I have no clue about how to come about the BTU rating of either radiator. I guess I will leave that to the engineers on the list. As far as lasting goes, again I have no data either way. It seems that VW put copper core radiators stock on some vans and Aluminum core on others. I have sold many radiators over the past several years and I will say one thing. The Radiator is a wear item. If it doesn't rot out from corrosion on the outside, it plugs up from debris, etc from the inside. I would say the life span of a radiator is 8-10 years if you never put any "Bar's Leak" in the system about three months of you add this marvelous mixture. As far as removing the name, I have only ever seen this done to remove VWs logo. I have seen some really crappy Brazil or Chinese made stuff and this stuff usually comes in a white box with no name ever stamped or made on anything. They don't bother to take crappy names off of stuff because, as I said, the crappy manufacturers don't put thier names on the products they produce in the first place. Just FYI. -----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf Of George Goff Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 10:19 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: More Info on Copper Core German Radiators
In a message dated 9/30/02 3:12:36 PM, kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET writes: << The copper radiator has two tubes side by side that make up one row. So the aluminum radiator has 44 rows and therefore 44 tubes. However the copper radiator has 43 rows but 86 tubes. I would imagine the latter would be more efficient. >> Ken, You certainly have provided a lot of data to digest. On thing, though; what are the Btu/hr ratings of the two choices? I am not sure if this has any statistical significance or not, but I have had 4 vans 1 with a Cu radiator and 3 with Al radiators. The Cu radiator expired (terminally rotted out) at less than 90Kmi. The Al radiators all have lasted over 140Kmi so far with one having 208 Kmi on it and, the last I heard, still going strong. Also, removing the manufacturer's trademark name is usually done to second quality merchandise. George |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.