling when I had mine rebuilt. The company that rebuilt it said they'd done it for other TVRs as well. That and the cooling fan coming on earlier has madde a huge difference in hot weather and traffic.