[Healeys] alum radiator swap

[Kees Oudesluijs]

Yes and no.

An old car should be fit for any normal drive, be it regularly or 
occasionally, at leisure or in modern heavy traffic. This means that 
many classic cars will need some assistance with the cooling, i.e. an 
electric fan, either manually or thermostatically controlled.

An aluminium radiator is indeed a gimmick and does not add anything at 
all. It will probably wear out faster due to corrosion. It is just cheap 
to manufacture and does not improve the cooling efficiency.

What improves cooling efficiency is increasing the running temperature 
of the engine by fitting a hotter thermostat thus creating a larger 
delta T, fitting a more efficient water pump to increase the coolant 
flow, enlarging the total surface area of the radiator, i.e. more rows 
(up to a point), larger matrix or increase the air flow through the 
radiator, i.e. improved cowling, more blades to the fixed fan, higher 
engine idling speed but most of all a thermostatically controlled fan in 
combination with a carefully chosen thermostat and thermoswitch.

Kees Oudesluijs



Op 2-6-2019 om 08:53 schreef josef-eckert at t-online.de:
>
> When you use genuine parts to replace faulty ones and when you keep 
> the car propperly maintained  and when you use the old car only 
> occasionally for fun drives just to enjoy driving it, there is no 
> problem with an old car.
>
> PS: Aluminium radiator is something nobody needs in a classic car as 
> it improves nothing. Just a useless gimmick.
>
> Josef Eckert
>
> Königswinter/Germany
>
> -----Original-Nachricht-----
>
> Betreff: [Healeys] alum radiator swap
>
> Datum: 2019-06-02T00:21:42+0200
>
> Von: "i erbs" <eyera3000 at gmail.com>
>
> An: "Ahealey help" <healeys at autox.team.net>
>
> Aluminum radiator swap update:
> Got my old oem unit out. Removed my nice newish metal flex fan. 
> spliced wires onto the electric fan for easy connect/disconnect and 
> then went to double-check the new radiator will work after and initial 
> trial fit. What I found: OEM radiator is 1/2" wider and the aluminum 
> radiator does not have tapped holes, so nuts will be needed to attach 
> to my car. I am outside of the return window.
> So it looks like I will be getting my OEM Radiator flow tested and tanked.
> Will reinstall my flex fan
> refill with coolant/water
> have installed a new sleeved thermostat to replace the non-sleeved unit.
> I can make some shims for the new radiator, but cutting threads in the 
> holes will most likely result in the holes being to big for the bolts.
> Fun with old cars
> Registered for a car show on June 8th....
> Ira Erbs
> Portland,OR
>       _______      _______
>      (______ \____1959 BN4____/ _______)
> (_________________________)
>           BT7 engine and disk brakes
> 1967 MGB MG
> A racing car is an animal with a thousand adjustments. Mario Andretti
> Please excuse random auto corrects and misspelled words
> 
>
> _______________________________________________
> Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
> Suggested annual donation  $12.75
>
> Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/healeys http://autox.team.net/archive
>
> Healeys at autox.team.net
> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys
>
> Unsubscribe/Manage: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/healeys/coudesluijs@chello.nl
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/healeys/attachments/20190602/fc0195a3/attachment.html>