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Are you sure? The female end of that fitting looks a lot like the quick disconnect female. I measured the hole of a old late model rad with a caliper and it is about .640".
Rob,
By "old late model" what year do you think the rad was? 97-01 or 02-04
If we knew the thread size and pitch of the OEM rad female ports on the rad then putting together an adapter to fit the new aluminum rad to our 02-04 QD fitting would be much easier.
Rob,
By "old late model" what year do you think the rad was? 97-01 or 02-04
If we knew the thread size and pitch of the OEM rad female ports on the rad then putting together an adapter to fit the new aluminum rad to our 02-04 QD fitting would be much easier.
Jim
I had the wrong radiator 1.5 yrs ago went through the same thing. I couldn't find adapters. I ended up selling it and buying the correct one.
I remember reading some older threads about this. Maybe someone will chime in.
Core failed a couple of weeks ago . . . it was good while it lasted
Sorry to hear it did not work out for you. We all try to avoid the "Corvette Tax" when possible, but the horror stories I've read about cheap aluminum radiators from Ebay via China usually does not end well. My recommendation is a DeWitt's radiator. Made in the USA, quality is second to none. Pricey? Yes, But worth it. JMHO
Core failed a couple of weeks ago . . . it was good while it lasted
We here this story often but seldom does anyone actually post the follow up as you did here. My hats off to you
All aluminum radiators begin with an aluminum "core", regardless of the brand or origin. The core is the most important part of any radiator because the quality of the radiator is dictated by the braze quality of the core section. The tubes must be bonded completely to the fin or heat transfer will suffer. All the tubes must be thoroughly brazed into the header plates or leaks will develop over time.
DeWitts Radiator is the only aftermarket radiator company that owns and operates an aluminum Nocolok brazing furnace. This allows us to build our own brazed aluminum radiator cores in house, so we control the quality of those cores. We know exactly what materials are being used and the brazing profiles. We do not purchase cores from others and assume they are quality parts.
Last edited by Tom@Dewitt; 07-20-2018 at 10:40 AM.
Sorry to hear that, even more so considering I have a similar unit in the garage ready for install. Any reason for the failure or did it just let go?
The only possibility is that I HAD urethane motor mounts that resulted in vibration over and above what is normal. Aluminum radiators are more sensitive to vibrations than others, especially cheap aluminum radiators.
I replaced the urethane motor mounts with the standard version and everything is nice and smooth again.
We here this story often but seldom does anyone actually post the follow up as you did here. My hats off to you
All aluminum radiators begin with an aluminum "core", regardless of the brand or origin. The core is the most important part of any radiator because the quality of the radiator is dictated by the braze quality of the core section. The tubes must be bonded completely to the fin or heat transfer will suffer. All the tubes must be thoroughly brazed into the header plates or leaks will develop over time.
DeWitts Radiator is the only aftermarket radiator company that owns and operates an aluminum Nocolok brazing furnace. This allows us to build our own brazed aluminum radiator cores in house, so we control the quality of those cores. We know exactly what materials are being used and the brazing profiles. We do not purchase cores from others and assume they are quality parts.
Tom,
You are exactly right. In fact I was fortunate enough to find a used Dewitt radiator for just a little bit more than the one that failed, had it pressure tested and cleaned. It is now right where it belongs keeping an old LS1 nice and cool.
You are exactly right. In fact I was fortunate enough to find a used Dewitt radiator for just a little bit more than the one that failed, had it pressure tested and cleaned. It is now right where it belongs keeping an old LS1 nice and cool.
Hi Marc, (I'm also Marc )
When you say "core failed" could you elaborate? What exactly failed and do you know why? Pics of failure?
In most cases a leak will develop where the tubes go into the header slots. Here is a what the header looks like all by itsself
During the core assembly process the tubes are inserted into the header slots. Both the tubes and header are made from a special cladded aluminum. The outer skin of these parts has a lower melting alloy than the inside base material and that cladding acts like a solder, melding and creating a fillet weld. Powder flux is applied to remove the oxide layer and promote good clad flow. Over fluxing can cause an excessive build up around the tube and instead of the tube brazing in, the tube is held in with melted flux. This joint can hold pressure but after several hot/cold cycles the flux breaks loose and the tube leaks. This is the most common source of core failure when the tubes leak at the header joint. Since this braze joint is so critical, DeWitts uses double side cladded header material so the tubes are welded in on both sides. The other companies don't do that and you would never know looking at it.
Last edited by Tom@Dewitt; 07-21-2018 at 10:45 AM.
The only possibility is that I HAD urethane motor mounts that resulted in vibration over and above what is normal. Aluminum radiators are more sensitive to vibrations than others, especially cheap aluminum radiators.
I replaced the urethane motor mounts with the standard version and everything is nice and smooth again.
Marc
Originally Posted by Tom DeWitt
In most cases a leak will develop where the tubes go into the header slots. Here is a what the header looks like all by itsself
During the core assembly process the tubes are inserted into the header slots. Both the tubes and header are made from a special cladded aluminum. The outer skin of these parts has a lower melting alloy than the inside base material and that cladding acts like a solder, melding and creating a fillet weld. Powder flux is applied to remove the oxide layer and promote good clad flow. Over fluxing can cause an excessive build up around the tube and instead of the tube brazing in, the tube is held in with melted flux. This joint can hold pressure but after several hot/cold cycles the flux breaks loose and the tube leaks. This is the most common source of core failure when the tubes leak at the header joint. Since this braze joint is so critical, DeWitts uses double side cladded header material so the tubes are welded in on both sides. The other companies don't do that and you would never know looking at it.
Marc: As others have said, thank you for your updates.
Tom: Marc mentioned the possibility of urethane motor mounts causing more vibration that may have affected the radiator he had. Is that an issue with all radiators or only those that may not have been welded correctly or took short cuts in assembly?
Most of my experience with radiators that are 100% aluminum is with track/race cars. In those applications it is absolutely imperative to have no metal to metal contact between radiator and mounting points, and insulators should be at least (in my opinion) 3/4" of good old fashion rubber.
I had a Griffin unit in my 944 Turbo/LS1 track car with solid motor mounts front and rear. 1" of rubber between the radiator and mounting points and I did not have any issues for the 6 years that I had the car.
I thought that the stock C5 insulators would be sufficient, and maybe I was wrong, or maybe the radiator was just not built to take any more vibration than from stock motor mounts.
Nope but i tried the $57 radiator that did not fit due to mounting tabs. However i did buy the ecp radiator for $290 shipped and no issues. Yet.... Lol
11-04-2017, 07:25 PM
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