1.8 bar modification for 5kcsq

[Joshua Van Tol]

>the stock radiator in the 5K is aluminum with plastic end caps that 
>are crimped on, very poor design and was just a way of cutting cost 
>just like the plastic end caps on the intercooler. the aftermarket 
>"upgrade" is an all brass or copper (I forget which, I think it is 
>copper) mine is made by Modine and actually cost less that the OEM 
>one. the nice thing about this is that the plastic will not fall 
>apart on you causing you to loose all of your coolant, usually at 
>the worst possible time! I was lucky and mine failed while loosening 
>a hose clamp, just crumbled in my hands. they have repair kits for 
>them but it will just fail again in a different place. as far as 
>running hot I never had a problem with either one. I have an 
>Intended acceleration chip in my car and even on the track I have 
>never had it overheat or really even run any hotter than it does in 
>traffic. The oil temp will go up, under the most extreme conditions 
>I have seen 260*F so a better oil cooler is not a bad idea

Actually, think about this for a bit from an engineering perspective. 
Aluminum radiators with plastic end tanks save a bunch of weight, and 
the aluminum heat exchanger is much more efficient. There's a reason 
why high performance rads usually have aluminum cores, although they 
also usually have aluminum tanks too. Also, conventional brass 
radiators don't explode like the plastic end tank ones, but they do 
corrode much more readily, and need to be taken apart and "rodded 
out" about every 5 years. For total cost of ownership, the plastic 
rad is probably superior,  given that they seem to last ten years 
before leaking, and don't require and rebuilding in that time. 
Changing a 5k radiator is kind of a pain in the butt, in case you 
hadn't noticed. Plus an aluminum core of the same size, fin density, 
etc, is more efficient than a brass or copper one.



-- 
Joshua Van Tol -- josh at spiny.com