custom aluminum radiator

need someone to fabricate a custom aluminum curved radiator, with integral oil cooler . Going to make 10 units

any one ?

Reply to
Chris
Loading thread data ...

--How big; i.e. full size or for a model?

Reply to
steamer

How big, and what's it for? Does it really need to be parallel-pass small tube like on a car? Does the oil cooler really have to be integral, or can you use an external one? And consider that a "It has to look like this, cost be damned" is really going to get pricy, but it certainly can be done. Guessing $2,000 each, quantity 10 - $5,000 for one.

For cooling a large automobile or truck engine, you are much better off using a tried and true design. Go the simple and effective route: design a decorative curved grille and "radiator shell" for your project that hides the functional flat factory-built radiator. And when it comes time to replace that radiator (and you will), you just call up and order "a Modine Number XXXX radiator for a Camaro" and get one cheap fast and easy.

If you really have to go custom? For starters, forget about Aluminum as a practical material for making a one-off (or 10 off) - between the lousy bending qualities of AL (without multiple anneal steps and bending mandrels it will crack if you look at it funny), you then have to TIG weld or Spoolgun weld it together. The stuff oxidizes so easily that soldering methods are extremely tricky and full of Fail.

Note that on commercially made AL radiators the tubes are all welded to custom stamped AL headers, and assembled using crimped and gasketed joints to custom injection molded plastic header tanks. And they have a nasty habit of never sealing quite right if you try opening and cleaning them - for all intents and purposes they are disposable. When they start leaking or get clogged, throw them out.

Copper and Brass radiator materials give you many more practical and far easier assembly methods - you can form the tank from brass sheet and TIG-weld the tank corners and attach hose fittings and trans cooler fittings, and TIG the copper core tubing to the brass header bases (high temperature process), and then you use soft solder (low temp) for final assembly of the tanks to the headers without worrying about the other joints coming apart.

For a small engine like a lawn tractor, you might be able to repurpose an air conditioning condenser, a heater core or a transmission cooler. Or the little radiators off a Quad or Motorcycle.

Making a curved radiator core will be a real problem, unless you can repurpose a chunk of condenser out of an air conditioner that was factory made as curved - you can make tanks or headers to convert it from single-flow to multi-pass.. They are made of thinwall tubing that kinks and restricts coolant flow, and really thin fin material that will kink and restrict airflow if you look at it funny.

-->--

Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

for a motorcycle , the oil p[art only needs to be integral in the respect that it is all in the same housing it can use seperate pass tubes instead of being in the bottom tank

you can curve a flat radiator in a big set of rollers if your careful,

i was thinking of gettint 10 stock curved radiators new for another bike, and having someone modify them,

they have to be " finished looking"

i need someone who does radiators for a living, i know they are out there as the racers all have custom units, i just cant find the builders

Reply to
Chris

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.