My Cracked Radiator Up-date.

Submitted: Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 at 20:35
ThreadID: 29238 Views:3841 Replies:6 FollowUps:11
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Thanks for all the suggestions in the last post.

I gave Natad a call this morning and inquired about replacing the Left side tank, they did some checking for me and I was told that replacement tanks are not made for that Radiator according to their supplier and was quoted $450 for new Radiator.

At this point I gave Ford a call just to be sure that there were no replacement tank’s available, I was told the same thing, No. I was looking for a bit of a laugh so asked how much for a new Radiator>Price $1100 yep $1100. So this is where dealers make their money, looked on the Wed and I can buy the same Ford Radiator throe a Ford parts supplier in the U.S for $440AUS+shipping, now I have never shipped anything from the U.S but I am sure the freight charge wouldn’t be $660.

So I went in and got the new radiator from Natrad when upon arrival I discovered it was half the size of the old one, The old one had twin 25mm cor’s and this one was a single 25mm cor job but with the same size tank’s as the old 2 cor had, I was assured it was just as efficient as the old 2 cor job as it had a updated cooling fin design, Fair enough I thought, as I didn’t have time to gin around and $450 was a lot better than $1100 so I brought it.

Got home, changed the serpentine belt (new belt $100) since there was plenty of room with no radiator in the way, reinstalled the radiator and it all look’s good, going to take it for a workout tomorrow to make sure the new radiator is big enough to keep the temp under control.

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Reply By: Member - Ed. C.- Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 at 22:23

Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 at 22:23
G'day Exploder,
Now that ya got yerself a nice shiny brand-spanker, ya might like to consider fitting a fly-wire screen over the front of it before the bugs'n'cr@p get a chance to get lodged in the cooling fins....
I've done this with every vehicle I've owned for the last 30-odd years & have NEVER had an airflow-related overheating problem....... (AND, I currently have a '99 GU TD42T... Roachie, take note!!)..

Some might say that the mesh (I use standard aluminium fly-wire) will restrict airflow....
I say "well yeah, it might, a little bit, but no-where near as much as the bugs'n'cr@p that WILL lodge in the cooling fins"....

I find that any bugs etc. that collect on the mesh can be simply hosed off... anything that gets thru the mesh will go straight thru the fins anyway.....

I put the mesh in front of the air-con condenser as well, so nothing ever lodges in the cooling fins, ever.....

Just thought I'd mention it... Up to you, of course :-))

Regards, Ed. C.
Confucius say.....
"He who lie underneath automobile with tool in hand,
....Not necessarily mechanic!!"

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AnswerID: 145952

Follow Up By: Exploder - Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 at 22:44

Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 at 22:44
Yep that’s an excellent idea, I have already got one on (I was Taught from a young age LOL), thou it’s looking a bit tired now and need’s to be re-done, They do a good job I still get some getting in throe a few small gaps but they are easily removed.

I find the problem now is when you are on tracks and the dry grass and small plants in the centre of the track hit on the bottom of the bull bar and the radiator guard and the seed’s then get sucked into the cooling fins.

After the 4WD trip north of Perth I had Grass seed’s and pollen all throe the A/C radiator and like only 6 bugs made it throe, did my best to blow it all out with the big blower vac when I had the Engine radiator out but once those seeds get in their they are a PITA to get out.
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Follow Up By: Member - Roachie (SA) - Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 at 22:52

Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 at 22:52
Thanks for the advice Ed.......very interesting and it makes me wonder why bloody Nissan specifically say NOt to put a screen in front of the diesel's radiator. Mongrels must be just trying to get us to clog our rad's up!!!!!!!!!!!
Having said that, I have sooooo much other chit in front of my truck, that I have never noticed any large amount of bugs etc in the air con condenser. I used to get some up in between the air con and the rad, and I haven't checked this aspect for quite some time, so perhaps i should do that, eh?? haha
As far as grass seeds from the middle of tracks is concerned.....well sounds like a good reason to fit another lift kit to get the bloody truck high enuff to avoid the seeds. lolol
Happy New Year blokes, and good luck with the new rad Exploder; hope it's as good as Natrad say it is.
Cheers
Roachie
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FollowupID: 399454

Follow Up By: Exploder - Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 at 23:56

Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 at 23:56
I would but that Bloody IFS is a bit limiting in that aspect; I could go up another Inch at the very most but that won’t solve much.

The other option I have always had in the back of my mind is getting the 4-inch Explore IFS lift from Supalift USA with a big set of 4-inch rased leaf pack’s or doing a SOA up the back with a nice set of 32’s, bleep yeah!!!
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Reply By: awill4x4 - Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 at 22:54

Thursday, Dec 29, 2005 at 22:54
Exploder, don't throw away the old radiator. Depending on where you are, get a new tank fabricated out of aluminium and welded to your core. I'll hazard a guess and say the tank failure you experienced was on the hot side of the radiator where the water comes in from the engine.
If your in Qld, take it to ARE (Aluminium Radiators and Engineering) they do this sort of stuff all the time. If your in VIC, I could have a look at it for you. I build custom alloy radiators from time to time.
Regards Andrew.
AnswerID: 145955

Follow Up By: Exploder - Friday, Dec 30, 2005 at 00:05

Friday, Dec 30, 2005 at 00:05
No mate I am in Perth, The crack was on the Cold side (Cross flow radiator) of the radiator where the top-mounting bracket is moulded to the tank, it fractured right along the top and down the side of the Bracket. I think it was a mixture of Age and vibration from 4Wding (I do tend to take thing’s a bit on the fast side sometimes)

I will think about it, but I will only be holding onto the car for another 1 or 2 years so properly not worth the $$.
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Friday, Dec 30, 2005 at 00:37

Friday, Dec 30, 2005 at 00:37
Andrew.. Give JohnR an email or call.

hes thinking of INtercoolers, but for some reason is thinking massive..
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Follow Up By: Craigjackaroo - Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 12:12

Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 12:12
Excuse me exploder for dropping in on your thread but I have a question for awill4x4.

Brad from another forum recommended that I contact you regarding a radiator problem I have.
I have a Jackaroo 2000 3.0 TD Auto which struggles when things warm up. An experienced contact from the UK said that this was a known problem for the same model Trooper in the UK and was rectified by Isuzu by fitting a double core radiator to the vehicles delivered over there. Unfortunately they did not give Australia the same consideration.
I have contacted our localish natrad dealer in Warragul who can not source a replacement radiator. The only option they have for me is to recore to a 32mm brass core approx $440 with me removing and reinstalling.
Does brass give better heat transfer than Aluminium or will I end up with a similar result. Brad also mentioned that you can custom build radiators to suit, would this be a cost effective option and can you quote for this?

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FollowupID: 400257

Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 12:15

Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 12:15
Andrew does make custom intercoolers/radiators, but the cost would be at least double what the brass one is going by what his one cost after working out hours etc.

What core radiator is yours now? Single core? Double core will make a great difference, it did to my GQ and price was about the same as you were quoted..

Is there anyone else having similar issues with their auto Jack round this way, maybe ask them what they have done.
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Reply By: Craigjackaroo - Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 13:06

Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 13:06
Hello Truckster
Unfortunately a double core is not available in the size to suit my radiator. Current core thickness is 25mm.
I haven't found anybody else that has done this yet.
If the cost is double the brass then I'll have to look at all options including adding thermo fans etc.
I am just working on the recommendation of our UK contact at the moment.
There was a seller on ebay who was selling custom rads for this vehicle and others from Tassie about 12 months ago for a reasonable price but I haven't seen him on since.
AnswerID: 146786

Follow Up By: Leroy - Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 13:59

Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 13:59
Why not import one from the UK??

Leroy
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FollowupID: 400272

Reply By: Craigjackaroo - Saturday, Jan 07, 2006 at 08:18

Saturday, Jan 07, 2006 at 08:18
I'll look into this option a little but I don't think exchange rates, import duties and postage costs are very favourable for this plus the risk of damage getting it accross. I will try to get the calsonic number from it to see wether I can source a genuine one over here though.
The Isuzu/Holden numbers for the radiators just listed the same 25mm core type.
AnswerID: 146943

Follow Up By: awill4x4 - Saturday, Jan 07, 2006 at 18:50

Saturday, Jan 07, 2006 at 18:50
Craig, Andrew here. I'm sorry I haven't been able to get back to sooner.
An aluminium cored radiator will cool more efficiently than a copper/brass one. The copper is efficient in transferring heat but the solder used to hold everything together is terrible.
Your current radiator is 25mm thick but that will be one row of tube and that tube is the whole thickness of the radiator so that's 25mm. On your quoted one of 32mm thick copper/brass that will be 2 rows of tubes but to fit them into a core thickness of 32mm and allow tube to tube clearance then each tube is only going to be 12mm -13mm deep so there's no benefit there in coolant volume.
For a full custom fabricated aluminium radiator I can't even buy the cores for what your buying the complete standard radiator for. For example the custom core for my GQ cost me a little under $600 when I bought it and then there were mega hours of work to finish it off.
My best advice to you is to start with the cheapest things 1st. Replace thermostat, you never know you may have a "lazy" thermostat it can happen.
Next, put a good quality radiator flush (I like Tectalloy Muckowt) through the system and follow directions and flush out your entire cooling system and then get it reverse power flushed by a radiator centre. You'll be amazed just how much gunk is flushed by a high volume reverse flush.
If it were me I would then either remove the radiator myself of have it removed and have a radiator end tank taken off and have the core "rodded" out this will clean out any blockages which may be in your core and have a new tank O ring fitted and the tank replaced on your core. You can usually remove a tank twice before there are any problems with resealing the tank to the core.
That's the direction I would go 1st, it should be the cheaper option.
As an example, my day job is in the motor racing industry and the sprintcars we repair and manufacture are producing between 700- 750 bhp and they use a radiator core of 25mm thickness and don't have cooling problems. There is one caveat though and that is that they run on Methanol which is a "cool" fuel. The supercars use a core thickness of 40mm on their sprint rounds and 57mm at Bathurst.
Regards Andrew.
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Reply By: Craigjackaroo - Saturday, Jan 07, 2006 at 21:25

Saturday, Jan 07, 2006 at 21:25
Thanks for the reply Andrew.
The radiator has been serviced by Natrad and found to be spotless.
The coolant has been changed at regular intervals.
Holden flushed the block etc when the radiator was sent for a service.
The thermostat was first tested and then replaced even though the original was fine.
The head was replaced 6 months ago and the internals were spotless and there was very little corrosion.
The viscous fan was checked by holden as was the pump as well.
Obviously its not going to be easy to find a double core radiator or replacement core. I compared the radiator to that in a 2.8td patrol and found it was about a third smaller.
Would fitting a tranny cooler and thermo fan be an improvement?
I am trying to get hold of a calsonic number for the dblcore they use in the UK.
Regards Craig
AnswerID: 147059

Follow Up By: awill4x4 - Saturday, Jan 07, 2006 at 23:53

Saturday, Jan 07, 2006 at 23:53
Craig, it sounds as if you've done everything right so far. I'm assuming that as you're asking about a tranny cooler that your Jackaroo is an automatic?
If so an auxilliary cooler can make quite a bit of difference and if you're towing they should be considered a "must have" in my opinion. On my GQ I have even gone to the extent of bypassing the radiator trans coolers entirely and now run 2 front mount transmission coolers, one of which is mounted between the air con condensor and the auxilliary air con thermo fan. I am going to hard wire the fan to a switch so I can turn it on manually when 4x4ing. My auto temps previously with suburban driving were 70-80 degrees they now sit at 50-60 for the same conditions. When the torque convertor locks up it sits about 45-50 normally and on one 40+ degree day it sat at 55-60 @ 110 kph so it's working really well.
The auto trans cooler I've fitted behind the fan is by PWR and measures 280mm X 255mm X19mm thick and has a list price of $179 but I got it for significantly less than that as they had one with 5/16" barbs (8mm) rather than the 3/8" barbs they normally supply and it was the size I wanted. It works well at removing transmission heat, which is good as heat is the single biggest killer of auto transmissions.
Regards Andrew.
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FollowupID: 400508

Reply By: hoyks - Saturday, Jan 07, 2006 at 21:52

Saturday, Jan 07, 2006 at 21:52
Give these guys a try:

PWR Performance Radiators

They had a write up in 4x4 Aus as they supplied a new radiator for Ron Moons' modded truck. There are no 4x4s listed on their site but they should have something available, or a custom jobbie.
AnswerID: 147062

Follow Up By: Member - Roachie (SA) - Sunday, Jan 08, 2006 at 00:38

Sunday, Jan 08, 2006 at 00:38
Yep, that's where I got the big mutha that's under my bonnet too. It's huge.....2 x 25mm cores and the same width and height as the original plastic-tanked job.
Only thing is that I couldn't get the plastic shroud back onto it, and some blokes reckon this is why my truck still runs quite hot at times. I'm still not convinced as I have 2 electric fans in front of the radiator (one of which is the air-cond fan and the other is a 10" Davies Criag which I can switch on).....so between the 3 fans, there should be enough airflow through the radiator. Also, it only gets hot when I'm driving at speed, so there should be enough natural airflow. When we did the Simpson trip last year, the temp gauge never got above 80oC, even though I was in low range for the whole crossing, towing the camper trailer and slow speeds (= no airflow over radiator).
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