who is making the best radiator out? including ebay chinese jobs.
Turbo Mini Forums

I have one of them alloy china rads from ebay,

all though the quality looks ok.

im not sure about these, i had my old rover rad & i decided to get it dipped & acid cleaned from a rad mob.

I put it back in & the car was being cooled awesome.
the gauge was hitting just under 1/4 was rock solid would not make it to half way unless i had fun driving it would move up a bit but was solid.

now these ebay alloy jobs.

i bought it only for bling, as soon as i put it in, straight upto half way & always has been halfway & today my car got to about 3/4 on the highway.

what do you guys think?

I live in Australia & it is pretty hot & once i boost the car i think this chinese ebay rad wont be upto it.

Do miniSpares,Avonbar woodn picket who ever? do a top notch rad.
im looking to use it with a thermo fan at some point also.

is there kits out there or do you all fit a spal fan?


any one used any of these things.

http://www.minispares.com/Product.aspx?ty=...4526&sku=0&tc=1

Edited by NickG on 11th Nov, 2010.

I have one of those alloy Chinese jobbies off of ebay as does Pete who uses it in the Scamp.

Yet to test it on Vader but the Scamp has always had over heating problems. It's a 1293 with phase 3 cam, he can be a right little bastard. It used to have a Minispares super 2 in there and was constantly over heating, we couldn't drive to a show without having to stop to let him cool down. Now with this alloy one, as you said, it never goes above half way on the temperature gauge.
I think until I come up against any over heating problems I'll stick with it.

hmm im not sold on these Chinese rads hey..

i tested my old one it cooled the car unreal!

i put it in my old mans mini same thing.

his old rad hit nearly half but no quite & that thing is dirty & mucky.

cleaned rover one is just 1/4 & is his a hotter (worked) engine then mine.

thats the tests i have done, i feel it shows they are a pile of shit? lol dunno.

Theres a super cheap auto special on atm, 2 for 80ish bucks if you want to go halves?

In boost we trust

Thermo fans btw lol

In boost we trust

haha joe! yes i heard. can you txt me. forgot to save you're number.

im not sure if they move much air them fans.

lets compare them to a spal or a Davies Craig CFM.

if they are good why not

Edited by NickG on 11th Nov, 2010.

Not really a pile of shit if they are selling and working for people though

all im saying is i have fitted one & i do more then driving it to the club house lol.

so i have gave it a good test to my fresh engine fresh pipes fresh water pump.

dunno.. im glad it works for you minx :)

might try the minispares super core?>

Not the radiator, but I bought one of the "chinese" intercoolers and did some simple flow tests on it compared to a Ford OEM one of similar size.

The results were "interesting" to say the least.

The results are posted on here somewhere.

I guess it's a case of whether you want it to look "bling" or whether you want it to work ???

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

yes Rod. im over the Bling shit.

i want it to work. link me buddy!

found it Rod! as i thought Yum cha price....

super 2 core for me. minispares nice & reliable!

Edited by NickG on 11th Nov, 2010.

I'd just fit a minispares 2 core radiator. My coolent temp didn't even increase when nailing around combe in september, though it was a cold day.

I seriously doubt it!

Looks aren't everything you know :)

I'm using a Minispares 4 Core and my temp hasn't been above half way this year no matter how hard I nail it, or sitting in traffic.

I bought a chineese on of ebay and did some testing.
A have more than once read (on this forum) that chineese radiators are shit, so test it and find out, damm it.

So i took one standard radiator and one chineese radiator.

I must admit, i was disapointed.

It was tested on the same car. on the same day. monitoring the radiator inlet temperature and outlet temperature. using the same fan to cool it. The test was repeated to get more data and find test faults.

My conclusion is: I have no conclusion. They were equaly good/bad.

I guess it will end up with that i will mount and drive for a summer and see.

If i have more toys than you when i die, I WIN

i dont want my cash going to china, i can afford a radtec so will buy one and support a british company i expect, if you cant afford a decent alloy rad get a 2 core from minispares the previous one i had was superb and would buy one again if funds were tight, i am only changing to a radtec because my 2 core has been damaged

on the looks front personally i think the chinese ones look gash the welding is nasty the 2 core looks better

My 1380 motor used to overheat all the time, constantly had to have the heater on, fitted a cheap chinease rad and never had a problem since, I think it's great.
Although there are 2 types of rad being sold and I believe one works a lot better than the other.

Turbo parts collector at the moment, almost ready.

ah, remember that chinese rad i got including postage. well after about three hours of driving home from the rr day we noticed my cheep gauge was giving funny readings so we pulled off the m25 to cheak. Joe ended up sticking his finger in it to see how hot it was. didn't get burnt, just warm.

im very happy with it, £80 inc postage. even after giving it a good thrashing then sitting in traffic, it got hot, but didnt overheat.

Pauls Chinese rad has been equally as good as my Minispares alloy version.

He's not exactly mechanically sypathetic either.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Oi, dont know what you meen by that but OI!

we make quite a trio,

leadfoot Paul, Gary of the two week turbo and Joe the cambelt kid...

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

like friday night project with a special guest then.......

On 11th Nov, 2010 Brett said:

On 11th Nov, 2010 Joe C said:
leadfoot Paul, Gary of the two week turbo and Joe the cambelt kid...