Date:    Tue, 29 Aug 2006 19:55:41 -0400
From:    Bob Mac <BOBMACDOWELL@WEBTV.NET>
Subject: Radiator removal

  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.

FYI...

Mass of Copper : 8.960g/cm3

Mass of Aluminium : 2.702g/cm3......so approx. one third of the
weight...

Steve O
NSW Australia
'92 Transporter WBX Kombi
'00 Transporter Double Cab
'03 Transporter Double Cab (work truck)
'78 Land Rover 109 Series 3 soft top ute (ex-Aust.Army)