Defender 300TDI Radiator Tropical Mod

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Originally Posted by isuzurover

Personally I would not fit an all alloy radiator to a land rover used offroad.

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Ok I have heard plenty of for and against and I know the copper rads take some beating but so do the new tech alloy rads.
A lot of alloy rad cores are made in china and this has caused plenty of against/reasons not to use them as they are poorly made and I have repaired these types and personally would not use one same goes for the cheap inter coolers from china.
Ben what are your reasons against alloy rads ? have you seen a good quality alloy rad fail ? I am looking to use ADRAD cores from QLD and have seen these cop plenty of dirt track abuse and take it well.
PWR make good cores as well and I have done mods to PWR rads and have seen them used on dirt track as well with no issues.

I have just bought a new copper core rad from a very reputable seller for my 300tdi and was planning to do the tropical mod before fitting it.
But when I look down the filler plug ( non oil cooler side) I can see no hole, just a plate.
Does this mean the tropical mod is already done?
Seems to be so - which is good.

...note this rad is for a disco 1, assume they are the same config as the defers.

My original disco1 radiator definitely had the hole.

A new radiator today is unlikely to be an exact replica of the OEM from the 90’s though? I feel it would be a win if you’ve got one without the hole!

Probably should still have a small bleed, just not the 10c sized hole that was in the originals!

no, nothing visible at all..

My D1's has the (10c) hole too.
Same with the Aluminium rad I've been wanting to fit for about 2 years now too.

My understanding of the D1/Defer rad setup is that they're entirely interchangeable .. that is the whole assembly(IC and all)

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Originally Posted by lokka

Ok I have heard plenty of for and against and I know the copper rads take some beating but so do the new tech alloy rads.
A lot of alloy rad cores are made in china and this has caused plenty of against/reasons not to use them as they are poorly made and I have repaired these types and personally would not use one same goes for the cheap inter coolers from china.
Ben what are your reasons against alloy rads ? have you seen a good quality alloy rad fail ? I am looking to use ADRAD cores from QLD and have seen these cop plenty of dirt track abuse and take it well.
PWR make good cores as well and I have done mods to PWR rads and have seen them used on dirt track as well with no issues.

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For me personally, I wouldn't touch a PWR Radiator. The PUMA that I bought early this year was on its second H/D PWR Radiator. The previous owner had one fitted some 12+mths earlier and about a few mths before me buying it he said the radiator developed a leak. He had it completely checked out for any sort of electrosis but all was clear and PWR fitted a new and apparently a bettter H/D Radiator.
Well, after a few months from when I bought it, I noticed that this "new extra H/D" radiator was leaking again. So, didn't stuff about and just ordered/fitted OEM radiator. We don't really tow atm, so it should do for the time being. Will look at seeing if the PWR radiator is worth fixing of not. The local mechanics told me that they no longer install PWR radiators into Defenders due to the recalls that were having (ie: leaks)