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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Best place to get an alloy radiator?

Anyone know a good place to get an alloy 1275 crossflow radiator in the UK?
David@work

Frontline, Peter May...
Arie de Best

salvage yard????

big bens 10 finger discount empoirium????

If they dont have it, they can steal it in 24 hours or less or its free....granted you have to give them your address of where your car is stored...tax purposes you know....

prop
Prop

as to salvage yards...probably not the one made for the midget itself...but Im sure there are other cars with a alloy rad that can be forced to fit a midget.


(props)

best friends...ball hammers, bailing wire, and duck tape
Prop

On Sprite Spot.com you will find this topic re fitting an alloy suzuki rad to Spridgets:
http://www.spritespot.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=113
Graham P 1330 Frogeye

Someone, somewhere said that an alloy radiator gives 40 % better cooling. Is that so?

Tore
Tore

40 percent better cooling!!! we wish!!

Copper is physically a better conductor than aluminium, so will always be a better radiator. However the main benefit of an aluminium radiator is its weight. An aluminium radiator is far lighter than copper, perhaps 40% :-), so racers love them.

Naturally that is only my opinion
Bob England

Is the colour of a radiator significant

Should alloy rads be given a quick blow over of etch prime and matt black or will the insulation of the paint layers outweigh the extra radiation of the colouration?
Jeremy Cogman

I suddenly remembered who said that alloy rads are 40 % more efficient:

http://www.moss-europe.co.uk/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=10917&SortOrder=1

And I find it very hard to believe.

Tore
Tore

I have been wondering what the effect of multi-coats of paint would have on a rad. I know I have applied at least 4 coats myself....and who knows how many before me.....

leads to a good next question

if I striped the paint off my rad...should I leave it as brass and clear coat it...or do as jeramy was asking...etch prime and paint

seems bare metal with clear coat is the bettter option

prop
Prop

Tore, perhaps Moss have built their own CERN COLLIDER and have changed the laws of physics!
:-))
Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

Jeremy,

From the thermodynamics in my degree they mentioned colour has an effect but at the temperature of a house or car rad it is insignificant, this was in answer to a question from someone as the whether painting the rads black would make them more efficient, answer no leave them white or whatever in the case of house rads.
David Billington

In a similar vein, I remember a uni question about why sparrows don't wear leg warmers. I seem to recall (though it was a very long time ago) that the insulation provided by leg warmers would be negligible - and sparrows are not renowned fashion victims. So extrapolating, I guess that a layer of paint on a radiator will not have any significant thermal insulating properties.

Hope that helps!

Jon
Jonathan Severn

Flippin heck Johnathon, where the hell have you bin for the last 15 years??
Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

I'm not positive about this, but the aluminum ones may cool better because they cram more fins in between the tubes. They seem to look like that's the case. More surface area. And lighter is good.

Not just any repair guy can fix them, though. Solder sticks well to brass.
Tom

Bob, the answer to your question is the usual 'work, family, etc.' By the way, which Bob is that?

Although my red Midget is no longer with me, it was replaced about nine years ago by a blue one that the PO had rebuilt on a Heritage shell with a 1.4 k-series. Hence I occasionally post on this and the Twin cam 16v K ser Midgets and Bs BBS.

Jonathan

Jonathan Severn

IIRC there was an achrived thread about VW Polo rads.

A big advantage is that they are thinner so its more easy to install aftermarket or scrapyard electric fans.
Bas Timmermans

I reckon Jonathan that you probably entered my present Midget onto the MGCC register perhaps 20 years ago? White 1275 MK111, do you need more help?
Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

Here is an old picture of it


Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

Hi Jonathan

It was great to catch up at Silverstone, The new car looked great!
C Bintcliffe

Bob, I think I recall you and an immaculate white Midget with black leather (in the Midget, that is), but did the turbo come later?

Carl, yes, good to see you at Silverstone. I hope all your projects are making good progress.

Jonathan
Jonathan Severn

It was probably immaculate 20 years ago but a lot of water has passed by since then.
It has had 4 different normally aspirated engines in it (I do like fiddling and testing ideas). The last one was a 1400 all singing and dancing very high CR effort. Extremely powerful shame to remove it but development must continue. Now I am on the turbo route. Basic turbo with a 1330 and mild cam giving max power at only 5.5 thousand RPM but that is the same amount of power as my previous 1400 revving at 7850 RPM... So with more development in the pipeline it will easily surpass any poor old N/A engine. :-) Must get the brakes uprated :-) Hope to have a chat sometime.
Bob (Robert) Midget Turbo

This thread was discussed between 09/09/2008 and 15/09/2008

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.