The other big item is that both of my 91/92 Honda Accords still have brass radiators. I found a place that will rod and boil them for me for $68. The owner says that the aluminum replacements for about $99 cool even better. But they get thrown away when they leak.

Is there any real experience out there that shows the aluminum radiators are the same or better at cooling? How long do they last?

Is there a version of these cars that come with dual core radiators?

This Accord wagon could very well be towing a trailer as it heads into the desert this August for Burning Man. I need all of the cooling capacity I can get.

Mike

 

A) Aluminum dicipates heat like 5x better than brass does

B) Brass is much heavier

....point taken, problem solved

 

i think that^^^ explains it enough. price is the only con for the aluminum i think.

 

word but the proce is worth it

 

In theory it explains it, but in reality I don't know anything new. Since the tanks are plastic, they don't dissipate heat well at all. The fact that they are throw away and not repairable is a strike against them as well. To me it's just not clear cut until evidence is present. Assumptions are just something I'm not willing to make.

I'm hoping to hear from someone in the desert or other hot climate that swapping in an aluminum radiator made a difference in an otherwise warm/hot running motor.

Mike

 

Aluminum does disipate heat better, that is fact, not assumption. However i don't know the designs behind the radiators cause i've never been interested. So if it's all around better, can't really tell ya. But i can tell you that aluminum does disipate heat better

 

first off, no one fixes radiators any more now days. THey are so cheap to buy, every broken one gets throw away and replaced with new.

go with aluminum. if nothing else, they look cooler haha.

 

Went from full size brass to half size aluminum in a '91 CRX si w/ ZC swap back in '96. Shaved a bunch of weight and never had cooling problems. I used to run that car to 8k rpms from every stop light and that was in Houston. Also drove it from San Jose, CA to Houston doing 90+ the whole way. 5.0 Mustang dropped a cylinder on I-10 trying to keep up with me.

 

That's useful info. Thanks!

Mike

 

I ordered a replacement radiator that is all aluminum. It even has aluminum top and bottom tanks. $117 shipped off of Ebay. We'll see...

Mike

 

Do you know who the manufacturer is?

I ended up buying a 2" Koyo Civic 1/2 rad after reading a few threads regarding aluminum rads. The Mitsumoto radiator doesn't get a very good rating at all. The cheaper Yonaka got a pretty good rating. None of the 2" half rads were under $170 though. $117 shipped is pretty good.

Here is my 2" Civic 1/2 rad installed in my CD5.



I haven't had it running yet,but it does have 2 1/4 x the cooling surface area of an OEM full size Accord rad.

 

I would get a genuine Honda radiator from your local Honda dealer. I've had non-Honda radiators not work for me before.

 

Here is the Ebay auction for what I purchased. 120457350899 I've added the pic from their ad. Maybe someone can identify it.

 

copper/brass has a better heat disipation than aluminum, aluminum is lighter and the aluminum raditors are larger with more surface area and all metal,the brass ones are alot smaller with less rows i work in the boiler industry as a electrician and installer of boilers,heaters and cooling equipment also aluminum is less corrosive to the elements than copper products are copper is also softer than aluminum

so aluminum

stronger
lighter
takes corrosion better
transfer heat a lil bit less than copper but not enough to hurt it
looks better
doesn't leave behind green byproduct(corrosion)

 

That makes sense to me. Thanks for the experience. I could still have my stock brass radiator rodded and boiled out, and send this all aluminum guy back.

Mike

 

i bought that one from the same guy have been useing it in my car for over a year now 95 accord lx... have not had any issues. i know thats not the info your looking for but. just to let u know it will work and keep it nice a cool. g/l

 

I bought that radiator from ebay, from the same people "The radiator connection". It has been holding up well, over 3 years now. The only thing is that the bung was too close to the cross member in the front, so I had to cut a slow in the lower cross member to drain the coolant.

 

I'm about to drop this radiator into my accord. I just noticed that the cap is only labeled as 11 psi. Stock accord cooling system is 16psi. What does your cap say? I just now wrote the vendor asking why only 11psi is being used as it reduces the cooling capacity due to a lower boiling temp of the coolant.

Mike

 

Actually it says 1.1 on the cap not 11. That's 1.1 Bar which is equal to 16psi. My bad.

The other thing I noticed was that the radiator has a warp to it. It's bowed toward the front of the car about 1/4". The vendor said they can do that in shipping. It's suppose to be bent back easily by hand. We'll see. My factory original brass radiator is straight as an arrow.

The new condensor should arrive today then I can put the radiator in.

 

As of this weekend the tig welded aluminum radiator went into the wagon. We drove it 400 miles over the weekend without a leak. It doesn't fit perfectly. I had to tweak some of the surrounding sheet metal just a tad to get it to fit. I also left the fan bolts loose until it was full installed since the radiator was warped out of the box, and was straightened out a little from the install. Then after the install I tightened all 6 fan bolts.

The other huge project was getting the AC working. I bought an electronic freon leak detector. It worked almost too well. The pressure switch, high side schrader valve, low side schrader valve, high side hose, and compressor were all leaking. Dye would have never found these leaks. I put a new shaft seal in the compressor but it still leaked. A guy I know parting out a 91 accord had the 124k mile compressor that I bought from him. It's sealed up nicely. Bought a new pressure switch from Honda. The pressure switch was leaking where the electrical pins stick up through the body. The low side schrader valve still leaks, but adding a cap over it kills the leak. I also added 2 ounces of oil. Stuck with R12 as well.

We drove to a lake where it's usually 100 degrees. It was on;y low to mid 90's this weekend. The AC would drop that temperature to 40 degrees F. That's over a 50 degree delta! I'm thrilled! and chilled....