Thread: New Radiator

Looks like nobody is willing to admit they have one.

The price looks about correct for a Chinese radiator as the UK price is GBP155.

I think most people are willing to pay about $340 or so for a UK produced one, although someone recently posted that his GM brand had made in UAE on it.LOL

Going by the general reliability of Chinese cars , as opposed to build quality, there must be some good Chinese manufacturers. I have spoken to a few Great Wall owners with over 50KK up and they report no problems. One is a good friend who bought a 2wd ute for his son.

I did a bit of a search on the importer and they have an address! and offer pickup. They seem to be related to a homewares importer , by the sign on the building.
Regards Philip A

I bought a cheap eBay job marketed as an upgrade that has higher flow. It got one with aluminium top as the plastic bits can break. I've been happy with it, although the tabs were not perfect for the car. They took some persuasion. In future I'd go UK built as I'd be more confident it would fit the first time.

I will stick my paw up in admission to buying a radiator from iquay.
Bought it about 18 months ago, but only got around to finally installing it about a month ago.
Having a fully pressured radiator and OAT running in the system again led me down a painful rabbit hole.
(new top hose, new coolant outlet elbow, new thermostat and hoses, brazed coolant plug in coolant rail, switched to glycol,
new hose clamps to replace the little pieces of purgatory LR describes as hose clamps etc)
To be fair temp spikes as I discovered every other weakness in the cooling system would explain why it has now failed,
but the radiator it replaced copped more abuse with far more grace and resilience. Just ordered an all aluminium replacement.
Pretty sure it failed at a plastic end cap which was another reason I opted for the all aluminium model this time.

Here is a link to the radiator I just ordered. More expensive, sure, but almost the same as an OEM or LR replacement.
3row Aluminium for Radiator Land Rover Discovery 2.5 Td5 Diesel 99-04 00 01 02 | eBay

Originally Posted by Harmost

Pretty sure it failed at a plastic end cap which was another reason I opted for the all aluminium model this time.

Some Chinese plastic has a lot to be desired, The Chinese can make quality plastic to specs and then they can also make rubbish plastic also, Look at the $2 shops any you know exactly what i mean, it's buy take home and throw straight in the bin. You get what you pay for.

Here is a link to the radiator I just ordered. More expensive, sure, but almost the same as an OEM or LR replacement.

I would appreciate it if you could let us know how it goes. Whether it fits properly is of interest and if not why not.

I would hate to buy one then have to take it out to have leaks welded.

I would also be interested to know whether it protrudes forward more than stock as I am just about to fit a performance intercooler.

A mate bought a Holden all alloy one for his D type replica But AFAIK hasn't filled it yet, although he did have it reshaped to look like a D type one. He and the welder seemed to think it was OK.
Regards Philip A

Just a warning Harmost,

I just bought a Disco IIA with a full aluminium radiator, my radiator guy said be careful they tend to crack for they are too rigid.

He was right, core to top tank (passenger side) leaked on the front side and when I removed the radiator I found the core to the other end tank leaking at the bottom.

I now have an ADRAD radiator in and not having any trouble with it. It looks genuine, plastic tanks etc but realise it is not.

I am however having trouble with keeping the temp down, I suspect inline with some of the mods done to this vehicle the computer may have been set up to wild not mild and the exhaust temps are causing my problems.

Before I get the computer reset I am getting the cooling system changed, (read 'American solution'), I will report on that when it is done.

To be fair to alloy radiator makers there is no brand on my alloy radiator.


Regards

Mike

Originally Posted by PhilipA

I would appreciate it if you could let us know how it goes. Whether it fits properly is of interest and if not why not.

Ok, so the radiator arrived promptly after the weekend. I think it actually looked better in person than the image they had in the ad.

It did require a little modification to the aluminium intercooler bracket with a hacksaw and a file. There was plenty of bracket to start with so I wasn't too concerned about that. I thought that the plastic intercooler bracket at the other end might need the same but after slipping it in to see what the space was like it proved unnecessary.

The only other fault I could find would be that the threaded round stock they have on either side to bolt to the top of the intercooler is about 10-15mm off. I'm using a couple cable ties right now and will probably put a couple self tapping bolts through later, but for now just cable ties are actually doing fine.

A couple self tappers are my plan for the top plastic fan cowling and I've discarded the lower one for now.

As far as the radiator goes. No leaks, it looks good, is a little larger but not inconvenient. Looks and feels more rigid than the previous that was a bit slumped in the middle. With all the hoses connected there is definitely not enough movement for it to go back far enough to hit the fan. When I get around to replacing the rubber foot on the aluminium intercooler bracket what little play it has will totally disappear.

I'm pretty happy with it so far. Unfortunately it hasn't fixed my cooling system rabbit hole. I have no coolant leak now. I still have overheating issues. Just did an oil change. It came out black, but no signs of coolant in the oil. Can't detect any signs of unwarranted moisture at the exhaust.To be fair, with the amount of humidity lately, that may not be a meaningful statement. Repco don't have coolant half price this week so I'm starting to get less enthusiastic about dumping coolant.

I've replaced the thermostat, the two hoses below it to the coolant rail, had a new plug soldered into the coolant rail when the entire plug decided to exit the coolant rail, new top hose and elbow, switched to green after the OAT seemed more interested in eating the engine than cooling it, new expansion tank cap and now a second new radiator. She has been a great beast and I've managed to avoid an actual mechanic for everything but pink slips, mainly thanks to this forum. I'm down to blockage in the cooling system somewhere or head gasket. Will take her up monday to see about testing for exhaust gases in the coolant and/or a compression test.

Thanks mate for a very complete answer.

Do you know if the new core is actually thicker than the OE one?

I read some US sites recently that suggest that many of the aluminium rads which have 3 cores are actually no better at cooling as the 3 cores are smaller than the 2 cores in area. ie each of the two cores are say 15mm and the 3 cores are say 9MM each which is smaller in total than the 2 . If the core is quite a bit thicker then it may be OK.
Regards Philip A

Are three row aluminum radiators better than two?

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Posted on May 26, 2015 by Tom DeWitt

In the old days of copper and brass radiators this was true. More rows meant more surface area in contact with the fin and consequently a higher heat rejection. So a 3 row was better than a two row and so on.
When aluminum radiators came around the rules changed. Cooling engineers concluded that by lowering the fin height you could stack more layers of tubes. In addition, using wider tubes would increase the tube-to-fin contact area. The end result was a very high performance radiator with a huge savings in weight.


The standard for performance aluminum radiator tubes is a 1.0" wide tube. Imported radiators have smaller 16mm (.62") tubes. In this case a 3-Row radiator would only have a total of 1.86" of tube-to-fin contact surface which is less than the two row core with 1" tubes. The online ads for these 3-Row aluminum radiators will indicate several features of the radiator design but they avoid the issue of the tube width. DeWitts radiator goes another step and offers a two row core with 1.25" tubes or (2.5") tube-to-fin contact and this would again exceed the peformance of a 4-row imported core design. So, if you are researching your next purchase ask about the tube width. That will tell you a lot about the heat rejection and the origin of the product.