I'm looking for a radiator for my 302 Capri.
Because of the size restrictions, it can only be about 450mm high but up to 700mm wide.

The closest thing I could find that is a good fit is a ..ahem.. er..
holden commodore VK 3 core brass. It's 450x600 wide. So could go a bit wider but I can't find anything else.

Would this keep things cool enough? I've heard so many heating issues with V8 capris. And I don't want any.

Otherwise I was looking at some alloy race radiators at the V8 shop. They are only 2 core but the cores are massive. I dunno what these will be like for street use. But the difference is only 150bucks from the commohore one.

I have also been warned by a radiator specialist that a alloy radiator is not the go. Apart from being lighter and looking cool they won't last as long and a prone to wearing out. Also won't cool as well as copper/brass.

thoughts?

when the radiator place told you to stay away from alloy radiators were they talking about radiators with alloy pipes vs radiators with brass/copper pipes but still with plastic end tanks or full alloy radiators like PWR make? i find it hard to believe that a full alloy radiator (end tanks and all) would wear out quicker than a normal one. i know the radiators with plastic end tanks and alloy pipes are not so good cos the alloy pipes are prone to cracking.

It has been noted to me several times that alloy rads, yes the full alloy rads, won't last. I was told that the coolant can eat through the thin parts and you must use special additives in the coolant to reduce this. Even so, they will wear out quicker apparently.

Looking around on this forum I see people have complained of having to replace of fix alloy radiators withing a few years due to this problem..

I was also told that vertical flow is better than horizonal flow, although with the short height of the capri I will have to use a horizontal flow.

The radiator specialist strongly recommended going with a brass/copper item. (Friend of my old man so was giving genuine advice)

Gee, I guess I should worry about my alloy heads then, because after porting, they are pretty thin......

Its all s**t mate, PWR make a good product, as good as you can get. No worries at all.

Apparently if you have alloy heads then you want an alloy radiator as copper any alloy are positively corosive. Been reading an interesting post here:

http://oldschool.co.nz/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=11648

meh, tell that to the 100'000's of cars with alloy heads and Cu rads, sure its a valid argument but practically it doesn't really matter. You have to run the corrosion inhibiter in the system, and drain after the first week, and refill as the alloy uses up some of the elements in the inhibitor, the reason why alloy rads fail is because people put in coolant but dont change it after the first short time. This causes the corrosion that reduces theor lifespan as the chemicls that prevent the corrosion have been used up by the new alloy in the system.

PWR do heavily stress soomething about electroalisis or something in there catalogues and that regarding there radiators. They reckon if that's not sorted out there radiators won't last long.

taken from oldschool.co.nz

"one of the big reasons for alloy on later model cars is gavanetic disimilar metal corosion
its nothign to do with cooling or anythign as grand or fabulous

basically if your car has a alloy head and you use a copper radiator your head will erode at quite a fast rate you will get pittign and eventually a BHG and you will need to plain your head ...undortunaly it inspires intergranular exfolative corosion in teh alloy so its atually rotting from the inside out so by teh time the pitting happens it far to late and teh head has already rotted form the inside out



some info for ya
intergranular exfoliative corosion
http://httd.njuct.edu.cn/MatWeb/mat-cor/al___iga.htm

galvanetic corosion
http://httd.njuct.edu.cn/MatWeb/mat-cor/al___bim.htm

just a note...because somoene will say it
yes glycol helps inhibit this BUT it dosent stop it and is only a stop gap measure + if you get any salts in your water at all it will increase the speed of reation 10 fold "

thats when there is currant passing through the coolant. all ya need to do is hook a volt meter to the battery earth and the other end goes in the coolant without touching any metal and if there is a volts reading that means there is currant passing through the coolant and you need to earth ya radiator better. TWR7CX, you have a pwr headder tank dont ya? how long have you been using it, any probs with it being eaten away? did u use any spesh addative to provent these probs? im paranoid now

[quote="JT"]taken from oldschool.co.nz

"one of the big reasons for alloy on later model cars is gavanetic disimilar metal corosion
its nothign to do with cooling or anythign as grand or fabulous

basically if your car has a alloy head and you use a copper radiator your head will erode at quite a fast rate you will get pittign and eventually a BHG and you will need to plain your head ...undortunaly it inspires intergranular exfolative corosion in teh alloy so its atually rotting from the inside out so by teh time the pitting happens it far to late and teh head has already rotted form the inside out

not trying to argue the point here mate, im just a lil confused. so whats the go with like xf falcs, mine has its original alloy head and its original copper/brass radiator and ive never put any spesh addatives in it and she over 20years old now and i cant say ive noticed the head rotting from the inside out. surley after 20 odd years if there was gona be a prob it would have shown it self by now. im just paranoid now cos im putting a pwr alloy header tank in my xr8 soon and a set of alloy heads this time next year.

I do, but the cars been off the road for a while now.