Im thinking of changing my water rad as I had 1 or 2 cooling problems in the summer, before I spend a fortune having one fabricated I am interested to know what other people on here are using, I think Im running a polo one at the mo and its not big enough, what else fits?

Thanks Andrew

I'm surpised you are having problems.
Loads of people use the Polo rad with on fairly highly tuned engines.

Are you sure it is the rad?

Stu

I know the Golf one won't fit.... guess what I bought first... Doh!!! Luckily my brothers GF built a Ginetta and it fitted in that...

Polo one tends to be okay for most engines. Is the system fully bled etc, fan up to the job and working properly etc?

Everything is up and running fine, just seems to need the fan in alot, if I start when cold it will be up to temp and needing a fan after 4-5 mins stationary.

One of my rad pipes runs close to the turbo, I cant route it anywhere else, I have thought about wrapping it? and holding more water with a bigger rad? It runs a lot hotter than befora I turbo'd the engine.

If the pipe is metal then protecting it with some lagging would no doubt help... You could alternatively try lagging the turbo which would help underbonnet temps generally...

Have you tried using water wetter?? Not too expensive and supposed to shave 30 deg of the coolant temperature- though I'd be surprised if it did that much.... Worth trying before going for a bigger radiator...

Other thing is, have you got any ducting in place to make sure the air going in to the front of the car has no option but to go through the radiator?? Can make a big difference..... path of least resistance etc

I've just had a look and I think im running a jap rad of some sort, has anyone got a picture of a polo rad installed?

Andrew.

Yours could be a micra rad, zetec and surrey dave have polo rad pictures in there archive.

Plenty more on the site

i use an escort mk2radiator in mine runs fine with 200 bhp zetec

Polo rads are used for much bigger engines (like my V6) with no problems so I would look at ducting or oil cooling as you are running a turbo. Alternatively a water pump upgrade?

Here's a Polo rad for reference

Anyone that got a picture of a polo rad in a MK frame?