quote:will the aluminum be eaten up unless an anode is used somewhere
I just covered this in a phone call with Bill at Ron Davis radiators; my new Davis 3-pass arrived this week and I wanted to be clear about this, too.
The literature with the new radiator said to NOT use any brass fittings. Wellll, Pantera temp sensors are brass, the drain petcock on the previous radiator was brass, as was the air-bleed fitting at the top of the radiator.
Bill said they have not had the brass temp sensors cause any problems in Pantera radiators. They are in effect electrically isolated from the chassis ground. Just a switch in a brass case; not a grounded wire. When I pushed him on this, and the other brass fittings that had been on my previous unit, he said if an electrolysis problem was brewing, I would have found a black coating on the nearby aluminum. I did not.
There is no problem with using an anode, but with an ungrounded radiator and based on my experience with potential-problem brass fittings, electrolysis in not a real threat.
You can do a voltmeter test to determine if a potentially damaging current is present in your system. And the Davis literature gives instructions for doing such a test.
They did in fact include aluminum plugs for both those holes, and I guess their standard advice is to use them rather than leave a brass petcock in place; which seems pretty silly, to me.
He went on to say that an aluminum radiator should be totally removed from any contact with the steel structure of the car. Rubber bushings at all points, and this is stock for a Pantera, must be maintained.
So I intend to continue using brass, will not be placing an anode, and expect no problems.
quote:Wilkinson is working on this one for my car.
Mark, if you keep having Steve reinvent everything for your car, you will never have the joy of actually driving it and the rest of us will never have the opportunity of appreciating it.
A good aluminum unit will cool your car just fine. Feel free to just tell us the tubes are super-new, throw-down high-tech and let Steve finish the build.
Larry