quote:Originally posted by Bosswrench:quote:Is there a way to recognise from a picture a pre-74 radiator with vertical baffle from a later design with newer horizontal divider?
-Sami
No, but sticking a piece of wire in the right side bleeder valve will tell you. If the wire goes in all the way to the back of the tank, the rad has a horizontal baffle. If the wire only goes in about halfway, it has the earlier vertical baffle and should be changed. DeTomaso TSB Bulletin 2, article 35 shows the factory modification.
Corvettes, Z-28 Camaros and many other road cars have had stock aluminum radiators from the factory since the late '60s. The technology is 'mature'. Alloy rads remove a huge amount of front end weight: a stock '72 Pantera brass radiator weighs 64 lbs. A custom-built brass replacement weighed 45 lbs and a Fluidyne aluminum rad weighs 16 lbs. The Fluidyne cooled our engine much better than either of the brass ones (15F lower on long fast highway runs with no other changes).
The water you dump in the radiator will determine the assembly's life. Some areas have such corrosive water that an unprotected alloy rad has an operating life of a year or less. Most vendors now supply a bottle of 'No-Rosion' anti-corrosion fluid with all their aluminum radiators and there are others. They also suggest changing all the coolant yearly. Corvette shops stock anti-corrosion sacrificial anodes (Mag or zinc)to be put in the coolant tanks. The anodes dissolve rather than the radiator, cylinder heads or block.
Finally, home-handymen(?) tend to wind bleeder valves and other threaded parts into aluminum alloy with far too much teflon tape and force: I've seen NEW aluminum radiators with pipe-threaded aluminum bosses split wide open, returned under warranty as 'defective'. Cooling systems seldom see 20 psi; we are NOT sealing high pressures or explosive fuel here!
BW. What was in your car?
Curious since our cars are close in production.
I've seen Hall modify the tanks and leave a V in the middle of the right tank.
That would split the upper and lower sections of the radiator and make it a dual pass.
I'm not criticizing the use of aluminum radiators in the Pantera but I have heard of about a half dozen that failed around the one year old mark and were not repairable.
I would think that just about everyone buys their anti-freeze pre-mixed at 50/50 now and as such why would there be an issue with electrolysis with factory water?
I do remember a discussion I had with Gary Hall about this and as he said, "I can sell you any radiator you want, I have them all, BUT the only advantage the aluminum has is it is lighter and unless you are going racing and need to lighten the car as much as possible, use the brass radiator, it is repairable".
Still running the original stock unit. I'm sure it will need something some day?