205 & Golf Radiator dimensions??

[mattius]

Yeah i looked at them but they are bloody expensive, 20 quid a pop.

[SteveA]

Another alternative is to make up your own 'T' piece. I made this one from two hose joiners, made to a tight interference fit and then epoxied in for good measure

[SpitmkIIICPH]

question:

I noticed that Roy's (nicely polished) thermostat housing has to outlets -(browsing through a spit/gt6 refference book I noticed the same)

my spit and also my 2000 only have one outlet on the housing.... what the f...??? ;D

[DaveNotSoSideways]

1 is just as good as two?

[SpitmkIIICPH]

Two are stronger than one? (is this a saying or is it just the title of a failed Danish entry for the 2007 Eurovision song-contest - yes really!)

getting back to my question: what the f...? ;D

[GT6 Mike]

GT6's are special  

 

Not really sure why they have two, in an original configuration they both go to the same place, one into the top of the radiator and the smaller into the radiator filler neck.. I was once told that the shape and angle of the thermostat housing restricts the flow so an additional take off was fitted.

 

I think it may be more to do with filling and bleeding the system.

[SteveA]

As you may be able to see, the GT6 thermostat housing is angled on the front edge to give bonnet clearance, I guess because of this they may not have been able to get a large enough single outlet so they went for two? With a standard system one of the pipes from the thermostat housing goes to just below the filler cap on the radiator and the other to the top of the radiator proper, could be something to do with circulation or helping to bleed the system?

Either way it doesn't matter to me as I have fitted a pug 205 rad and standard Spit/saloon thermostat housing

[Mother Teresa]

2nd failed repair to my GT6 rad has prompted me to look into effecting a Roy-ism ;D.

Positioning of the expansion tank on the scuttle may be an issue, as the servo there already takes up a lot of space.

Is there a minimum size these tanks should be to be effective :-/?

[DaveNotSoSideways]

Alteast a litre imo with alteast 500ml of expansion size. I use 2 litre.

[Mother Teresa]

It looks like you can get the Vauxhall header tank in a 2 or 3(as Roy's) take off. Re-reading Roy's excellent thread and its clear he's only using 2 of the take-offs.

 

I'm right in thinking the header tank must be the the highest point? ideally higher than the thermostat housing plumbed as Roy has it?

The scuttle area is jam-packed with servo, heater valve, coil pack etc. :B

I'm wondering if I could fit the header tank somewhere high in the area of the redundant dizzy pedestal, albeit limited by the bonnet height in that area....

[bestquality03]

It looks like you can get the Vauxhall header tank in a 2 or 3(as Roy's) take off. Re-reading Roy's excellent thread and its clear he's only using 2 of the take-offs.

 

I'm right in thinking the header tank must be the the highest point? ideally higher than the thermostat housing plumbed as Roy has it?

The scuttle area is jam-packed with servo, heater valve, coil pack etc. :B

I'm wondering if I could fit the header tank somewhere high in the area of the redundant dizzy pedestal, albeit limited by the bonnet height in that area....

 

I am welding up a Honda civic rad with mounts to suit the gt6 for someone on another forum.  we are also making the alloy header tank to suit the rad. We are going to punch some brackets for the fan so it's not held on with those crap pull ties these brackets will mount onto the civic fan mounts.   I have done this mod to my GT6 and it will not get above 1/4 on temp gauge when running in the cold weather we have been having.  P.M. me if you are interested

 

Some pics

[bestquality03]

some more

[Mother Teresa]

Looks good- are you saying you have an ali rad for sale :-/?

 

[Royboy66]

ok ex wheezer!

 

I have a cunning plan for ya!

 

Dump the servo onto e bay, with the wonga from that buy a exx bottle & Rad, either go golf or as Timbo has fitted,the civic one seems to work fine for his GT6 2.5 ( couldnt get a civic to cool my GT6 a few summers ago! Grr, im not jealous though Tim, much! )

 

also, yuo could wait till Prescott and look at the golf and civic rads side by side,and takes ya pick!

 

Oh sorry, like Brad is gonna wait !!    ;D

[DaveNotSoSideways]

Those cheap Civic Ebay rads are really bad quality tho.

 

Welded by blind Indian workers.

 

Careful.

 

I'd stick to a OE radiator by OE maker.

 

There's hundreds of SHIT alloy radiators piling out of China and India that are truely awful, £100 DOESNT BUY A GOOD HANDMADE RADIATOR. £250 alteast.

 

I can see from the welding on that Radiator its not something I want on my car, splitting, cracking or falling apart after it gets vibration fatique, especially from being mounted incorrectly.

 

Even the quality of repro rads varies greatly.

 

Only way to get a GOOD rad is to pay top-dollar for a proper one, or look for proper OE ones.

 

Fundementals.....Fundementals.

 

[DaveNotSoSideways]

 

I'm right in thinking the header tank must be the the highest point? ideally higher than the thermostat housing plumbed as Roy has it?

 

Nope.

 

Can be fitted under the car if you want, 30metres below the tarmac. Just the fill procedure and plumbing MUST allow for it to work correctly.

 

It must be BELOW the fill point.

 

YOU MUST have a FILL point at the highest point on the engine, like a swirl pot with a filler point or tap the stat housing for put a filler on that.

 

You simply 1/2 FILL the header tank (if 2litre) and put the cap on. That will stop any liquid entering it via backflow when you fill the engine.

 

Fill the engine from the filler point till full, replace the filler.

 

You can then undo the cap on the header tank and use it as normal, provided the filler cap is on the new filler point. The water ABOVE the header tank is HELD in hydraulic lock so cannot flow into the open header tank, even if 30metres above it etc. You need  a sealed system in top order too.

 

You need to consider the plumbing design carefully to avoid to suckback at switch off etc.

 

TVR have a header/expansion tank in the base of the engine bay, the engine is filled via a MASSIVE swirl pot with a filler point in the top. On Rover V8 anyways.

 

 

[Royboy66]

Too right ! The chinese civic rad i had was rough as a bears arse! Not even squared up !

[Royboy66]

Whereas Fabrice's cost considerably more!  8) Shiney!!

 

Ya pays ya money..........

[bestquality03]

nothing wrong with this make of cheap rad and it wasn't even £100 it was only £70  delivered!!! We do aluminum fabrications for a living and the welding aint so bad.   Proof is in the pudding it works very well on mine!!

 

I don't have a rad for sale but will do the mods and make the header tank for you if you supply the rad.  Don't want to get in a debate about it was just trying to be nice!!!

[Royboy66]

yup, Bestquality03's civic rad install is very neat, much better that that rad I had, he chose a better one  :B

 

well worth a look at Prescott brad,before you decide

 

[GHR630]

Mine was an unusual find. £80 from Ebay brand new and well made. Intended for a kit car or Hot Rod or W.H.Y. it has similar dimensions to the GT6 item (slight chassis "adjustment") except it has 2 rows of 36 tubes that are deeper than GT6 tubes. The standard rad has 3 rows of 18 from memory. My mate has a standard GT6 rad that has been recored with a similar core as this. The rad is mounted very low but i have a header tank on the firewall which is used for filling and setup includes an element of self-purging. I can use the electric pump to drive out the air whilst filling. With a conventional pump, it helps to jack the front up a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

[DaveNotSoSideways]

Thats a proper rad George.

 

-----------

 

Mr Radiator.

 

I won't why bother to expand on why 70pound alloy radiators aren't worth fitting unless you don't care two hoots about your engine. FALSE ECONOMY.

 

I can see the welding in the picture, the radiator is a, how can I put it, piece of sh-ite, sorry.

 

I looked at the welding and its some of the worst TIG welding I have ever seen, I wouldnt pay for it, and you are proposing to add mounts on this?

 

I bet its not even welded with the right rods, or even made from the right alloy?

 

I know 2 guys locally who make radiators, by hand, proper radiators.

Don't tell me thats good quality, if thats good quality to you, I wouldnt let you wash my car, your standards aren't high enough.

 

Lets see this water system perform with 200HP @ 7000rpm. Don't make me laugh.

[DaveNotSoSideways]

I got a nice new sexy little Fluke Laser Temp Gun today 0-500C   Much better than my 0-200C one.

 

You need to be a mule for a test Bruce I think.

 

Sadly its a shame you're current rad is stuffed, as you have to change it now which means testing some plumbing isn't just a job of swapping a few hoses...

 

Most modern rads don't have a filler/cap on them. You need one for now I think.

 

You want to get a rad in, with a shroud, with a working fan, just working for now.

 

Try to find a decent OE jap rad with a filler/pressure cap on it, often micro type.

 

This means for now you can just plumb it in as normal and use that filler/pressure cap on the rad and forget the expansion tank as that needs to be plumbed in flowing to FILL the engine.

 

Having a rad with a cap is good, means you can seemlessly move from design to design and its just useful. You can replace them with a "blank" and then use an expansion tank with a pressure cap and just use the rad filler for prefilling.

 

You gotta wise up, ready yourself for the present and future.

 

If you make it that way you can add and take parts and this allows you to mule some ideas for an afternoon (hot one)?

 

You want a nice fat core rad;

 

Ideally OE made, with a cap on the top (ideally with a pressure cap and an expansion pipe facility in the cap holder)

 

Probably japanese.

 

You need the inlet on the top left,or middle of the top of the rad.

 

You need the outlet on the bottom right corner at 0 or 90deg to chassis rails.

 

You want atleast 1 fan switch boss.

 

You need 1 outlet pipe, small diameter from the top of the rad, like the 205 one, for an expansion tank etc or to allow expansion.

 

With all those nice ideas you should have a VERSITILE water system.

 

P.S angling the radiator is a good move, more room the better, the cooling runs are a touch short for my ideas.

 

RADIATORS MUST BE SHROUDED.

 

[flatter4]

P.S angling the radiator is a good move, more room the better, the cooling runs are a touch short for my ideas.

 

There is also the fact that making the air turn corners while flowing through can increase the cooling ability by adding more contact.  It's a game though - too much angle and you disturb the flow too much and decrease the ability.

 

 

[Mother Teresa]

As aways guys- i'm grateful for the input .

Time might be limited at the mo- seconded to a new job, which means less time to daytime surf the new-fangled Interweb thingy.

Thanks for the kind offer Tim- one of the reasons i'm keen on the Roy-style aftermarket GTI jobbies, is that the whole rad is available for the purpose of colloing, where-as substituting a better cooling ali rad in the same place as the GT6 item means the chassis cross-member still blocks the airflow. I don't doubt that these rads work in that location, yours and George's being a case in point, but Fabrice drilled loads of holes in his cross-member to assist this. it seems a shame to be losing that cooling capacity :-/?

Dave: you read my mind regarding the requirements you've listed above. I'm going to cap off the oil cooler radiator at the same time as it doesn't seem to be required(thermostat never opened yet), so that should leave as much space as Roy at the front.  

I've got a shroud at the front now(stainless steel version of the Triumph item). Fitting a rear shroud made a positive difference when I had one a few years back.