Radiator silly question

[Hawaiis0]

I was just looking through the service notes ready to start a rad change tomorrow. I have had a rad re-cored and thought it looked different but couldn't put my finger on what, and low and behold the service notes show 3 vertical bars which are now missing from my recon unit.

Do these normally carry the mountings for the fans?

[Big Jim]

Those bars were not on my old 2 core or my new 3 core . There is a piece of wire in the center , I presume as a stiffener . I think the fans fix to the cowl and the cowl fixes to the top and bottom rails . It looks like the photo is for a pre cowl setup ?

[barker_001]

The three bars aren't used to secure the fan cowl. I can only presume they are there on some rads for stiffening. The cowl is moulded to take account of the bars anyway.

The cowl is secured by 5 or 6 self tappers which go through the frame on the edge of the rad and screw into small rectangular spire nuts. Top tip: Out of the car, test screw the cowl to the rad and fully tighten the screws up into the spire nuts. Use a blob of high-temp silicone sealant to secure the spire nuts to the rad. Then, if you ever have cause to remove the cowl but not the rad (dogdy fan motor, etc.) in the future, the spire nuts will remain in the right place for when you refit the cowl. Makes life a whole lot easier.... been there (several times!)

And leave the 4 M10 nylock nuts securing the rad slightly loose - the nose of the car flexes slightly and will stress the rad if they are done up tightly. Mike Taylor told me the very last cars had rubber mounts.