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MG MGB Technical - New radiators from Moss

I just put a new radiator in my 66B from Moss, one of those that comes in a box stamped "Made in China."

The car had been running at a consistent 190°, with only slight increases during hill climbs and extremely hot weather.

The car is now running noticeably hotter at idle, and quickly climbs up to about 220 climbing hills. (And this is in mild 75° weather.)

I'm hearing now from others that the new Chinese radiators just don't do the job. I'm planning to send this one back to Moss, but would like to hear from anyone else who has had similar experiences with this radiators.

(By the way, I lost my original radiator when I hit a bump and a fan blade bent on the new radiator shroud I'd just installed. It's always something...)
Kim de Bourbon

Kim,

Take the old radiator to a radiator shop where they can recore and repair the old one. At the same time ask them to add more "core" to the old radiator to help in heat dissipation.

John
J Long

Kim - I am with J Long, have your old radiator recored by a GOOG radiator shop. Tell them that they must install a 4 row L type core. If they say they can't get this, let me know and I will send you the address and phone number of an outfit that manufactures them in Seattle and if they still have a problem, there is a place out here that will do the job for you and pay for the shipping back to you. Expect to pay close to $300.00 (I think mine was $289.00), but it is well worth it. Since recoring my radiator, I made a high speed (75 - 85 MPH) run to Southern California and never got above 205 degrees and that was going up the Grapevine on a hot day. The rest of the time I was at 190 - 195. Good luck - Dave
David DuBois

David, please e-mail me the name of the shop
that you use that actually recores the radiator.
It is surprisingly hard to find a shop in my
area that can do this.

The best local shop here insisted on only using
a three-row core, which is not adequate in 90 degree
weather. Thanks in advance,
Ronald

Yep, I plan to have my old one recored. Apparently there are not any shops around here capable of doing a competent job, however. I may indeed have to ship it somewhere.

In the meantime, however, I want to keep driving my car, and I don't have a couple extra $$$$$ to throw away.

I'd really like to hear from some other folks who have had similar experiences with the new Chinese-made radiators from Moss, if you're out there.
Kim de Bourbon

Kim,
You may have a problem with your Chinese radiator that my son did with one bought for his BMW a couple years ago. When he brought it home, he asked if I could help him install it. Soon as I picked it up, I could here something small rattling around inside.

We put it on the workbench, and upon closer inspection, found hundreds of long thin shards of solder falling or attempting to fall out of the cooling tubes! That radiator was designed such that I could look right down the bottom tank from one side to the other, and because of that, we were able to fish out all these strands of solder. Had he put this on as is, I am sure he would have had a similar problem to yours.

You might as well get your money back and use it to get your old radiator revamped as Dave and J Long suggest.
Bob Muenchausen

Kim; I ordered a new radiator from NW Imports about four years ago, it ran hotter than the stop
leak plugged old radiator. It had a three row core and the label said it was made in the UK. I
returned it to NW. I called Moss and they indicated their radiators were three row. I called the
Roadster Factory and they suggested I go to a local radiator shop.

I had already been to a local shop to have it cleaned but they found it was full of pin holes. The
shop claimed they could only get a three row core. I went to another shop and they called an
engineer in Atlanta, he suggested a 5 row 15 fins/in. core. It's a little thicker than the four row
standard four row radiatod, however the tubes are 3/8" as opposed to 1/2" staggered tubes on the
original radiator. Cost was a little over $300 and it does not overheat.

Steve from VA uses an aluminum core radiator, I think he said it uses the standard tanks.
I have seen lots of aluminum radiators on other cars, but they have all used aluminum tanks. I
think a two row one inch aluminum core would be best. Next would be a four row 1/2" staggered
tube commercial core with 15 fins/in. Look for a place that does truck radiators or does lots of
street rod work. Hope this information will help. Clifton
Clifton Gordon

Clifton-
You have a good memory. My radiator does indeed use the original top and bottom tanks with a four row 1/2" staggered tube aluminum core that has 15 fins per inch (yep, it is in fact a commercial item!). The only other modification is the drain petcock on the bottom tank. The temperature gauge rarely goes above 200 degrees, even when driving hard in the mountains in 95 degree weather with my hopped up engine. I have to wonder if a five-row core might have low-speed airflow problems. Maybe that engineer in Atlanta thought that you were buiding a track racer. Just to help Kim out, I'd also suggest an additional pair of modifications that I've made to address the cooling issue. Install a seven-bladed plastic fan and fabricate an aluminum radiator shroud (it's not as hard as it sounds). Make sure that the flange of the shroud extends to just behind the trailing edges of the fan blades.
Steve S.

Also, Kim -- see my reply on the "other" BBS.
I found that the three-row rad sold by proper mg
(made in uk) was much better than the Chinese rad.

The worst radiators were a batch made in Portugal,
sold by various vendors, but I think these have now
disappeared.

The real problem is that the 3-row radiator
is not sufficient for the very hot southwest U.S.,
or for hot temps anywhere for that matter.

Does anyone have experience with the new aluminum
rads sold by www.powerstop.co.uk?
Ronald

http://www.radiator.com
.

Following the links at www.radiator.com leads to a price of $222 for a replacement radiator for a 69 MGB. Question is, how does this product compare to the 4 row types described above? Anyone use on?
Andrew Blackley

Andrew - The only way to find out about the radiator would be to write or call them and check if it has a 4 row L type core. They call it an OEM radiator, so it should be the 4 row L type, but who knows? The other indicator to me is that they show Modine as one of their suppliers and this is the outfit that supplies the correct cores. Kim, are you reading this? Give them a call, you may be able to save some money and get the correct radiator.
Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

I just installed a radiator in a 76 roadster ,got it from V.B. it came in a plain blue box, semed cheap enough, fit as it should,came with all needed hardware
[albeit not fine thread] and the car runs very cool,
about 1/4 on the guage most of the time up to 1/2 on
hot days in bad trafic.
I've had good luck withV.B.
Ric
PS the problem with a recore is the thirty year old tanks they to fail!
Ric

I broke the radiator on my 73 BGT last fall while tightening the fan belt (DOH!) Went to a local shop for repair but found it was too brittle to fix. The tanks were OK so I had them put in a four row core, which turned out to be cheaper than the 3 row he had priced for it. (go figure) Car runs a lot cooler now.
willia m fox

Steve S, you shroud and fan mod sounds good, could you give us some more detail on what yours looks like. Thanks.
Jim

When looking for a place to recore the radiator for my '76 B, I asked some of the local street rod guys for the name of the place that did their's.

The recore did cost a little more than just buying one from Moss, but they really seemed to know their stuff. I think it helped that the owner used to own an MG.

Bill Barge

This thread was discussed between 13/07/2002 and 16/07/2002

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