Radiators & Header tanks..
Turbo Mini Forums

Just wondered if anyone knew of any pro's / con's of running a radiator with a combined header tank?

Obviously the standard mini side rad is like this anyway, but was looking at some of the front mount rads, like 106/306 etc

any thoughts??

Only trouble with the Peugeot style radiators is that the header tanks are in fact seperate from the radiator, and they feed into the rad at the bottom. In practise this means that the cooling systems can be a twat to fill as they are prone to air locking. On the Peugeot models, there are bleed points provided, but obviously if you used this rad on a mini you would have to sort some out, yet more work...........
In addition when filling them up you usually have to use a pop bottle as an artificial header tank, as the level of the top of the radiator is below the level of the top of the cooling system.

However, if you can get one that especially suits your needs or is a bargain, it should be possible to remove the header tank and make a plug to plug off the hole that the water is fed through. Obviously you would then need a seperate header tank somewhere else in the system (higher up preferably).

cheers tom, thats the sort of explanation i was after

i'll stick with a seperate header tank i think

:)

Glad my wittering is of some use!

I've fitted a Mk1 Fiesta XR2 rad to my clubby. Not tested yet but fits well, it's very slim and should provide excellent cooling (I hope !). Only cost me £17 brand new from local Halfords.

Pics : http://www.16vminiclub.com/gallery/albums/...cs/IMG_2541.JPG

http://www.16vminiclub.com/gallery/albums/...cs/IMG_2542.JPG

http://www.16vminiclub.com/gallery/albums/...cs/IMG_2544.JPG

Apologies for crappy photography !

Clubbyestate : Brown and loud - fast soon !