Sorting out Radiator Choice, Placement & Mounting
Posted on Apr 23, 2020
This is the original radiator in the stock location.
We want a much bigger aluminium radiator as this one probably isn’t big enough as it worked in conjunction with a smaller auxiliary radiator mounted behind the grill. We don’t have room nor are we inclined to use that.
We found two companies that purport to sell a suitable radiator but neither returned calls or emails so we assume they are no longer supplying them. I guess we are making our own or at least getting one made for us. There are a couple of issues to consider: Any additional thickness will have to be in the front as the frame rails bend inwards just behind the radiator.
The stock radiator interferes with the AAN’s oil pan. We think this is usually solved by replacing the old pan with one from something else but maybe, as we are doing a custom radiator, we can solve it another way.
We were lucky enough to find a superb radiator shop nearby, Four Seasons Radiator Service in Madison Heights. Their bread and butter is fixing radiators of all kinds but they also make custom aluminium radiators. They are the company who recored the radiator for our 85 Quattro a few years ago so we were very confident to use them again. They took our requirements and in just a few days produced this masterpiece. They even added a Spal fan and custom shroud.
It fit perfectly but there was one small problem. Remember how we thought all the extra width had to be on the front because of the frame rail? Well we forgot about that when we asked them to add a fan and shroud. Simple solution though: notch the shroud:
Now we haven’t lost our cool we can move on to the intercooler.
We want a much bigger aluminium radiator as this one probably isn’t big enough as it worked in conjunction with a smaller auxiliary radiator mounted behind the grill. We don’t have room nor are we inclined to use that.
We found two companies that purport to sell a suitable radiator but neither returned calls or emails so we assume they are no longer supplying them. I guess we are making our own or at least getting one made for us. There are a couple of issues to consider: Any additional thickness will have to be in the front as the frame rails bend inwards just behind the radiator.
The stock radiator interferes with the AAN’s oil pan. We think this is usually solved by replacing the old pan with one from something else but maybe, as we are doing a custom radiator, we can solve it another way.
We were lucky enough to find a superb radiator shop nearby, Four Seasons Radiator Service in Madison Heights. Their bread and butter is fixing radiators of all kinds but they also make custom aluminium radiators. They are the company who recored the radiator for our 85 Quattro a few years ago so we were very confident to use them again. They took our requirements and in just a few days produced this masterpiece. They even added a Spal fan and custom shroud.
It fit perfectly but there was one small problem. Remember how we thought all the extra width had to be on the front because of the frame rail? Well we forgot about that when we asked them to add a fan and shroud. Simple solution though: notch the shroud:
Now we haven’t lost our cool we can move on to the intercooler.