At an added cost of only about $100 (retail at TRF - could be less with sales,
promotions, and source), if I were having to swap out I would opt for the
alloy. Even under normal and conservative driving - there is always the
concern about overheating in the '3.
The difference was almost double when i was going through the same decision
process 6 years ago and opted for repairing the OEM - it wasn't toast so at
about 1/2 of a new one it was a nobrainer. Might think differently now.
JM2CW
Carl
Nov 15, 2010 07:31:34 PM, Chip19474@aol.com wrote:
List,
If this thread has been worked over previously, please let me know where I
can get info off-list and I'll save us some bandwidth!
A good friend of mine in our club lost lots of coolant from his radiator in
his TR3 over the weekend to a plastic grocery bag. It seems that he
couldn't avoid it blowing across the road and it snagged at 3000rpm onto the
radiator fan which beat the poor radiator into a million leaks. It's been
awhile since he's done any radiator service (1966!) so he's not complaining
about its longevity!
His question is: should he replace the radiator with an aluminum radiator
or a stock "OEM" replacement?
He does not race the car and is not interested in any kind of performance
upgrade or coolant system upgrade because the old radiator worked just fine
before the plastic bag incident. His reason for asking is to get a sense
of whether the extra cost for an aluminum radiator makes sense because of
possibly better heat transfer, easier installation, longer life than probably
Chinese made OEM radiator, etc?
Any thoughts from those of you who were at a similar decision point some
time recently?
If it weren't for the likelihood that the new OEM radiator will probably be
made with less quality than his original, I would vote for an OEM unit
from one the usual suppliers. 'Course, if the aluminum radiator is also made
elsewhere then I guess that levels the playing field to consider other
advantages of aluminum.......
Thanks,
Chip Krout
Delaware Valley Triumphs, Ltd.
Skippack, PA
1976 TR6 CF57822U
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