Reconditioned vs Alloy Radiator

[Makse]

What are people views on this ?

I have seen the alloy ones on E of bay from Winner Racing but not sure if there would be any additional import fees 

But lotusbits do a reconditioned standard one 

[tom kilner]

There should be import duty to pay - could be 20%?

Warranty is pot luck too outside the UK.

 

[Don.Hasi]

Warranty is pot luck in the UK as well. For the price of the Ali one you can get 3. So don’t worry about the warranty. 

There are already quite a few in use without problems. The top mounting point dimensions need to be adapted IIRC. Other than that it is cool 😎 

[Makse]

Thanks for the replies. Decided to go with a recore. 

 

 

[soldave]

A bit late to the party here, but I've nothing but good things to say about Winner Racing. I used them (admittedly quite a few years ago) to make a custom radiator for my Mitsubshi Evo and the quality was outstanding.

How much was the recore, if you don't mind me asking? May look at that at some distant point in the future. Would also love to have a radiator that actually had a drain plug and place to drain from too!

[Makse]

34 minutes ago, soldave said:

A bit late to the party here, but I've nothing but good things to say about Winner Racing. I used them (admittedly quite a few years ago) to make a custom radiator for my Mitsubshi Evo and the quality was outstanding.

How much was the recore, if you don't mind me asking? May look at that at some distant point in the future. Would also love to have a radiator that actually had a drain plug and place to drain from too!

The recore is via Lotus Bits. 

[Farmer Bob]

I bought an alloy radiator from Winner Racing, I seem to remember having to pay some import duty but this was probably at the checkout on Ebay. The radiator seems to be well made, fitted correctly and looks the part and as such can only recommend them really.

[black eclat]

 When I did the partial restoration on my Eclat, I prioritized the following over an alloy radiator:

• Fit  a manual override switch on the fan (s).
• Replace the rotten mild steel pipework for stainless on the header tank and heater matrix core.
• Fit isolation valve on heater matrix core piping. (I was not brave enough to remove the dash to replace the matrix)
• Re-core the radiator.

[Makse]

1 hour ago, black eclat said:

 When I did the partial restoration on my Eclat, I prioritized the following over an alloy radiator:

• Fit  a manual override switch on the fan (s).
• Replace the rotten mild steel pipework for stainless on the header tank and heater matrix core.
• Fit isolation valve on heater matrix core piping. (I was not brave enough to remove the dash to replace the matrix)
• Re-core the radiator.

Looking at fitting a manual switch but also a timer that will become active when the ignition is switched off - to help to reduce heat after a drive.

where are all the steel pipework that you replaced, and sizes if you have them

isolation valve - good call.

[black eclat]

My car had 2 rusty mild steel pipes for the heater matrix. They both came from the the bulkhead just above the flywheel housing, around by the battery onto the inner wing. 1 terminated at the expansion tank via a small flexible hose and the other just past the expansion tank, connected to a center outlet on the water pump.

If I remember correctly, I used 15mm stainless steel pipe with barbs welded on each end.

[mikeeech]

On 28/02/2019 at 20:55, Makse said:

Looking at fitting a manual switch but also a timer that will become active when the ignition is switched off - to help to reduce heat after a drive.

where are all the steel pipework that you replaced, and sizes if you have them

isolation valve - good call.

The only issue with fitting a relay with timer for the fan is that this will just cool the water in the rad. You need to keep the water moving for this to have a real benefit.

[black eclat]

23 hours ago, mikeeech said:

The only issue with fitting a relay with timer for the fan is that this will just cool the water in the rad. You need to keep the water moving for this to have a real benefit.

Some of the earlier BMW and Mercedes used a 12Vdc Water Pump to do exactly this. I retro fitted one such pump to a series 1 Elise that was modified with flowed head and throttle bodies. The head gasket was only lasting 6 months! Now the rover engine was famous for blowing gaskets anyway but still should have been better. We opened up a blank port casting on the head next No. 4 and plumbed the pump between this and an existing connection at No. 1. This ensured a timed  flow of coolant around the head once the engine was turned off. This Elise has the same head gasket now, 4 years later.

I always had it in the back of my mind to do the same to my Eclat but no amount of hard driving caused me any concern once I had my manual override on the cooling fans.