Aftermarket radiators

[YPVS]

I noticed a little pool of water at the front of the offside wheel arch this morning and it smells of coolant.

Chances are, it will be the right hand radiator, which is of unknown age. The AC condenser rads have been done recently, but not the coolant radiators to my knowledge.

With the weather being strong wind and rain, coupled with a load of drying treated and stained wood blocking access to my tools in the garage, I decided to order radiators whether they're at fault or not.

All I needed was an excuse for something which I could consider an upgrade. Looking on the Bay of E, I found some aftermarket radiators which are complete aluminium rads, with not one but dual cores, all for a slightly unbelievable £171 delivered including VAT.

The item number is 333897675700. I won't link to it as the long links end up messing up the width of the thread display.

If they turn out half as good as they look in the descriptions and photos and fit OK, for that price they're a bargain. Couple in the dual core setup and they should also cool better.

I've also ordered 15L of ECP Red (pink) G12+ OAT coolant concentrate, which I'll mix 50/50 with filtered rain water. This was ordered from their sister site "Carparts4less" which as usual, was slightly cheaper at around £17 for 5L. On doing research, this seems to be the correct one. It matches the pink stuff already in the car and isn't vastly over priced, just for having a Porsche label on it.

Will post the results when they arrive in a few days.

 

[Julesturbo]

Good luck and i look forward to hearing your feedback as I'd like to replace these on the misses 996 :thumb:

 

[Kersidan]

I tried an Ebay search by the listing number and nothing found :dont know:

Mark

 

[YPVS]

It must have been the last pair.

The seller only has right hand ones for sale now.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40mm-Alu...en:996&hash=item4dbddaff61:g:y0kAAOSwXIdcLs4y

 

[Griffter]

It must have been the last pair.

The seller only has right hand ones for sale now.

When I bought a pair (plastic end caps so not like above) they were identical. All that differentiated left/right was a rubber blanking cap fitted to one of the small outlets (visible above) at the other end of the matrix from the large inlet/outlet. Depending on which of the two outlets it was fitted to determined left or right. So it maybe (it would be worth checking) that the 'right hand side" radiator can in fact be fitted to either side.

 

[tcw]

It must have been the last pair.

The seller only has right hand ones for sale now.

When I bought a pair (plastic end caps so not like above) they were identical. All that differentiated left/right was a rubber blanking cap fitted to one of the small outlets (visible above) at the other end of the matrix from the large inlet/outlet. Depending on which of the two outlets it was fitted to determined left or right. So it maybe (it would be worth checking) that the 'right hand side" radiator can in fact be fitted to either side.

That's the difference I could spot, it looks like from pictures of these rads however that they are handed, unless only one side needs the small inlet/outlet and on the other side both are capped (which doesn't appear to be the case)

If they weren't handed I'd be very interested.

 

[YPVS]

Well, they've arrived and the quality looks spot on. Very neatly welded and nicely made.

The only differences I can see is as mentioned previously, one of them has a rubber cap over the small breather outlet and the other doesn't. The one with the cap also had 2 positioning pins down that side too, but the aftermarket race ones don't seem to need these.

I'll have a look what the breather outlet/s on the car have and make a decision on whether the rubber cap is enough or whether it needs to be blocked up more permanently. If it's a breather what sort of pressure it deals with is debateable. I could carefully tap it and fit a stainless allen screw with a fibre washer to seal it up if the cap secured with a jubilee clip doesn't fill me with confidence.

They look almost identical to these sort of race radiators. Good old Chinese copying at it's best. These also say they're interchangeable too, so it looks like you could buy 2 RHS ones and cap off the breather outlet on the LHS one.

https://www.regalautosport.com/shop...-Porsche-911-996--Fits-both-Left--Right-.html

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40mm-Alu...en:996&hash=item4dbddaff61:g:y0kAAOSwXIdcLs4y

 

[YPVS]

I finally got around to starting the fit for these this weekend. My newly purchased Cayenne Turbo has been keeping me busy with niggles, work has been busy and the weather isn't all that, even under the new car port.

They do need some adjustment to make them fit. They're a smidge thicker and instead of safety clips (which were toast on mine anyway), they have a threaded rod to take a bolt and washer to retain the fan assembly.

I got both off, cleaned up the A frame as it was corroded, primed and painted it satin black, then built the offside front up to offer it up to the car. It needed a little corner of spare ally plate nicking off, but should fit OK. I found it easier to remove the A frame in one piece with radiator, fan and shroud still in it.

I've given up for now though, as there is no way those hose clips are going to go back on with the space available to man handle them, so I'm going to swap them all out with stainless Jubilee clips, which should be here this week.

 

[YPVS]

OK, I finished fitting these yesterday and am going to give the car a test run with a load of spare coolant later.

They certainly look the part and are larger capacity than standard, but did need a bit of fettling to fit well. The lower one in the large photo a couple of posts up is a perfect example. This was the left hand one and the pins are missing which go through the metal frame on the outer edge, to be secured with safety clips.

It wasn't the end of the world, as I made up a bracket and bolted one end to the frame's top rubber mount with a nut, bolt and large washers and the other end through the same threaded bolt recess which holds the upper mount for the fan shroud.

Also, the plastic cased original uses a lot of plastic screws to retain things like the intake shroud and AC condensers. Being all aluminium, these need proper bolts. Luckily, I had loads of M6 or M4 allen pan head screws.

No obvious leaks so far and I seem to have put in as much coolant as was lost, which was only around 4-5L, as I just drained the radiators, with the front end higher than the rear.

I've ran it up to temperature a few times now and opened the bleed valve on the coolant tank. Will take it for a spirited drive then a spot around town traffic later to test. If they work, for £170 a pair, I'll be happy.

I also did Alex's cheap mesh mod to keep some of the crud and stones out. Top tip that one! :thumb:

 

[YPVS]

Been for a drive, spirited and then town traffic and no dramas to report yet.

Looks like a bit of a result for the money, even if one side was missing two mounting pegs. It wasn't that hard an issue to get around by making a bracket out of a strip of steel.

As a tip for anyone looking for similar, on my 98 C2 Cabrio manual at least, the radiators are basically a mirror image of each other identical other than being the mirror opposite of each other.

Now off to try my new car port, which was designed to carry a 180KG winch to be able to lift the hard top off and on my myself.

 

[Jamie]

Nice one mate. They do look decent and doesn't sound like there was a massive amount of work to get them in and sorted. :thumb:

 

[omigod]

Now off to try my new car port, which was designed to carry a 180KG winch to be able to lift the hard top off and on my myself.

Do any cab owners actually use their hardtops?

 

[YPVS]

Do any cab owners actually use their hardtops?

I did all winter and prefer it that way. It really does make it 2 cars in one for me.

I winched it off yesterday to live on it's frame in the shed for summer.
Unfortunately, the soft top has decided to develop a fault over winter.

The clamshell motor can be heard turning for a couple of seconds, but no clamshell movement. I've manually upped the clamshell and the rest of the roof then operates as it should. I'm hoping this is a common fault with the gearbox drive for the clamshell, as I've seen this lot sell a repair kit for it.

Over £50 for a few small components seems a lot, but if it fixes the fault...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Porsche-...tor-Gearbox-Repair-Kit-1998-2002/183896934521

Going to take the motor and clamshell drive apart later to see what the issue is. Unless it's a quick fix, it will have to wait though, as this weekend is reserved for valve cover gaskets, coils and plugs on the recently purchased 06 Cayenne Turbo.

:thumb: