Thanks for that jdere.
My main reasons for cancelling… The PO informed me that it had been re-cored and a new water pump and some other work… the banjo thread questions concerned me… the only shop I found that will supply a Chinese rad was several hours away and that has the obvious problems (the shops around here would only offer a re-cored solution) on top of that she’s running at normal temp now so I don’t need to spend the $900 at the moment. I’ll see how she goes in the warmer weather. I have just purchased a dual digital temp sensing unit so I can monitor both head temps.
Let me know how yours turns out.
Trev
I took car out several times the last few days.
Seems to be not overheating anymore.
Also, the one item that was driving me crazy was the thermostat and controls that run the auxiliary cooling fan that I wanted to mention.
I went crazy trying to get that fan to run correctly. The PO had someone wire the fan directly to a fuse and bypass the fan thermostat and relay.
So I found all of these items checked out fine. I even dipped thermostats in hot water with a thermometer and tested to make sure contacts closed at 190 degrees F.
I ended up replacing thermostat (several times) and relay because when the car would warm up, the thermostat would sometimes close and most of the time it wouldn’t and if did close, it was for a short period of time.
I now believe that my radiator was slow clogged, it effected antifreeze flow around the thermostat, because it now the circuit closes and open fine.
I wanted to check the water flow through the cooling system somehow but didn’t find a way to do it.
Wanted to give everyone a heads up with an auxiliary fan issue. Check your radiator!
Latest news.
Chinese radiator now has a leak after 2 years and 300 miles so I’m going to remove and throw it in the air as far as I can.
I saved the original XJS radiator and I’m having it recored for $475.00 (Boston, MA area).
Now I need to also search for the two new transmission cooler lines since I hacked off the original adapters ends that connect to the Chinese radiator.
Aluminum or brass? Leak due to corrosion, cracking, poor quality control or what?
If it had leaked right off, that’d be one thing. I wanna know how it held up for 2 years and then started leaking.
At the. Moment in the uk there £160.
I get one if I hadn’t spent £300 on a recore 15 years ago
Kirbert,
Aluminum rad.
Looks like leak originated in the tubing/fins on left side near the top.
I think its poor quality.
I’m not too happy. I hope this helps anyone else thinking about Chinese Rads.
About 3 or 4 years ago there was a spate of local Ebay vendors in Australia offering V12 alloy rads.
Looks like they are from at least 2 different sources, most likely in China, when you look closely at photos. They do look attractive at A$300 ( about US$200 ) provided they last the distance.
I am not sure how they seal the tubes to the header tank, that is what would worry me about quality. I don’t think they weld them, but you can braze and solder aluminium, or use adhesive/sealers.
You can obviously see the outside of the rad and judge the welding quality. You cannot see how the tubes seal.
I checked a couple of Youtube videos showing alloy rad manufacture in China. It looks quite sophisticated. Not easy to see exactly how they seal the tubes to the end plates before fitting the header tank covers. In one video the tube assembly plus end plates goes through an oven, presumably to seal the tubes before fitting the header tank covers.
Thee are other videos I did not watch, they might have the secret.
And another thing.
Any outfit peddling alloy rads states categorically they cool better than the standard brass tube types.
I have never seen a scientifically plausible comparison between the two to prove the point. it would be very easy to have a brass and alloy rad side by side with the same cooling fan arrangement in a test rig and see which cools better.
Anybody ?
I can advise from certain other Chinese alloy radiators, (not V12 XJS), they have a very high
failure rate, usually within 12mths. The point of failure was generally a tig welded seam
Wow. How can you mess that up? Presumably it’s an automated welder. It would have to have run out of gas and kept welding for a while with nobody noticing to screw that up. Or, perhaps it’s the aluminum itself, so cheap that the tig welds just crack.
I do wonder if you could design such a critter entirely mechanically assembled, no welds. Pushing tubes through fins is easy. Many of the OEM rads already have mechanically attached plastic header tanks. I think the only thing left is inserting the tubes into the end plates and creating a reliable and durable seal. Offhand, that still doesn’t sound that difficult to me. The end plate could have a rubber liner on the wet side with openings that are smaller than the tubes, so the tubes push in and the rubber grips it, and pressure just makes the seal more secure.
Offhand, that strikes me as a much better idea than these all-welded aluminum tanks. I’ve seen pics of them, they look nice and shiny with nice weld seams all over the place, but a welded assembly like that just looks like an invitation for cracks to me. I’d prefer the plastic end tanks with rubber seals and rubber seals on the ends of every tube. Everything could flex a bit with no damage. If you wanted to, you could even design it so you could disassemble it and clean the parts separately.
Improper cleaning, not enough backpurge (or none), parts mechanically stressed by the shrinkage…
But probably just poor material.
for Jeep Cherokee XJ, 84-01, millions made, aftermarket radiators options are plentiful & various
for about $150 a three-row aluminium rad sounds irresistable, but they apparently blow a pinhole
(repeatedly, even under warranty)…who knows why…not the importers anyway
Changing out the rad is almost as much fun as a Jag XJ
When the brass one that was in mine split, I put in a plastic tank one for $100, the late factory items were plastic
all of it is made in China
Any problems with that one?
none so far, but probably too soon to tell, its only about 1year
I did have to trim the bottom locating tabs to let it slot in
replaced another one about 5yrs ago, OEM (GM) plastic for Chinese plastic
I know the original lasted ~15yrs, my son has that car now
Not just Jaguar, but there seems to be Chinese factories churning out cheap radiators (even MKVII),
very cheap. Quality is very unpredictable with Chinese parts. No wonder Mr Trump gets cross
I went ally radiator around 5 years ago but had it made by specialist radiator manufacturer here in Australia using US furnace brazed core. I was told most Chinese cores use only epoxy.
You do usually get what you pay for. My local built unit cost somewhere around the $700 AUD
Aluminum radiators are not exactly a new technology. Even the Chinese should know how to make them by now.
Ooooh! That’s actually an idea! If you design the end plates properly, you could insert all the tubes and then just “pot” the entire kit 'n kaboodle. Flip it over and repeat on the other end. Then mechanically attach plastic end tanks. Sounds like a good plan to me!
I noted before that a Youtube video showed a core assembly have end plates slapped on it then run through an oven. That suggests the end plates could have an adhesive/sealant coat applied previously that heat cures. If done well should be O.K.
The nice final touch would be a pressed aluminium header tank, or plastic one, fitted to the core. The fully welded V12 header tanks on offer need 100% accurate TIG welding, done at a low price, to be viable. Something to worry about.
A pity the demand is not great, otherwise it would pay to tool a pressed aluminium header tank.
Patented Chinese But’rMetal.(c)
Just saw that: the welds are atrocious.