Thread: IIA Radiators

G'day,

I just bought a used radiator for my 6cyl IIA and uploaded some pictures of the old and the new with some measurements, maybe this info will be helpful to someone, and maybe someone will know the differences between them.

I put captions with the photos with measurements of thickness, hose size etc. The 2 radiators are the same height and width but different thicknesses.

They are in my gallery "IIA radiators" if you want to have a look.

Cheers
Paul.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/members/pk...radiators.html

I tried to avoid the cost of a recore on my original by buying another 2nd hand radiator, photos of both in my first post.

I took the 'new' square top one to a radiator place for a clean and to have some leaks repaired and to have the inlet/outlet fittings modified to match the original round top one - but it didn't survive the process. SO, I took the round top one back for a recore (since that one doesn't need modification, has an overflow bottle, and folks seem to seem to think the round ones are better.) The radiator place says they can straighten the bowed bottom tank easily enough.

The radiator guy told me a couple of things:
- the thicker square top one would be harder to get air flow through so may not give better cooling than the thinner round top one (he said it would be like 'blowing air through a brick').

- the bowed bottom tank on my original radiator would have required a LOT of pressure - not just from running a 16psi cap (which I did for a while, unaware that the IIA's system probably ran at about 11 psi). He said a failed head gasket could put enough pressure in to cause that, or maybe the car got really really hot, or maybe both (all are true, plus it was badly sludged up due to muddy creek water from its farm days).

Have been taking pics of my (first ever) red motor head replacement will make another thread sometime.

Cheers
Paul