When I was building my car, the consensus was that the Micra K10 rad was the one to have, later this changed to Polo Mk2.

I have the K10 rad but it is very marginal, I have a 400W fan and she still gets very hot but not actually overheating.

What other rads can you recommend? I have shortlisted a few here

What about the Polo 1.3 rad? It's the same layout as the one you've listed but has a wider core.

1.1 polo rad 380x322
1.3 polo rad 430x322

SerckMarston part No's 2719517 (1.1) and 2719819 (1.3)

adrian

I too have that Micra rad and think it may be a bit marginal.

I really like the look of the Merc rad. Seems to be nice and thick, and is made to handle a 2l engine.

I think I will measure my car to see if I can fit one of them.

quote:

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Originally posted by Lars
I too have that Micra rad and think it may be a bit marginal.

I really like the look of the Merc rad. Seems to be nice and thick, and is made to handle a 2l engine.

I think I will measure my car to see if I can fit one of them.

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Yup that's exactly what I want to meassure.
Need to see if there is enough space to fit a 90 or 135 degree bend.

Also the lower outlet would need to be connected to the pump on the other side of the car, so may interfere with the steering rack.

I was never happy with the cooling on my Pinto.
That was using a Micra rad, but at the same time my layout/piping was pretty poor.
On the way to SVA, sitting in traffic it reached 115°!

I changed it around recently, simplified the plumbing a lot and (probably overkill) went for a MK2 Golf rad... which appeared to be the same as the Polo but 50mm wider.

It *just* fitted in my standard size GTS nose cone! That included cutting down and capping the radiator bleed spigot to shave 10mm off the rad!

I've not tried it on a run or traffic yet, but running on the drive for 30mins or so, it didn't go above 98-100°.

I went for the Golf as opposed to the Polo as I wanted to be prepared for a future engine upgrade and wanted to be future proofed!

Hope that helps,
James

I'm using a Polo rad, (Pinto engine) was suffering slight overheating on trackdays early this year after I upped the power to about 170bhp. I was about to bite the bullet and buy this little beauty ...when someone suggested blanking the gaps around the radiator off. I've done this, it's actually sealed with foam rubber so cooling air must go through the radiator. Been OK ever since.

quote:

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Originally posted by Andy D
I'm using a Polo rad, (Pinto engine) was suffering slight overheating on trackdays early this year after I upped the power to about 170bhp. I was about to bite the bullet and buy this little beauty ...when someone suggested blanking the gaps around the radiator off. I've done this, it's actually sealed with foam rubber so cooling air must go through the radiator. Been OK ever since.

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....Another thing, before I tried the blanking trick, I bought a new Polo rad, as the old one had seen a bit of action, flattened fins, clogged with bugs etc..
When the new rad arrived I noticed it had fewer water "tubes", I think 17 if my memory serves me right. The old German and Swedish one had twice as many.
The first trackday I did with the new rad, it overheated. So I changed back to the original one, and blanked it off. As I said that works OK.
I have no idea if the number of water tubes in a rad affect the cooling, but it could be worth checking how many you have.