Rad top tank change

[swifty]

Just letting anyone who doesn’t know , that the minispares 2 core rad does accept an earlier rad top . Just changed it . Pretty straightforward to do . … Shirley

[360gts]

Great job Shirley...I did a few of these a couple of years back...no issues

[Gary Schulz]

Just letting anyone who doesn’t know , that the minispares 2 core rad does accept an earlier rad top . Just changed it . Pretty straightforward to do . … Shirley

This is a really great observation. I have an old radiator that I am told needs to be re-cored but the local radiator shops tell me there are no suitable cores available. In this case it is cheaper to just buy the new two core radiator and swap tanks.

Very good!

[Exminiman]

Great Idea, how did you re solder it ?

[Stewartp]

If you're not confident of doing it yourself, take new and old to a radiator specialist to see if they'll swap them over.
RGDS Stewart

[swifty]

I’ve been doing this for a few years now . It’s just so more convenient and probably cheaper to do it yourself. I used a calor gas torch to melt the solder and just pulled the top off with some grips around the neck . The original tank did come off easier than the later top that ripped . As far as soldering , clean as much as you can , plenty of flux and 3.2 soldering wire . The wire is just a general solder plumbers use for copper pipes . You won’t solder it with electric cable solder … Shirley

[Exminiman]

Thanks, have plenty of solder, going to give that a go, what could go wrong...

[Polarsilver]

Shirley, how do you Pressure Test after the re-work ?

[Peter Laidler]

When I did mine a few years ago, after cleaning up both areas to be soft soldered, I unrolled a length of the thicker solder wire and laid it in the trough between the top tank and the core. As I started the run with the home 'camping gaz' blowlamp the soldering wire was already in place as it melted into the joint. So quick that it unnerved me a bit. Tank top sealed perfectly......... tight as a Jocks wallet as they say!

I pressure tested mine by putting a tyre valve in an old length of hose and pumped it up slightly to check for bubblles. On the basis that it's easier to fix a leak in tank that was full of air as oposed to a tank that was full of water.

[1071bob]

Done the same on mine, also changed the rad cap fitting to the later shorter type to give me more choice of rad cap pressures.
I think the top hose to suit is MG midget, QH RH889 or Unipart GRH507.

[swifty]

Bob I was going to change the rad cap top but I’ve got a NOS long neck rad cap . As a matter of course I cut the bottom of the rad shroud to enable the rad to pass through. Always handy to do this and makes the removal of the rad when it’s in the car easy . Also modded the the shroud to fit the two core rad. Pressure tested , then paint … Shirley

[swifty]

Test kit . Also tests the cap .

[hanlminiman]

Looking at the image 1676 which shows the drain plug. I have recently fitted a radiator with that drain plug and discovered recently that it is plastic when I wanted to drain the radiator. Having spent ages trying to find the correct hex size and acquiring the correct tool bit. Unfortunately I think the plastic overheated and at the last stage of removal I could not get the plug out so had to revert to removing the bottom hose which was not in my plan.
I have now invested in a brass fan switch which I hope will be easier to remove!

[timmy201]

On another forum it was noted the new Minispares radiators have an M22 x 1.5 thread on the bottom, and you can get brass plugs to suit if you want to get rid of the plastic one