Hi peeps, I am going to be mounting mine soon an I am thinking of tapping the 8 plastic bosses out 4 on the front and 4 on the rear to make a frame.
Is this something that can be done and be strong enough? The supports will run vertical up the front, across the top, down the rear to mount to the
chassis and then join again at the Bottom to form a rectangle.
You can just about make the points out on this picture
The reason I am doing it like this is that I want to mount an intercooler on the front bars. The IC weight will be taken by the metal and not the
plastic of the core.
Would this be ok? Would probably be 2-3mm steel 20mm wide
Jon
I have mounted mine the same, but 90 degrees rotated from your picture.
Mind you, the car is still in the garage being built. 
What size did you tap the plastic to?
I think it was 5mm, I did not predrill, I just worked with the holes in the plastic.
I think they are designed for a very course thread self tapper.
I Also mounted my cooling fan using the same technique.
Rad_Mount
Rad_Fan
HTH
Len.
IMHO the rad definitely needs turning through 90 degrees. I have used large self tappers before without problems, just make sure they are not too long!
after I finish the engine mounts this is my next job! And I agree the the rad needs to be mounted to have a top and a bottom hose
The polo radiator is twin pass though. End coping with the hose fittings on is blocked in the middle. Otherwise the coolant would just take the easiest route and not flow through the core.
I just screwed the relevant size machine screw into the preformed holes.
The engineer in me tells me to tap it if the hole is a sensible size. Is the rad twin pass?
I've just fitted a Polo rad to my car, ended up fitting it in the normal orientation which made the bottom hose connection really awkward.
I'm wishing now that I'd fitted it vertically as you're planning, it puts both the hose connections and the temp switch in really
convenient positions and gets round the tight available width in the Mk nosecone. Means you'd be pushing water against the 'thermal
flow' in one half of the rad, but I imagine the water pump would easily overcome that.
Only other real issue it that you'd need to remove the rad to drain it, but it's not often you need to do that - thinking about it you can
remove the hoses without losing all the coolant so maybe it has advantages....
I tapped the mounting lugs out to M6, was just a bit worried that it might split the plastic otherwise....
It is quite tight vertical but like you said makes hose fitting easier and should allow me to run a duct forward from the nose to feed an oil cooler
on the side of the bay. Hopefully the pump will push the water! I saw a car in the states with a similar rad setup to mine so hopefully it will be ok.
Draining the rad will be ok, would probably have all bodywork off anyway to donut so will just in bolt it.
Can you not change your setup or is it already plumed in.
I reckon any thermal flow will be tiny compared with the flow created by the water pump - I don't think you'll have any problems.
Mine's all finished so no real point in changing things now. When it's stops snowing I'll get a chance to try it on the road....
I drilled and tapped mine for 5mm stainless bolts.
Radiator pipes and fan fitted
Nosecone & lights
I did mine m6 and it's fine if you don't over tighten them. You could also bond a helli_coil in.
How come I am the only one fitting mine with the pipes at the top? I will tap them out and use some thread lock to secure the bolts after nipping them up.
Well, I stand corrected, actually it'd make my installation harder so I'm sticking to the traditional orientation. Once I get started I'll post some pic's
I guess it depends where the water pipe from the engine are a little too.
Just a thought, but you may have a problem with air locking in the left (n/s) side of the radiator when filling the system. The other side has the
vent to send air back to the header but on the left side the trapped air has nowhere to go.
Probably simply cured by loosening the top hose (or maybe the switch if it's on that side) when filling to bleed this out. Hopefully it
won't be a big issue, but maybe worth bearing in mind...
The top left Is where the water good in and there is a bleed screw as standard on the outlet from the block, provided the rad is a little lower it will be fine. Good shout though, I hadn't thought about that. So the rad is deffo blocked to make it twin pass?
quote:
So the rad is deffo blocked to make it twin pass?
Hi
I am not the one to ask, but any slight deviation from what the vast majority do, will cause problems down the road. This I know.
quote:
Originally posted by GeoffT
quote:
So the rad is deffo blocked to make it twin pass?
....always presumed it was, otherwise the coolant would go in one side and straight out the other without ever passing through the core...
Must admit I haven't physically checked this though - mine's plumbed up and filled now, can you see the divider through the switch hole?
This group is not exactly what I would call average. A perfectly normal person doesn't bother with this; he just buys the latest Toyota and is done with it. Hmmmm..... people actually do this?
here's how I mounted mine, which is actually a Golf Mk3 1400 rad I believe, and 520mm across
I used coarse self tapping screws [with a hex head] on the one side, the intention was to make is go around both sides But I think it will be fine as
it is
This is mine.
Radiator bracket
radiator bracket 2