Alternative radiator setup
 

Hello fellow GL'ers,

In modifying my Ghia with better performance and such without hacking it up, I ran into quite a dilemma with cooling the WBX that I'm using. Most Ghia's that get watercooled have the radiator in the spare tire well which kills it's covert status as well as eats up space.

I was checking out my neighbor's Mini cooper and noticed how compact the radiator was and got the measuring tape out. Voila! The ole' Mini cooper's radiator fits just fine.

Any comments or suggestions on making this work well? I'm going to open the backside of the nostril vents to allow more air into the soon-to-be sealed cavity that the radiator(s) (one on each side if necessary) will reside.

Hi there,

Forgive me if I ask the obvious... But how are you going to fill up the radiator if the cap is going to be so close to the (top) body? Or are you going to make a trap-door?

I will use a remote reservoir and have the local radiator wizards modify the top of the radiator if necessary to put a bleeder valve on each radiators to facilitate getting the air bubbles out if in the end the radiators are the highest point in the cooling system.

I am using the Evans coolant system which is a zero pressure system so I'm not to concerned about the pressure caps and what not.

I was planning to fill the coolant system with this system..

Hi

I just had a good read about that system. http://www.evanscooling.com/main21.htm

I'm going to look into it for my new 1303. The benefits are great by the look of things. Thanks mentioning it in your post.

Steve

How about one in each fender well in parallel? What is the ID of the inlet/outlets?

Jason

My goal is to run them parallel just like Porsche does with their watercooled vehicles. I'll have to measure the inlets and outlets when I get back home Saturday.

The necks aren't that large in diameter which is why I spoke about getting modifications done to them as they're brass which would be easy for any self-respecting radiator shop to work on.

Might I suggest that the diameter of the inlet/outlets is correct for the design of the radiator and shouldn't be altered? If you just split a larger tube into two smaller tubes that are exactly half of the cross sectional area of the larger one, you'll flow just as well. Something like you'd see in an V8 exhaust header, where four small tubes merge into one. As the water flows through the larger tube, when it meets the split, if the lengths of tubing and the radiators are the same, the fluid should flow equally into each radiator, then they can merge back into the large diameter tubing and head back to the engine. Each radiator will have to have a bleed valve on it, but I don't think putting a large inlet/outlet on is the smart thing to do. This is only my opinion and I'm not a hydrodynamics engineer, but it make the most sense to me. If you get a decent airflow over those radiators and use aluminum on the way to the front and back for extra heat loss, I'll bet you you'll be just fine.

Jason

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/458476.jpg

Am I right in thinking that you are going to be using a brass/copper radiator with the aluminium block of the WBX? Surely that is going to be an issue corrosion wise? Or does this magical Evans coolant prevent corrosion?

I'm just asking as I've already sized up mini radiators for rear mounting in my soon to be WBX powered beetle and as we know alu mini radiators are going on for £150-200 which is money I don't have to spend

Weren't the original radiators in Vanagons the copper/brass units? And weren't they were used with no problems?

I bought a pair of them on EBay for $ 50.00! Used of course, but checked out fine.

Plastic/Aluminium according to the Nissens website.

This is something you probably should look into. Dissimilar metal corrosion will over time, and I don't know what type of period we are talking about, eat into the case, leaving you with some seriously bad engine problems.

I after some reading would suggest strongly that you do not use copper brass units. It would be a great cheap solution, but I cannot warrant a dead engine, and would rather make a bigger outlay on radiators.

Just my two pence, but I am interested on other peoples' input on this.

Al

More to that a quote from this website states

So you may get away with this Evans coolant completely preventing galvanic corrosion, but I'm no chemist. I know its not 100% on topic, but it serves a point

EDIT: More interesting reading http://www.engineersedge.com/galvanic_capatability.htm

The theory is correct, but I have never seen any damage in engine conversions from this. I've used copper several times myself and had absolutely no ill effects with Alfa or subaru engines....

So Ricola, am I correct in thinking that these engines have either aluminium heads or blocks or both?

Alfa had ally heads on steel block IIRC, subaru all ally...

Maybe it is just a case of using decent coolant...

Thanks for that, just been over the road to see my friend with an autocross mini. He had a spare radiator kicking around which is now in my garage :D

It fits perfectly under the 50mm wider wings and clears the wheels easily.

Should I now be looking at fabing up some brackets and forgetting the worries about galvanic corrosion?

Just a quick question - what coolant did you use? Is G12+ up to the job?