But you'll find the aluminum radiator is more efficient expelling/radiating
the heat.  At least it is on mine.

I also changed the Thermostat at the same time - seems like the wise thing
to do, regardless of the vehicle.
--
Jim Thompson
84 Westfalia 2.1 "Ole Putt"
73 K Ghia Coupe "Denise"
72 411 Station Wagon "Pug"
oldvolkshome@gmail.com
http://www.oldvolkshome.com
**********************************
On 8/29/06, Bob Mac <BOBMACDOWELL@webtv.net> wrote:

> I just bought a new radiator for my 84 westy. Someone posted how to
> tell how old the radiator is in my van so i went out and looked. Sure
> enough it was the original. Had a date of 1983 on it. I took the old one
> out and couldn't believe the difference in weight between them. Sooo i
> weighed them. The old 22 lbs, the new 11 lbs. I found it very hard to
> believe that their was 11 lbs of dirt in the old one. The old one is
> made of copper and the new is of aluminum. Curiosity got the best of me
> so i had to operate on the old one. I took both tanks off the old one
> and looked for all this dirt. Their was none. Outside of some white
> corrosion in the bottom half their was no dirt. I held a light on one
> side of the fins and looked thru each fin and saw that light could be
> seen thru every fin. Which means nothing was blocked. Outside of a
> little oily film, the rad. looked fine. My point being, other than
> having the satisfaction of knowing i have a new rad. in my van i changed
> it for no other reason. I guess that's the difference between copper and
> alum. Just thought i'd throw that out there.