Correction: Aluminum Radiator. Worth the investment?

I have installed them. Without issue. Sorry yours took a little extra work. If anyone else has had similar issues please PM me here and I will keep a tally. If there is an issue with the jig we can try having it altered before we have another batch made. This is the second batch and the first I am hearing of this issue.

Again, send me a PM here with your invoice number if anyone else has a similar issue and I'll keep notes to see if a change needs to be made.
 
I guess I'm the only one….

Thanks Andrew for noticing and making a note. Hopefully, the rad will function just fine, just took some extra time and I HATE cutting parts on the car to make stuff fit, but we really didn't have much choice. We measured the center post and it was closer to the front of the rad by almost 1/4". Cheers...
 
+1 on the stud being off centre on the rad

I had to offset drill the holes in the rad support bracket (8-10mm) to make it line up.
It was no big deal, but it was a couple of hours in and out that i could spent elsewhere on the car.

Regards,
Matt
 
Radiation doesn't count

1. Radiation is an important player at high temp delta (more than 100C).
2. Radiation is a small player next to convection trough air flow.
3. We have a very high air flow rate either by driving or by fan and convection is the major heat transfer mechanism.
 
Fan Mounts

One thing I forget to add, the fans mount to the brackets which then mount to the rad, but not well. Bolting the fans to the brackets was OK, but when you then place the brackets over the studs in the rad itself, there is no way you're getting a washer on one of the 4 studs. The stud is about ⅛" from the plastic of the fan. We tried every combination of the fans and brackets to see if it made a difference. So we have washers and lock washers on 3 of the 4 studs on each fan, the 4th is just a nut and I had to push the fan out of the way to get the nut on, then the edge of the fan rests against the nut. Should have taken pictures. I guess I stand by my line that the president/owner of the company needs to install one of these, and things would be fixed up on Monday morning. Neither of these issues is really a big deal, but when you pay good money for something, it should be right.
 
Pic

Just found a picture, its not all that good, but you can see in across the bottom, on the left fan, we have a nut on each stud with a lock washer and on the right fan, there is one on the left stud, but there is no way we could get one on the right stud.


 
I LOVE peanuts... Cashews even more...

but they are usually out of my price range, especially LARGE, WHOLE Cashews.

Trader Joe's sells "Blister Peanuts" that are to die for! About $4 bucks a bag I think and if everyone paid me what they owed I would be in peanut heaven! They haveta be the crunchiest nuts in the world and laced with Cocaine I think.

First bag is free...
 
Another VAS rad problem

If you've been following along with my rebuild story, you will know we are getting close. While we waited for more carb jets to arrive this week, we had a go reinstalling the front chin spoiler. Well the VAS rad just bit us in the ass again. Its just all wrong on the front end and there is no way we are getting the spoiler back on the car. We can move the spoiler forward, but then the grill won't fit properly. I'm going to have to call them this week and see what we can do. I must have a bad one, maybe put in the jig backwards as its about ½" too far forward, if the studs were in the right place, I think everything would fit. Frustrating for sure. Did you end up buying one? As for temps, we can let the car sit and idle and rev and it will never go above 190, we haven't driven yet, but we've had it running many times and it never overheats. Having said that, its fall on southern Ontario and 10C is a warm day now. It will be next summer before I know what happens when its 30C and flying down the highway.
 
Bottom bracket

Bill, make sure you have the bottom bracket that mounts to the body the right way around. It can make quite a difference.

Also there is more than one type as you can see here:



and the Vicks rad may not be made to fit the one you have.

Cheers,

Rob
 
rad bracket

thanks Rob, we'll have a look tomorrow and see if we can turn the bracket around or drill different holes to see if we can solve the issue. Cheers.
 
bracket

we turned the bracket around and were able to change the holes enough to get it all back together. One more thing done on the list. Thanks.
 
Aluminum Radiator

I replaced the original radiator with an aluminum one; actually Chris Obert did the work. I have had ZERO overheating problems since. Even on a track day at Thunder Hill race track on a day the temp was in the high 80's. Raced all day and the X stayed cool, never over 195.
Respectfully
Richard
 
I have been t rying to decide how to respond to this question

The answer is yes, the radiator is a perfect fit and works well. Temperatures never exceeded 195F. Here is my Vicks radiator that I posted earlier this past summer.


But the problem is the fans. At 100F ambient the radiator cooling fan works well enough, but stays on much longer than the stock fans. As a condenser fan.... I am a little less enthusiastic. I am pretty sure that the fan was unable to move air enough to keep the condenser happy resulting in a burned-out compressor clutch. The stock fans are not that much noisier, and they certainly move more air and stay on a lot less. As a condenser fan I am of the opinion that they are not up to the task. I am rebuilding my stock fans before next summer.
 
In a word...

Fantastic! My Bob G aluminum radiator keeps my car cool no matter what the circumstances. I'm shocked at how effective it is. In fact, it was keeping my car so cool that I was worried about my temperature gauge on the dash. But, temps confirmed with an IR thermometer. You won't be disappointed.

Cheers.
Mike
 
Got mine from Midwest...fit in perfectly. Staying nice and cool even though I did a lousy job bleeding as the cable for the heater is stuck in the closed position. Might just bypass it as I certainly don't need heat here in south Florida. Just hate to do things half assed though.

Super pleased with the Midwest radiator thought. Matt did a great job on these.
 
fan rebuild

Pls document your fan rebuild. I am in the agreement that the old fans move more air. I even purchased another set of modern fans from Summitt. The highest rpm/cfm I could get in 10". And they still didn't move as much air. Blade pitch is a large factor here... been 30 years since I was in rc planes but prop matching took into account engine size, rpm, application, blade length, blade pitch and other things... been too long
 
temp

aside from the install issues that we managed to get around, I have now put almost 200 miles on the car and she is rock steady at 190, doesn't matter if I'm idling for long periods while we sort out my carb issues or when flying along at 75 on the highway never seems to go above or below 190. I have both fans installed but don't know how often they are cutting in. Works great as far as I'm concerned.
 
Larry and Delta... I think you both may have...

forgotten one thing, and that is the shrouding.

I have two stock fans and they work fabulously... but I am not saying they are the best.

I think the newer designs would actually work better if they were fully shrouded and moved back as are as possible and practical as well, as to not interfere with the air exhaust. The design might also consider adding a "venturi" effect accelerating the air and only drawing the air through the radiator, and none from around it.

Your thoughts?
 
Maybe installing a light in parrallel... using the...

Ground potential from the thermoswitch to light it, and then you can observe when and how long they stay on.

I use my voltmeter when I think they might come on... as it dips quite a bit.

ALSO... mine only operate generally from May to October... and I have to exercise them (with and auxiliary switch) in the winter months just to keep them at their best.
 
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