Just wondering why the radiator from the bike of which the engine is from is not used in a BEC setup and plumbed in as it is on the bike.

Is it
a, space at the front of the car
b, they are usually smashed up
c, too small when used as BEC

Is there any other reason.

Also car radiators tend to be much cheaper (Ali Polo rad £26)

I used an R1 radiator and fans £100, small and compact with correct number of rad connections etc.

I used a Hayabusa one on my car when it had the Kawasaki bike engine in it and it worked fine. Got off eBay quite cheaply,

Steve,

There are several people, me included that have done this with no adverse problems.

I have actaully raced an R1 STM Phoenix with this set-up. It works fine as long as you duct the air into the radiator well.

Why do people use other solutions? Mainly because that is what they have been told to do by the manufacturers, sometimes the bike rad is not a good fit or they have heard some "unwritten rule" that the bike rad is not good enough. If it works in the bike with a big wheel obscuring the wind flow, it'll work very nicely indeed in a seven nosecone :-)

Cheers

Paul

I used a 05 R1 Rad... £50 off the bay inc fans and P&P!

A friend uses an R1 rad that came with his bike engine with no problems so far. And this in sunny Hungary where temperatures are easily around 35 degrees in the summer. He has not been on track though. For road use I am sure the bike rad setup will be just fine...

I think the main reason you don't see bike rads more often is that they're expensive new, second hand ones can look like they've ben stored in the north see for a month and most manufacturers supply a polo or mkII escort rads rather than bike rads.

I have recently seen a really, really nice ali rad that was custom made for an Indy front end, but made to match the R1 plumbing. I want one, lots!

I use an oil rad

I think another reason is that the bike rad. usually gets busted when the donor bike is dropped, certainly was the case with the one I got. If you are then looking for a new rad. you may as well go the Polo route.

Simon