Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: gideon on Sunday,February 25, 2018, 07:24:24 PM
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I bought a chinese alumin(i)um radiator on Amazon. The price was very good - $126, but I was a little concerned to discover that the radiator core is significantly thinner than the original radiator. The core doesn't really fill the frame and is about 1.5cm or 5/8 inches short of the frame on both sides. See the pictures. Does anybody else here have a radiator just like this one, and is it adequate?
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I have a similar radiator and I love it! It fit really well for me so I won't speculate on differences in manufacturing tolerances. I would not worry at all about the thickness. When I was just getting my car built, I took my radiator to a shop to have it inspected and cleaned out if necessary. The guy there had done a lot of radiators for race cars (in fact, he was recommended by a race shop). He said the original design was archaic and suggested he build a better radiator. His was about a half inch thinner and I had to have a frame made to fill that extra half inch behind the radiator. I never had any problems with that radiator but when the aluminum radiators became available, I had to get one (three to four years ago). It was much closer to the original size. I also bought the highest CFM fan I could find and it almost fit perfectly! (Of course almost meant it still didn't fit and I had to have that fixed at a welding shop) I have had no problems with my aluminum radiator. In fact, I don't need a fan as long as I am moving at a reasonable speed (60 mph or so).
I can't be dead certain, but yours doesn't look much different from mine. If your only concern is the thickness, I would stop worrying. If the width and height are a little off, a little extra shrouding in the fender should fix that with no worries.
I used a fan controller rather than a fan thermostat (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CN4XZI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) but I would not say that it was necessary. Here is the fan I got (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038ZG0DK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).
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Thanks BDA. Aside from the thickness, the radiator looks good to me and the exterior dimensions match the original. I feel reassured. It'll be a while before I get to try it out though.