I've just taken approx 3 weeks to change my Escort rad to a new Polo rad , It's a bit fiddly but I made it last.

Here's a photo and i'll put more inmy archive as this seems to come up regularly.............
Rescued attachment Polo Rad 02 sml.jpg

Blimey.. thats huge

Any change you can tell me the dimensions. I was thinking about using one myself. Hows the fit with the nose cone?

Good aren't they!

I was thinking of changing to one of these, can you tell me the actual model (or part number of rad) of polo it came from and what the dimentions are ?

The Rad is from a Polo 1.0 1983 - 1985

The Part No is : Serck Intertruck No - SER2719517

I dont have the measurements without taking the nosecone off ,although I seem to remember it was 322mm in the vertical plane .

PLEASE NOTE - any measurments given for rads are for the core not the overall size including the plastic ends.

It is a tight fit under a Caterham nose on a book chassis and the lower pipe was routed round the outside of the chassis tube.

I then used two 90 degree copper yorkshire fittings to take the pipe back over the steering rack. These where 28mm id and the rubber pipes are fitted over the outside ,approx 30 - 32mm the groove that the solder is in gives a nice ridge on the outside to keep the pipes from slipping off.

Also on the picture you can see that I have cut the top air bleed pipe union off and tapped the hole to 6mm ,the plastic is quite thin and I do not think this would stand much use ,so I left it in and bled the system elsewhere.

The top bracket holes where carefully tapped to 6mm in the radiator , DO NOT go too deep you will break through into the radiator.

Overall its a bit fiddly and I cannot believe that there isn't a more suitable ally cored rad for the job.


But it certainly keeps things cool, I can feel the thermostat opening and closing by the air temp coming through the drivers footwell.

another job to do seal it up!!

[Edited on 5/9/04 by Surrey Dave]

I understand cooling is a big issue with 7 style kit cars.
Would it not be possible to fit a top mounted radiator in the common style of intercooler placement in subaru imprezas and toyota celicas?

Or to fit a second radiator infront of each other?

For Mr Fifer!,


The OVERALL dimensions for this rad are 480mm wide X 325mm high........
Rescued attachment Polo Rad 03 sml.jpg

i doubt you would get enough air thro is you mounted it scoobie style. An intercooler just cools intake air a few degrees - its not like colling kilowatts of engine!

atb

steve

This is how I navigated the bottom hose around the steering rack
Rescued attachment bottom hose 1 sml.jpg

quote:

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Originally posted by stephen_gusterson
i doubt you would get enough air thro is you mounted it scoobie style. An intercooler just cools intake air a few degrees - its not like colling kilowatts of engine!
atb
steve

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BTW... Nice neat job on the Rad!..
I like the plumbing too!

Yes, have to agree that you've made a nice job of that

Im interested to know where you got those figures from.

does the air really reach water boling point in compression?

I would have thought that the air was moving at ballistic speeds thro the intercooler, and in that fraction of time to reduce it by 60 degrees?


Im not saying I dont believe you, its just those figures seem too good......


for such a small rad (intercooler) to drop that amount, there cant be a lot of heat energy in the air thats going through it.

temperature is one thing, qty (watts) is another.....

There has got to be a lot more heat storage density in water than in air.

Air has a density of 0.00125 and water 1.0.


atb

steve

quote:

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Originally posted by wilkingj

quote:

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Originally posted by stephen_gusterson
i doubt you would get enough air thro is you mounted it scoobie style. An intercooler just cools intake air a few degrees - its not like colling kilowatts of engine!
atb
steve

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Hmm My Intercooler cools by nearly 65-70 Degrees C!! the compressed charge goes into the into the intercooler at just over 100C and comes out just below 40C.
When you consider the volume of air its cooling and the speed its travelling, thats a fair bit of cooling!!

Possibly a lot more cooling than an engine Rad, measure the temperature in and out, and have a guess at the flow rate of the water.
I am no expert in either the maths or the dynamics, but I am not so sure that a water rad is cooling any more than an intercooler.

GeoffW

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Copper pipe is the Locost option ,as i'm too tight to buy samco hoses @ circa £10.00 each bend!!

Did you flare the copper tubes where they go onto the the rubber pipes?

If you use the 28mm solder ring fittings they already have a lip ideal for locating a clip behind. I used them to extend the piping to my Escort radiator.

I put half a straight yorkshire fittings on the end of the straight tubes, and the 's' bend is made of 2 right angle yorkshire fittings .

The goove that the solder is in forms a bead or ridge on the outside which was the diameter for my pipes 32mm id, and will stop them slipping off.

quote:

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Originally posted by stephen_gusterson
Im interested to know where you got those figures from.

does the air really reach water boling point in compression?

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I was just browsing through the VAG parts catalogue for something else and I came across the sizes and part numbers of the various Polo radiators:

430mm x 380mm, part # b 6N0 121 253 K
497mm x 383mm, part # b 6N0 121 253 AE
510mm x 380mm, part # b 6N0 121 253 L
630mm x 380mm, part # b 1H0 121 253 L

Hope that helps some one.

nice job there dave, the exact same thing that i did i used short self tappers to hold it all together, and only one screw on the plumbing side. I then screwed the fan onto the front side (more space). The fan is a standard polo one too.

I had trouble too with my plumbing, was thinking of dropping into a plumbing store and seeing if they did 32mm fittings. Ive got some 35mm copper pipe so im guessing that 35mm fittings must exist?! I was thinking of using an olive to hold the pipes on, by compressing it on with a fitting and then just leaving the olive on.

I ended up using an old 35mm piece of rubber hose to get round the corner, and then just copper into the original hose. The top i used a vulcoflex.

To get my nose back on, i had to chop the returns off the back of the nose, it then popped on and almost didnt nede securing!

But i then forgot to add any antifreeze silly boy. Gotta drain some now!

oops, blagged by an old thread there...

[Edited on 26/8/05 by JoelP]