Thread: HELP!!! Radiator/Fan Advice? Wisdom required!

PS I notice on flea-bay that aluminium radiators are available for $400 and brass ones are around $600 plus, what are the pros and cons?

Pros and Cons ? depends on the salesman !
Aluminiun is 1/5th the price of copper and Half the weight . so it works out a lot cheaper for the modern manufacturers to use alloy/plastic radiators .
WHether it performs its duties as a heat exchanger ?
Copper conducts heat a lot better than aluminum,
Aluminum has greater strength and the tubes are not damaged as easily as those made from copper.
Aluminum is a lighter metal.
Copper radiators are easier to clean and repair and copper is a recyclable metal.
Aluminum radiators look much better than copper radiators.
So make your choice and spens your money !

(the viscous seems fine just the plastic fan has exploded)?

You have pretty much answered your own question.
Keep it stock standard, what milage has it done?
If you put a thermo on it you are just introducing more things to the system that can go wrong, electric motor, thermostat etc.

If you have a V belt V8 , you can replace the fan and hub with a 300Tdi fan and hub. This black fan is the mirror image of a serpentine V8 fan and supposedly more efficient, quieter and less likely to break than the white nylon fan.

I doused my 300tdi fan in deep water on the OTT and the broken blade did not separate but hung in there by a thread of the root of the blade.
Interestingly it also did not break the core. Whether this was just luck or the fact the fan blades are much longer than the white fan , I do not know.
Regards Philip A

Me? New fan and 2nd hand refurbished radiator. Yuri, give AMV a call on 9870 9904 and talk to Greg Ellis. An alternative could be Ritters in Burwood.

HTH

Pete

Be careful with using the old coupling.

My 88 fan exploded like yours because the viscous coupling was locked up and the fan could not hack the high revs.
I have got the black fan and its quieter.

It's annoying because I have a Serp v8 fan, but because it spins the other way it's no good for my v belt setup. grrrrrr. Maybe I should put thermos instead.

Thermos have some advantages... Had them on my HZ v-8 and they made about half to 3/4 mpg differance, but quieter in normal running. I had them wired up so as to be able to manually turn on one or both of them. Not really needed, but I was younger and more enthusiastic about fiddling with cars then, and this was a work-around in case the fan thermostat ever failed.- It did'nt.

Electrics can also be rigged to run after engine shut-down, reducing heat-soak in the engine-room during hot weather.

But if you're comfortable with your viscous living a lot longer, replacing the blades may be cheaper/easier/reliable

As the fan of choice seems to be Falcon twins, reliability should'nt be tooo much of an issue !