The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → OEM aluminum and plastic radiator reliabilty
I want to simplify the cooling plumbing on the Merkur and do away with the heavy brass rad and plastic surge tank. Was thinking about finding an OEM aluminum radiator that has the cap on the tank and adapting it to the car. What kind of reliability experience has everyone had with this type of radiator?
Reliability seems OK, but the longer they've been around the more likely you are to have a end tank leak as the seals dry out.
If you end-up buying new, I'd look at a universal all aluminum.
One issue to consider...The Merk has a low nose. If your radiator cap is lower than anywhere in the cylinder head you'll get air trapped in there and have serious overheating issues and blown head gaskets.
check out Merkur depot on Ebay
They have aluminum rad with intercooler around $300
check out Merkur depot on Ebay
They have aluminum rad with intercooler around $300
Yeah...I was thinking about the $40 06 GTO rad on CL. Don't think anything better than a Chinese replacement type is in the budget.
sponge003 wrote:check out Merkur depot on Ebay
They have aluminum rad with intercooler around $300
Yeah...I was thinking about the $40 06 GTO rad on CL. Don't think anything better than a Chinese replacement type is in the budget.
When we bought a replacement for the Turbo Coupe, 100% of cost (110?) went into our BS budget. They also tried to hit us for a new alternator, but that already came with the car..
The good news is that the car came with 2 heavy brass radiators. Those should have a pretty good scrap value!
The good news is that the car came with 2 heavy brass radiators. Those should have a pretty good scrap value!
About $18 scrap value after I cut the end tanks off the OEM 1986 vintage one in the Merkurian Falcon and hauled it to Schnitzer's last fall. I think about 3 lbs. of that was rust/sludge.
Fabbed a bracket from some bed frame angle iron and dropped a Summit special in there. Still popped a head gasket, maybe we do need to add a couple air bleeders, or get the cap higher.
Would have gone junkyard hopping to find a "close enough" for cheap, but pick-and-pull just isn't happening when you're hauling two young boys around.
If you use the plastic/aluminum radiator do yourself a favor and ZIP TIE the top mounting points instead of bolting it.
This way when you realign your radiator support via the E30 rear bumper or the wall in turn 1 the zip ties will break and let your radiator break free of the now pretzel like support. Most times the radiator is spared from destruction.
Readjust pretzeled support with BFH add new zip ties and go, cough. racing
We replaced/upgraded our rad recently, and I was surprised at how cheap those all-aluminum universals are now. They won't have a built-in trans cooler, if that's an issue for your car.
If you use the plastic/aluminum radiator do yourself a favor and ZIP TIE the top mounting points instead of bolting it.
This way when you realign your radiator support via the E30 rear bumper or the wall in turn 1 the zip ties will break and let your radiator break free of the now pretzel like support. Most times the radiator is spared from destruction.
Readjust pretzeled support with BFH add new zip ties and go, cough. racing
How is the librarian doing? 
We replaced/upgraded our rad recently, and I was surprised at how cheap those all-aluminum universals are now. They won't have a built-in trans cooler, if that's an issue for your car.
My Lexus LS400 radiator (expensive car right?) replacement radiator with trans cooler FROM THE OE MFG was $60! (Denso)..... some of this stuff is cheaper than the junkyard these days! I just google/ebay/rockauto/amazon.com... amazing what you will find. I paid $6, yes, SIX DOLLARS SHIPPED for a PAIR of rear vented rotors for the lexus off Amazon.... To the original question, yes, plastic/aluminum radiators work just fine. Just measure up what you need and google something close.
Virginia's owner wrote:If you use the plastic/aluminum radiator do yourself a favor and ZIP TIE the top mounting points instead of bolting it.
This way when you realign your radiator support via the E30 rear bumper or the wall in turn 1 the zip ties will break and let your radiator break free of the now pretzel like support. Most times the radiator is spared from destruction.
Readjust pretzeled support with BFH add new zip ties and go, cough. racingHow is the librarian doing?
Not sure how she is? Last I saw of her she was in the trailer that still has two feet of snow around it.
As far as eliminating air pockets, I recently purchased an Airlift system. It is fantastic. I highly recommend: http://www.amazon.com/UView-550000-Airl … B0002SRH5G
Yeah...I was thinking about the $40 06 GTO rad on CL. Don't think anything better than a Chinese replacement type is in the budget.
As an '06 GTO owner, don't waste your $40. The plastic reservoirs on the GTO radiators are notoriously bad. They all crack eventually.
Just found on partsgeek a new Delco radiator for a chevy van for $38 shipped. It's big, but I was going to mount it behind the core support anyway. Will measure in the morning.
I have an OEM single row aluminum radiator with plastic end tanks. I strongly suspect that this is one of the key reasons why we overheated our 302 engine and cooked our oil. Even though it doesn't seem to leak, after probably 50-100K mi, it's cooling capacity is probably severely diminished. While that would be OK with a DD, it couldn't move the heat out of our engine fast enough.
I'm now taking the engine apart to see exactly how much damage we caused (found so far: 3 collapsed hydraulic lifters + at least one of the bearings is wiped). Hopefully, I can save myself from a full rebuild.
In hindsight, I should have just bought a bigger radiator.... and an oil cooler.
-g
We are (were?) running a turbo coupe radiator, and it barely fits.
We previously ran a saab 900 radiator, it worked well, but a cracked tank on a junkyard unit wiped out our motor and started the chain of events that now has us bolting a 4.6 modular in.
We are (were?) running a turbo coupe radiator, and it barely fits.
We previously ran a saab 900 radiator, it worked well, but a cracked tank on a junkyard unit wiped out our motor and started the chain of events that now has us bolting a 4.6 modular in.
similar here. send the $60 and get a new one!
We are (were?) running a turbo coupe radiator, and it barely fits.
We previously ran a saab 900 radiator, it worked well, but a cracked tank on a junkyard unit wiped out our motor and started the chain of events that now has us bolting a 4.6 modular in.
Were you running it inside the core support in the original position?
Drdanteiii wrote:We are (were?) running a turbo coupe radiator, and it barely fits.
We previously ran a saab 900 radiator, it worked well, but a cracked tank on a junkyard unit wiped out our motor and started the chain of events that now has us bolting a 4.6 modular in.
Were you running it inside the core support in the original position?
the saab 900 rad was in the semi original position. It sat pretty far forward, bu was canted slightly to the passenger side. We ran a fan in back of the rad, not dual fans like the factory merkur. We actually took the front pusher fan, reversed the polarity, and mounted it on the back of the radiator. We ditched the original big fan and shroud.
B&W Racing will be there... 5th year with the E36 (2nd year with this motor... it's about due to explode like the other two)... wife, son, daughter, work buddy, me.... we always look forward to driving and the parade is awesome!
B&W Racing will be there... 5th year with the E36 (2nd year with this motor... it's about due to explode like the other two)... wife, son, daughter, work buddy, me.... we always look forward to driving and the parade is awesome!
Wrong thread Wes...
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → OEM aluminum and plastic radiator reliabilty