New rad.

Wonderfully timely thread - I was just talking to Brett yesterday about the need for exactly this.
Looking forward to hearing about your experience with the cooling performance, and a contact number, if you would, please.

From conversations with me, and possibly a few others now that he has new reason to know, Brett is now getting a feel for just how hot it gets in the OK/non-coastal TX/NM/AZ area, since the cooling breezes we get comes from.....someplace else that's just as hot.

 

Beautiful looking piece of equipment! Just curious as to your oil temperatures and what oil you are using?

I use Mobil 1 15W-50 and oil temps on the hot days here in New England (say low 90's F) go to 110 C. If it's not a hot day, the oil temp stays around 100 C, which I consider to be the minimum that I would want to see.

The synthetic Mobil 1 has a working temperature that goes pretty high, much higher than anything I would ever hope to see.

 

God that's a beautiful thing-

First thing I do on any older car is have the Radiators flushed and cleaned and have the fnis straightened- Both my 400i and 412 stay very, very cool even in the heat- Stuck on the Mass Pike the other morning for almost an hour and the car was mostly idling with the A/C on full blast- temp needle never budged.

My 308GT4 sees a definite rise in temps but never to the point of anythign dangerous.

Some of the 400 series cars I looked at had ridiculous amounts of crud in the radiator-

 

100 degrees here today...and STICKY.

But yea- hot for us is 80s!

 

I've been to Phoenix in late May, when the temps start getting pretty hot and the hotel prices start dropping. I've heard stories about the airport shutting down when the ambient temps > 120 F because the jet engines had not been certified to perform at that level.

One November my wife and I came to AZ for a vacation that ran from Tucson to Phoenix to Sedona and up to the south rim of the Grand Canyon and the wardrobe that we had to pack had to accomodate temps from the 80's in Tucson down to below freezing at the Grand Canyon.

 

Ron Davis Racing is an excellent choice, they just make a radiator for my BBi and put on two upgraded SPAL fans. When I had a 400i I used the stock radiator but removed the oil cooler and put in two upgraded SPAL fans and never had a water or oil temp problem after that. You might want to consider upgrading the fan instead of sticking with the original.

 

Since oil has leaked into this thread, is there any reason to worry about the zink content of the oil?
While these are not solid lifter engines they do have lots of chain links, sprokets, ball bearings, and cam to valve parts as sources of extreme pressures.
Greg

 

The 1st thing I do with any newly acquired car is to recore the original radiator. I had no reason to do so but in the interest of having one less thing to worry about, I recored our 400i

Recoring is replacing the core but using the original fittings, upper and lower tank. Done this way it is original and everything fits and looks like it did the day it left the factory. The aluminum replacement radiators look just like an aftermarket replacement. My personal preference is to keep the "factory" look if at all possible.

Now we don't have the long hot summers in Seattle, that most of you folks do, but when the temps outside are in the 80's+ my temp is 90 degrees with the a/c on. I have never seen the temp above 90 even in long standing traffic. The cost to recore my radiator was under $700.00.

Howard Musolf
1981 308gtsi
1982 400i Cabriolet
1988 Lotus Esprit Turbo
2 many brass era cars.

 

When the outside temps are in the 80s in the summer for Fritz and I, it's 5am, and 89.

 

Fritz, nice new Ali rad!

I have a NOS, never been used 400i radiator that I will sell for a lot less than $1700. It is certainly clean and should improve cooling. If you have a clogged or damaged radiator, contact me via this post or via pm.
Ken