Aluminum Radiator

[VX KAT]

Wohoo!! Ron Davis Racing has finished the spec sheet or build sheet on my aluminum radiator and it's now in manufacturing, will be about 2-3 weeks. It continues to have episodes where the temp gets almost to the red zone after a long 15 miles climb up my big hill, with A/C and high air temp, so this will be a welcome replacement.

A HUGE thank you to you Roy (newthings) for helping me on this and sending your old radiator to them etc...

Bill is still working on getting a quote for an aluminum shroud and bracket. He needs some other guy to do it and he's been out or something.

The brief details are:

• Two rows of 1" tubes
  
• The fins front to back will be 2.25" vs. the OEM of a hair short of 1.5"
  
• Came in a little under his first ballpark estimate of $800...
  Total $676.02 including tax. OEM from Merlin would be $433.82, so I think it's pretty reasonable based on the increased cooling capacity I'll get, especially living in Arizona.
  
• I get to pick it up in person since they're in the Phoenix area, so I saved on shipping. Plus I can pick up Roy's parts and ship them back to him myself.
  
• I'm going to ask what the price would be if any others want to purchase the same.
  
• Of course now I need to get it in$talled too.

I'm definitely a happy girl! It's going to look so cool .....and be so cool....
Of course pics to follow....


Detailed specs on my Ron Davis radiator-

• Has more cooling capacity than OEM
• No plastic parts, all aluminum
• RD Part number 1-24RO9397
• Can call Bill Williamson at RD and order it with that number. He's SUPER helpful and explains everything in great detail.
• About $600.
• Bill Williamson
  Ron Davis Racing Products, Inc.
  7334 North 108th Avenue
  Glendale, AZ. 85307
  Tel- 623-877-5000 Ext.16
  Fax- 623-877-5001
• http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...72&postcount=5

MORE specs on my RD radiator:

• http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...2&postcount=25

[JoFotoz]

OK..but I never had a too hot issue.

But then again...600lbs of skid plate..

...then all that F/glass!



Ya..OK..I'm givin' you a touch of grief Kat!



Jo

[VX KAT]

OK..but I never had a too hot issue.

But then again...600lbs of skid plate..

...then all that F/glass!



Ya..OK..I'm givin' you a touch of grief Kat!



Jo

it's 150 lbs of skid plate, not 600! Needer needer needer!

Interestingly, I talked to my offroad/mechanic at length about all possible causes, especially discussing all that others here mentioned in Zadam's thread. The skids being #1 in my mind as possible cause. He says the radiator itself is the ONLY thing that disappates heat and the skids have nothing to do with it. Plus he pointed out I had the skids on for 1 1/2 yrs w/o any overheating issue...um, good point....

He went through several other of the possibilities and why or why not he thought it could be it.

Yes, we could have just flushed or rodded it out like Zadam did and see what happens, and that may have worked, but I wanted to actually increase my cooling ability so that I "might" actually be able to run with A/C on when off road in warm temps.....as heat is my #1 enemy and makes my body turn into a slug....well, um,..... a bigger slug than normal. Probably won't be able to do it all the time, depending on the speed I'm going on the trail, but I thought it was worth it....now Dave....well, maybe not so much....

[VX KAT]

Yah! My Ron Davis Racing radiator is now done and installed.
It looks awesome, and the welds are a thing of beauty!

• It has about 3x the cooling capacity and the entire unit is aluminum, there's no plastic.

• The fins are 2.25" deep vs. the OEMs of a little shy of 1.5".

• It has 2 rows of 1" tubes.

• The temp needle now rides about 2 tick below "halfway", whereas it was just 1 tick below before.

• The OEM front bracket had to be modified slightly in the angle.

• The OEM shroud had to be modified a bit on the top to clear the fan blades. They're in the same position, but end up further inside the OEM shroud because the radiator is a little deeper than the OEM, pushing the shroud back a bit. My mechanic just had to cut some of the plastic off the top of the shroud. (We priced a custom aluminum shroud from RD.......it would be at LEAST $400+...nevermind.....)

• This was a little over $600 for the unit (plus some $70 for packaging materials). It was only about $200 more than an OEM....and I decided to splurge!

Will have to wait for a good hot AZ summer day to really test it out!

Again, a HUGE thank you to "newthings" for all his help on this and helping me bring this to a reality
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