Opinion about Aluminium Radiator

[pietpetoors]

What is your opinion about Aluminium radiators?

I asked for prices for a new radiator for the Tazz.
The imported Aluminium one is way cheaper than the rest.

Silverton Radiators' agent in Vredenburg - R1430.70
Same place cheapy - same as spare shops - R954.20 - Imported aluminium one
Toyota original R1484 (at last something that is not 4x the real price)
Langebaan spare shop - R580.00 - Imported aluminium one

The guy at the radiator place said the heat dispensation of the aluminium radiator is 50% worse than that of the original copper radiator (which I take with a pinch of salt.)
He also said if a stone hit the radiator you can repair it (no problem, it must destroy the aircon radiator first)

The "not be able to repair" part don't concern me, as I did not need that feature in this vehicle for the past 9 years and I guess to repair a copper radiator will cost just as much as what a new cheapy cost.

The big question is, is the aluminium's heat transfer coefficient really 50% less than that of the copper radiator???

[Masekind]

Al wat ek weet is die coolant wat moet reg wees vir n aluminium een want van hulle eet aluminium gou op, en self die engine het gesien op my lux.

[JohanM]

Pieter

My 2006 Tazz and 1992 Corolla both was factory fitted with Alum radiators. Aluminium radiators actually have a better heat dissipation coefiecient than copper radiators. Depending on size, core ect can be up to 35% more effecient.

Copper can be repaired and not alum if it cracks, however, I have seen that my 4Y on the dyno labouring hard at very low RPM's it only went up to 95°C. This is were it used to run normally with the copper radiator fitted. Now its running at about 87°C so there is benefit in alum.

Also manufacturers world wide fits alum to high performance motors to assist with better cooling for the size, thus I would say that parts guy was on something strong.

Also why is heatsinks made of alum and not copper?? Makes for better heat dissipation per size than copper.

[dd6]

I've never seen a copper intercooler..... That should tell you something.

[Gov]

I've never seen a copper intercooler..... That should tell you something.

That's air to air cooling if you want to be technical

I bought an aluminum replacement for my Camry from silverton, no issues, in fact runs a little cooler.

Price difference can be put down more to cost of raw materials than quality/efficiency imo

[ThysdJ]

I found in Kaspaas that the alu radiator dissipated heat much better than the HUGE copper one that was in there. By how much, I cannot say.. but after that we had no more heating problems..

Maybe we should ask Moog en Marty to test it unscientifically..

[IndianaJones7746]

After I got tired of having to send the copper radiator in my Hilux back to the radiator repair shop, I just bought an imported aluminum radiator, and it works great. If I had to guess, it even runs a little cooler, but it does have a thick core.

[The Legend]

I replace my copper radiator in my 4y with aluminium radiator-very happy with it.No problems at all

[Obelix and Dogmatix]

Langiebaan has a SPARES SHOP!!!!!!!!

How the place has changed!!!

[pietpetoors]

Langebaan has a SPARES SHOP!!!!!!!!

Yes, it does, changed ownership thrice the past 7 years,but it is there.

Thanx for all the replies, I also wondered why all manufacturers moved to Aluminium radiators if it is then 50% less efficient than copper. Guess it was then just another B/S story to try and make a sale.

So I ordered the R580 model from the spare shop.

[louis fourie]

There is a lot of engineering in how the fins look like and the way the fins get joined to the tubes. Today's Al radiators are more effective than the copper brass radiators of yesteryear.

Sent from my IdeaTab S6000-H using Tapatalk

[ronnie]

Langebaan has a SPARES SHOP!!!!!!!!

Yes, it does, changed ownership thrice the past 7 years,but it is there.

Thanx for all the replies, I also wondered why all manufacturers moved to Aluminium radiators if it is then 50% less efficient than copper. Guess it was then just another B/S story to try and make a sale.

So I ordered the R580 model from the spare shop.

And compared to R1484 from Toyota it only has to last 1/3 of the time :wth:

[Mud Dog]

Alu definitely disperses heat quicker ... more efficient.

As for the repair story, well as you correctly said, how often does that happen. If you have a core problem (leak) and you're far from a service centre, well how many guys carry soldering equipment capable of repairing a radiator around with them - in any case, you can just pinch off the leaking tube in the core, copper or alu. So that argument doesn't carry much weight.

For the saving in cost I fitted an alu radiator to my work Hilux, never a problem in the last 3 yrs. Even had a front end smash where the front firewall was bent and the radiator visibly twisted - no leaks - pulled the firewall straight with the radiator still in place. That was more than a year ago - still no leaks.

So ja, Alu is the way to go.

[karoodonkie]

http://www.caparadiator.com/aluminumvscopper.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Een man se denke.

[Mud Dog]

Interesting, but here's what bothers me .... he says that a 4 core, well made copper rad cools the same as a normal alu one, but he still maintains that copper is more efficient .