Alloy rad

[darragh792]

Best place to get an alloy rad for a xe conversion

[total_vauxhall]

Think its tx auto are quite cheap

[darragh792]

Are they decent quality?

[Will F]

Define 'decent'... They are Chinese tat but that's my opinion, based on two be completely useless on a friends turbo.
we switched to a genuine gm gsi rad and all our problems disappeared.

[dan23]

Fit a earlier golf rad with built in expansion tank an tidy the engine bay up at the same time

[darragh792]

By decent I mean no leaks and decent quality welds, surely aluminium will always give the better cooling as long as the flow is ok?

[Benn]

Welds can be good and some can be tatty and a bit crap.

Some leak about the tubes, some don't. They are very hit and miss now.

[TOZNOVA81]

I just got one off ebay for my 1.7TD and like ben said they're not the best in quality,
but it seems good to me no leaks or problems with it so far :)

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q633/TozNovaGsi/L393KET%20Hungovernova%20Turbo/4F2F1B5F-1F4F-4129-B83E-493ADA978815_zpsez6zb4d7.jpg

[Scottcooper85]

I also ordered one off eBay as I needed it altering and that wasn't an option with a plastic item. Welding isn't the best but it looks good enough for now. Also the blank they put in the fan switch hole was leaking and the threads had been damaged when it was put in at the factory, but as it was an alloy cap and I'm running a seperate fan circuit I had it welded in permanently.

[ben doodar]

Has anybody had any experience with any of the other alloy rads on eBay. There's a company doing them from holland. Maybe they'd be a bit better quality.

[Iain]

Tig welder wasn't too impressed when I took him mine to be fixed. I'd get a good branded OE one from personal experiences. That's what I run now.

Or spend the 300 on a pukka alloy one.

[Scottcooper85]

Has anybody had any experience with any of the other alloy rads on eBay. There's a company doing them from holland. Maybe they'd be a bit better quality.

The ones from eBay are from Holland which are Chinese manufactured mate

[Benn]

Tig welder wasn't too impressed when I took him mine to be fixed. I'd get a good branded OE one from personal experiences. That's what I run now.

Or spend the 300 on a pukka alloy one.

Like with most things, pay out at the start to get the best.

Which is what i'll do when i have to replace.

[Iain]

Benn gives bad engine fitting advice but good radiator advice.

[Benn]

F**k you. Just cause i can fit an engine the correct way.

[darragh792]

I don't know if I'd trust a standard radiator had one in my xe corsa and it was a nightmare for overheating

[Benn]

I ran a std copper rad on a Let Nova for almost a year.

A xe shouldn't over heat, i've seen 1lt 3/4 sized rads used on xe Novas and be fine.

[darragh792]

Would a standard one take 15 mins on track?

[Jonlem]

Tbh I've had a few of those alloy rads and never had a issue, due to how we pipe up the engines we have to use a alloy radiator anyway and the TX one quite comfortably deals with water temps on track.

[Iain]

I absolutely cane a standard gsi valeo on track and its fine

[darragh792]

Thanks for the input, think I may chance an alloy one

[Jonlem]

Would a standard one take 15 mins on track?

on what ? a xe or big power turbo engine ?

I ran a stock rad in my own nova xe without any issues ever, I only use the alloy ones now as they're cheap and easy to modifiy but I haven't had any issues.

[darragh792]

Standard power xe atm, I've itbs there and management there for the future