Peter Connan wrote:Hello Dieterich
As Cedric has pointed out, I had a radiator made up by Thermo Radiators, who are in Jet Park. The radiator is a complete fabricated unit made from copper, using only the top and bottom plates from the original radiator (in the Y60 I have, the tanks are on the sides of the radiator, not top and bottom like your car, and it mounts on the top and bottom plates). As a result the radiator fitted perfectly into the car and the standard fan shroud also bolted straight on. The piping configuration was also faithfully copied. As a result, no modification was necessary whatsoever. This radiator cost me less than half the money you are talking about.
However, copper is not the ideal material for a radiator in my opinion. I would have preferred an aluminium radiator, but for some reason it is apparently almost impossible to source aluminium radiator cores at the moment (I was told this by seven different radiator specialists, and must thus believe it to be true). Copper is much more robust than an aluminium radiator, but I also heavier (not really an issue) but also less thermally efficient (although this is solved because they use a thicker core) and the only remaining issue is that a galvanic reaction can occur between the aluminium parts in the engine and the copper of the radiator. To prevent this, it is necessary to earth the radiator to both engine and chassis, so even that is simple to solve.
However, my radiator has a slight leak somewhere and I have yet to get around to taking it back in...
Thanks, Peter, for that.
If I do decide to get the copper one from Silverton I will give you a call in connection with the fitting/earthing if you don't mind.
Johannes
