Aluminium Radiator Fitment Pros Cons

[Hall]

I have brought and successfully fitted a aluminum radiator for a V8 3.9 discovery 1. On the E Bay page the seller does state that there could be some fitment issues, so gives fair warning.
Pros. The radiator it`s self fitted just peachy. Temp sits below 90 degrees. Far far far etc cheaper than a ome radiator or getting one repaired. Only cost me $238 posted.
Cons. Fan cowling needs some work to make it fit.
Made two U shaped pieces and popped riveted to the bottom rail of the radiator so that the cowling would slot in. At the top I drilled a clearance hole through the cowling and tek screwed the top. The bottom outlet was too close to the cowling, so I cut a section out of the cowling to give more clearance.
The fittings that the auto oil cooler pipes connect to.
The ones supplied where different to the ones in the old radiator. The thread size for the oil cooler pipe connection was correct, just the internal was not right. The thread in both the radiators was different. I chose to modify the new fittings. The oil cooler pipe needs to slide into the fitting by about 12 mm and there needs to be a shallow counter bore for the O ring from the old radiator fitting. I have a bench drill, drill vice and a reasonable amount of drill bits. I drilled 12mm diameter so that the oil cooler pipes slid in and using a 14mm drill I counter bored about 3mm deep for the O rings. If you have the time and do not want to fap about modifying fittings you may possibly get fittings or fitting that would adapt the old fitting to the new radiator from Pirtek or some other hydraulic fitting supplier. To many adapting fittings though may cause space issues.
So not a straight fit up, but nothing to hard to over come. Just going to have to have more than a few spanners and a bent screw driver to complete the job and allow at least a day if you want to adapt the cowling and the new fittings.
Cheers Hall

[trout1105]

For an extra $100 you can get a Genuine LR radiator that would come with a "Valid" warranty and it would fit Perfectly without any need for modifications and mucking about fitting the radiator OR the cowling [bigwhistle][thumbsupbig]

[Hall]

Best I found on the web in copper new was $600.
Cheers Hall

[AK83]

I'm going to do my 300 Tdi soon, and plan to get new oil lines too(they're a known issue as they age .. they start to leak).

I've had my rad for over a year now and only reason I haven't yet fitted is the unexpected fitment issues, like the oil lines and stuff.
(but I also wanted to fit a dual thickness intercooler as well)
I plan to get new oil lines, as they're also a known issue.. as they age they start to leak. So I'll have the rad and the new lines to prep myself for the different rad fittings.
What my original plan was tho, was to fit a separate oil cooler completely, and run new lines to suit .. but that's going to need more mucking about than I have time for in the next couple of weeks.

As for cowl, I've been running mine since about mid last year without as I snapped it when mucking about with harmonic balancer fitting, refitting and refitting again .. and again!(finally sorted that now tho).
Never had any issues not running with the fan shroud, as other seem to think it's NEEDED to help air flow.
If anything, mine seems to run a bit cooler without it(but I've also done other mods to the coolant system).

My Tdi now seems to be happy running at between 79-83 on a normal day(ie. up to about 30°C).
My only issue, and why I'm planning to fit an aluminium rad too, is heating up when I run the A/C.
Before I flushed the coolant system with the CEM product, I used to see over 100°C easily, and only when pootling slowly in heavy traffic did it cool down to low 90's with A/C on. On the highway tho between 80-100k/h, she'd start to heat up to that 100°C range!
Since the flush tho, and on a recent trip into central/west NSW, and a couple of days of 40°C ambients, holding 100k/h was easier with the coolant maintaining about mid to high 90's .. and only for a brief sec or two hitting 100°C
So the CEM flush stuff has definitely helped in that respect.

I'll post my findings here once I'm done too, if that's OK.

As for 'warranties', valid or otherwise .. on a 20+ year old vehicle, warranties are meaningless. And while I generally prefer Land Rover engineering over most other brands, they're not perfect .. and sometimes modding an already well engineered system may be the way forward.

Hall: you say that temps now sit below 90°C, what temps were you getting prior to the rad?

[Hall]

Before the radiator change and the leak it would always be just above 90 C and when I tried the air con it would rise to near 100 C . I then fitted a cooler opening thermostat. This one opens at 80 C. The temp though was still just over 90 C . Now with the new radiator it sits at 84 C and may rise and fall to 86 87 as the viscus fan works. Have not tried the air con but can`t see any problems with that.
Cheers Hall

[Spartacus]

I am at the point of getting an aluminium radiator for my 200 tdi. Just curious as to where you got yours from? Because I may well be looking at the same place for mine. Was also hoping that it would be a nice easy swap in and out as I will be driving to Laverton to pick up from Shepparton with a view of doing it down in Melbourne at the kids house before trying it out on the drive back up to Shepparton.

[AK83]

.... Was also hoping that it would be a nice easy swap in and out as I will be driving to Laverton to pick up from Shepparton with a view of doing it down in Melbourne at the kids house before trying it out on the drive back up to Shepparton.

Like Hall said in his post, you may come across an issue with the oil lines fitting into the double threaded adapter that fits onto the aluminium side tank(RHS).
That's my only concern with mine.
As for physically fitting into the required space next to the intercooler, I doubt you'll have issues. Something to watch for is going to be the foam strip separating the intercooler and rad. Being old it may break up.
I also have an aluminium frame(to replace the original steel frame) and done a quick measure up, but not fitting .. and if there is any misalignment it'd be a mil or two here or there which will be fine.
Reason I haven't fitted up mine yet, is that I have an ebay double thickness intercooler that requires a bit of work to fit without issues(IC will hit on the unused LHD steering bracket on chassis).

[Hall]

Two days of over 40 degrees, slow moving traffic and the air con on and not a issue. Temp did get to and stay around 105 degrees. Seems like it these aluminum radiators are a good thing.
Cheers Hall