Featured Technical Aluminum radiators.... what's the consensus?

1971? But do you think it will LAST?

Ben

 

See my post #73 on this thread to see one way to do it.

 

Just got this on order from the jungle website. $26, 7psi with mag anode. They also have a 16psi and a 13, but the 13 is over double the cost for some reason.
https://www.amazon.com/Reliable-Aftermarket-Parts-Name-Says/dp/B0936GNHCQ

 

I looked at that link. I like my homemade one better. It's a lot cheaper, has more surface exposure, and the anode is easily replaced.

 

I'll give it a whirl, if it needs replacing within 6 mos then I'll think about a bigger anode and whip something up.

 

Grounding your radiator and even the heater core should help most electrolysis problems.

 

So, I need to give you someone to flog.

My old 2002 Ford F150, just received it's first antifreeze change in 2022. It has never overheated and I still have the original water pump on it. No visible corrosion. 160K miles on it. If you have ever seen the Fly at a track, that's what pulled it there.

The only reason I changed the coolant was I had to change the heater core. Could I have gotten another 2 years out of it if I would have maintained the coolant? Maybe. I just didn't care. I wanted to focus on my hot rods.

I am just playing devil's advocate here. I know I am a bad owner....

The antifreeze smelled like a dead animal, but I guess that was to be expected.
Flog away.

 

Cheap , any 1/4"npt access , block drain , radiator , intake , etc

 

John Deere dealers and other places sell test strips to check you coolant PH level and all that jazz. There are additives you can buy to correct you coolant if its off. On a car buying a few new gallons is no big deal but on heavy equipment were diesel liners get messed up by tiny air bubbles and aluminum gets eaten and such and the system holds 20 gallons its a big deal to adjust and correct existing coolant.

I have aluminum after market radiators in a couple 60's - 70's chevy's and they have been fine. I may save my new Walker Model T radiator I have for something else nicer and buy a cheap aluminum radiator for the Speed Way fiberglass 27 project I'm building on the cheap. I can add brackets to the aluminum radiator with my TIG as well were I want.

 

Paint colour makes virtually no difference to thermal infrared radiation at the ±400K a radiator sees. A matt surface finish might help a tiny bit, regardless of colour.

Black paint was traditionally used because it's cheap and tough and goes with everything.

 

While zinc will work, magnesium is superior in protecting aluminum. Again, look at the Galvanic Table. The electrical potential between the worst grade of aluminum and the purest zinc is almost zero. while that between aluminum and magnesium is at least .6 volts. I know what I want protecting my heads, especially when it's easy to find and not that expensive.

 

There's a bunch of aluminum in marine power systems , the go to anode has been for many years , Zinc , whatever ...

 

Denial of proven science seems to be common these days.

 

It's a national sport.

 

If my options for a specific application in brass/copper were limited or nonexistent, then I would use an aluminum one painted black. You can't see it with the hood closed anyway and only weirdos would be on their hands and knees peeping through the grill to check that the car you built for yourself meets their expectations.

 

I`ve got you beat, my 2000 gmc 3500 454 with about the same milage has never been changed. It`s loaded with stop leak, I really need to get that flushed out of there as the stat is stuck open and never gets above 140, should be 210. I thought the heater core was leaking but iirc it was a quick connect and I just cut beyond that and direct connected it. It`s a rig truck that never gets used any more, may as well sell it. I bought new coolant and stat years ago, I really need to get around to that job

 

I don't know about that radiator. but two of my friends have cold case radiators from Summit .Both guys are on the 3rd radiator due to leaks.

 

Original 1938 GM rad from an inline 6 cyl vehicle. I took the rad to a recommended rad shop and had it assessed. Rad was in good shape so I had them make some changes to it so I could run a SBC 350. Cost me $280. I installed it on a Thursday and was leaving for a weekend show the next day. Rad leaked on Friday test run. I was not happy, no time to return it and still make the show. I decided to smear a bunch of epoxy over the leak (basically voiding any warranty there may be). It still leaked some but I made it to the show.

My next step was to remove the GM rad and get one custom built by BeCool. Cost was something like $1200. I used distilled and an anode. I did not ground the rad as this thread is the first I've ever heard of that being done. I did mount the BeCool rad on rubber mounts as recommended by the guys at BeCool. Rad lasted about two years before it started leaking. Again ... I am not happy. At this point I tossed in a can or two of sealer and, when it started leaking again, I'd toss in another can. I probably threw in a can a year. I no longer own the car.

All that being said, if I was to do it again, I'd buy a cheap aluminum universal rad (no more custom garbage) and consider it a disposable item. With all the money I had spent on the factory rad, then the custom BeCool nonsense, I could have bought quite a few cheapie universal rads.

 

I think you will find it is an international sport. Probably won't be too long before it is introduced at the olympics.

 

I run one in my 39 Ford tub and it works well, using distilled water and water wetter, stays 170 - 180 deg.

 

That is who I’ve used for about the last 12 years and I’ve had good luck with them. I did have to replace one it it was damaged from something that was my fault.

 

I've got aluminum radiators in all 4 of my cars, some custom made and others from Champion, run regular green anti-freeze without issues.
I did paint the front of the one in the Henry J with Rustoleum's black high temp grill paint, ironically because I'm not running a grill in that car.

 

Back in the day, when we added A/C to the Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV), now referred to as the Stryker, a German “engineer” in our systems engineering group insisted on using silver paint on the rad cooling fan shroud as it would solve all of our heat transfer issues of that heat transferring to our cooled air ducts coming off of the evaporators which were only 1/2” away. Of course that didn’t work. That clown cost the company (General Motors Diesel Division) millions upon millions of dollars in damages as a total redesign was required in the midst of production.

 

Ned yer a sharp guy, and have smarts gleaned from sources some never heard of. However, the SAE did a study in the late 60s, or early 70s that concluded satin/flat black absorbs heat from either direction. In other words direct sunlight or internal component heat. In that era we began to see a lot more air cooled engines and components in satin black. Do I believe it? Well, I wouldn't rest my forearms on a shiney black hood on a 90 degree sunny day. White, not so bad. All heat is a form of radiation and it's absorbed by dark colors.

 

this is what I do, if I can find one that I can make fit...