Ali Radiator?

[Paul Bowden]

 

I have finaly ordered my SL from Caterham, one thing I have not ordered at present, but as there is a 3 months+ wait I still have time to tinker, is an Ali Radiator. Is this a worthwhile upgrade, as ever I am after the Pros and Cons.

 

 

Thanks

 

Paul

[Richard Price]

I was suprised to find, when my 1.6 RoadSport kit arrived, that an ally. rad. appears to be standard!

[Andrew Walker]

I may be wrong but I think that they only do ali radiators now.

[dino ferrana]

Definately have ali radiator now which is nice. Taken the plunge then what have you gone for?

[John Vine]

When I had to replace my old rad last year (dratted Brands gravel thrown up by the car in front), Caterham supplied an ali one, commenting that ali was the new standard.

 

JV

[Paul Bowden]

Thanks,

Hopefully I will get the Ali Rad with my Kit. I have gone for a super "SuperLight". Carbon Wind deflector, Mag wheels,no heater etc, as I wanted it as light as possible. Went for a ride in the Blue SL with wind deflector that Caterham have for sale it was great, as my head seems to stick above the normal windscreen anyway I thought why bother with all that wiper/glass stuff. Now the long wait until July

 

[V7 SLR]

Ali just refers to the material it's made of. The point of ordering the ali rad in the past was to get one with enough capacity to cool the engine under race conditions, hence its otherwise-know-name of "race" rad. if Caterham now supply only ali rads, I'd suggest they have a manufacturer able to supply a thinner (read: road) rad in ali. Not much gained, except maybe a little weight loss, over a conventional steel one.

 

 

If your rad is 65mm from front to back, then you have a race rad.

 

I have a JPG I drew up for someone with the dimensions of mine. Email me and I'll send it along with piccies I took of my rad on V7 if interested.

[John Vine]

> Not much gained, except maybe a little weight loss...

 

After I'd fitted mine at Brands, someone came up and, observing the glistening new item, said "Cor! That must be worth at least a second per lap!"

 

JV

[Maccers]

I think they do only do Ali rads now, my 96 X-FLow went in with a bent rad, old type and came out with a new Ali one, looks better too....

 

RM.

[RodW]

I too think that they only do allt rads now - my 1.8 Roadsport kit came with one recently.

 

RGW

[Rob Walker]

Tis true Caterham only do ali rads currently. The Road one has a vertical core and tanks top and bottom and has much the same dimensions as the steel/copper cored road rad. The ali race rad has horizontal core and tanks at each side, this rad has a greater coolant capacity.

[Jason Plato]

The ally road rad and previous copper / metal rad weigh the same +/- 200g both empty and full of water .

The ally road rad has a far greater cooling capacity then the copper / metal .

 

Dave

[stevefoster]

Are you sure they weigh the same?

A friend bought one for his race XF de dion and he said the ali one was considerably lighter.

 

 

Edited by - stevefoster on 16 Mar 2002 19:04:25

[John Vine]

> The ally road rad has a far greater cooling capacity then the copper / metal

 

Are you sure about this? Basic physical chemistry suggests to me that copper would be a much better heat conductor than aluminium.

 

Re weight, I found the ali road rad to be a lot lighter than the copper/steel one.

 

JV

 

Edited by - John Vine on 16 Mar 2002 21:05:25

[Jason Plato]

I weighed my old steel / copper rad and the road ally one and both were around 3.6 kg - the steel one is the '97 40mm thick .

 

The ally rad drops the temp to 70c at a 70mph cruise , with an 82c stat . The temp with the metal rad never moved from 80c .

 

Dave

[Graham Perry]

Caterham have done various ali rads over the years. My car has the original prototype one that Caterhams got Pace to make them to see if it would work, but Caterham didn't like the design, so got them to change it. I bought it from Pace as it had sat on their shelves for years and they were about to dump it. Its about 3/4 kilo lighter than the 4 row copper one when full of water.

 

From what I recall I think there have been at least three 'standard' designs. They are all bound to weigh different. I think pace still make them for Caterhams, but won't sell direct. I suspect that when full of water the latest design may be the lightest with its tapered header and footer reservoirs, but I haven't checked. Does anyone know what it weighs, full and empty ?