Feedback on PWR custom aluminium radiators & cores.

Submitted: Saturday, Jan 17, 2004 at 17:04
ThreadID: 9817 Views:6665 Replies:3 FollowUps:5
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Roachie & Goldfinger, I think I can comment here about the custom alloy radiators in GQ's. I built mine as a custom aluminium one using a (K&J Thermal Products core, PWR "Paul Weel Radiators" is owned by K&J Thermal, Kees Weel is Paul father.)
Anyway I used a stock core from a Ford F100/Bronco, part No from memory was FD 086A. This core was slightly narrower than original but the same height and as the radiator is crossflow I simply made the endtanks slightly larger.
The core thickness is 57mm which has 2 rows of 26mm tubes, This is the same core construction that the supercars use except they use an internally dimpled tube.
If having a custom core made up then dimpled tubes cost an extra 20% on top of core price.
Your standard 2,3,4,5 row brass/copper rads are lucky to have 10-12mm tubes and in 4/5 row then they have to offset the tubes and then you have airflow problems getting air to go through the radiator.
After a great many hours of fabrication including running auto trans coolers in both end tanks as per factory I ended up with a radiator with twice the capacity of the original Nissan item.
How well does it work? Absolutely brilliantly. Towing my caravan (1700kgs - 1800kgs) over Xmas/New Year with temps in low to mid 30's going up hills full throttle in 2nd gear (automatic) Air con on, the temp never rose above 1/2 on the gauge. Prior to this the car would have been close to boiling at those loads with the van.
At Beechworth without the van the temps were 42 degrees and the temps ranged from 1/4 to 1/3 on the gauge with air con on flat out all the time.
Note: When I built the radiator, I built it so that the original shroud was able to be fitted as well. I doubt if PWR build this feature in, it would be worth asking them.
Regards Andrew.
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