V8S Radiator - Out With Old.....

[v8s4me]

In with the umm, well old I suppose..



Thanks again to Tinks for his old rad. Now re-cored at a cost of £220. So around half the price of yet another new alloy rad. Let's hope this one lasts.

Edited by v8s4me on Monday 3rd April 22:57

[SJS357]

What was the issue Joe?
Looks great and like the price.

[v8s4me]

It was leaking. Same as the last one but from a different place. Both Radtech so very disappointing. To be fair to Radtech (and thanks to ACT), they did offer to replace the rad for £220 but I'd no reason to suppose a new one would have been any better than the previous two, and if it did go again then it would have been another £220 or £400 depending on how generous they were feeling. I have a 12 month grantee on the re-core so I shouldn't be out of pocket if it does give me any problems. I've run it up to operating temperature (ie when the fan comes on) and let it cool three times so far and it seems to be OK. There's lots of newspaper under the car so tomorrow morning will tell.

[DJR 7]

Not what I wanted to hear, my old one was leaking so I've replaced it with a Radtech one .... fingers crossed.

[v8s4me]

DJR 7 said:

Not what I wanted to hear, my old one was leaking so I've replaced it with a Radtech one .... fingers crossed.

Hang on to your old one just in case.

I've got a note of the weight of the copper one and will weigh the old alloy one tomorrow for comparison. I didn't think to compare the capacities so if you do still have your old copper one can you make a note of how much water it holds please? I'll check the Radtech capacity tomorrow and we can compare notes. I've got a sneaky suspicion the old copper one holds more water.

[DJR 7]

Joe,

I will check to see if the old radiator is still with the pile of parts i seem to have accrued during the rebuild.

If so we can recreate a eureka moment.

[glenrobbo]

DJR 7 said:

Joe,

I will check to see if the old radiator is still with the pile of parts i seem to have accrued during the rebuild.

If so we can recreate a eureka moment.

Darren, just be careful you don't experience an upthrust like poor old Archimedes


"When a body is partially or totally immersed in a fluid, it experiences an upthrust equal to the weight of fluid displaced".

[Barkychoc]

Joe I can't see any rubber on the top radiator mounts?
The radiator mounting will flex as the chassis flexes - if the radiator is held rigidly the radiator will be flexed as well and I imagine it won't be long till you need another.
I'm pretty sure mine had some rubber mounts at the top.

It's been a while so shoot me if I'm wrong.

[Kitchski]

Barkychoc said:

Joe I can't see any rubber on the top radiator mounts?
The radiator mounting will flex as the chassis flexes - if the radiator is held rigidly the radiator will be flexed as well and I imagine it won't be long till you need another.
I'm pretty sure mine had some rubber mounts at the top.

It's been a while so shoot me if I'm wrong.

They have a couple of rubber washers there normally, nothing more. Not like the earlier setups with the separate mounting plates either side.

[GreenV8S]

Barkychoc said:

if the radiator is held rigidly the radiator will be flexed as well and I imagine it won't be long till you need another.

These horizontal flow radiators also suffer from stress due to differential expansion caused by the natural temperature difference over the height of the matrix. If you have the choice between vertical and horizontal flow radiators, go for vertical. I forget which car mine came from - it's a little taller than the original and needed the top mount changing but it wasn't expensive, cools very well and has been reliable over the past decade or so.

[v8s4me]

This is a picture of the original rad when I bought the car in 2006.



If you're able to zoom in on the top mounting brackets you'll see the rad is bolted directly to the brackets on the mounting frame. Seperate rubber "bobbins" would be nice but there's no room at the top. The little locating pegs at the bottom are located in rubber grommets so hopefully that will allow some give.

[v8s4me]

v8s4me said:

..... There's lots of newspaper under the car so tomorrow morning will tell.

No FT? No leaks

[themee]

Mine has a thin rubber washer on the top and bottom of mount.

[v8s4me]

..........................Weight.................Capacity
Radtech Alloy.........5kgs.....................3.3lts
Copper Orig...........9kgs......................TBC

[tinks v8S]

Glad to come in for some use
Look forward to a beer

[v8s4me]

tinks v8S said:

..........Look forward to a beer

[Top Gear TVR]

when i fitted mine to TGTVR i found the positioning of the mounts to be 'nearly right', rather than actually right.

I made quite a few brake try adjustments to make sure it wasn't under strain.

Could the cause be this?

[v8s4me]

As it was explained to me, Radtech regard the engine bay of a TVR as "extreme operating conditions" and cite the vibration and heat as reasons why its rads fail. So why sell them for TVR's? My first one failed on a welded seam, the second one on a join between the side tank and a cooling fin. My guess is the alloy, or more accurately the joints, cannot handle the continual expansion and contraction in the same way that solder and copper can. My 'S' overheated in Holland last year when stuck in traffic in that awful torrential rain and the fans failed. I suspect that may have had something to do with it.

Other 'S' owners have fitted second hand OE alloy rads from the likes of Subaru; have these failed?

If the old copper rad was hard mounted and lasted 20 odd years then what does that tell us?

Yer pays yer money and takes yer choice

[v8s4me]

v8s4me said:

.....Thanks again to Tinks for his old rad....

And thanks to Glen for delivering it via the Pony 'S'-express!

[G16GAM]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. My rad has just gone and need a replacement. Does the Subaru one fit and what part no please. Thanks