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Couple of radiator questions (Blackstone and more..) 200 1990

posted by  someone claiming to be Charles on  Wed Apr 13 06:43 CST 2005 [RELATED]

The OEM Blackstone radiator is a good unit, but even for the B23F/B230F it is undersized (not enough "surface area") and under a full load with the A/C on the temp gauge will easily climb past 12:00. Turbos are even more susceptible to this phenomenon.

The other weakness of the Blackstone radiator is its side tanks. The core is aluminum, but the side tanks (where the hoses meet the body of the radiator) are plastic and will eventually fail. The OEM radiator in my '85 244Ti held up for 15 years and then cracked at the elbow where the upper hose connects to the radiator. This was not a catastrophic failure, but if I hadn't noticed the leak right away and parked the car until I could fix it, there is a good chance that the end tank would have "blown" and I would have lost all of my coolant on the road.

I recommend a Nissens 3-row. FCP Groton offer two varities of the Nissens 3-row. The 3-row copper Nissens is only $10 more than the 2-row Nissens with an aluminum core and plastic side tanks- obviously, the 3-row copper radiator is a better buy. Much better cooling (temp gauge in the '85 reads 1/2 when it used to read 3/4, and 1/4 when it used to read 1/2) and the copper radiator can be soldered for a couple of bucks if it ever leaks.






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