My Series 1 XJ6 needs a new radiator (after a bad garage, dodgy repair, and bad experience involving a recovery truck, I definitely want a new one rather than a repair!)

I can get a brand new one made to the original spec, or an aluminium one (powder coated black, so it looks more original).

I have the stock cooling system and viscous fan. Driving last summer, the temp needle stayed nicely on the O and R of 'Normal'. I'm also in the UK, so getting above 30 degrees is pretty unusual, and it's not a daily so if it's terribly hot I just wouldn't drive it.

Which is the best option? Both radiators are exactly the same price.

 

A bit of a toss up.

Aluminum usually works better so I'd probably go that way myself.

No matter which way you decide be mindful of quality/longevity. There is some very junky stuff floating around out there. If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Cheers
DD

 

Both are from well known UK companies and are over £600 - expensive, but the car's a keeper so I want to spend whatever's necessary to do things right

The only thing swaying me to stick to original is that the cores can be repaired/replaced, whereas I believe aluminium radiators need to be replaced entirely if they break?

Seems to be so many opinions out there - some saying aluminium is the way to go, others saying with the stock fan it won't make much difference on its own.

 

If you have the old-type radiator, why not get it re-cored ? Or was it too badly damaged by Charlie Allthumbs ? To be honest, I'm not sure which material I'd go for. Everything is aluminium these days, copper seems to be a thing of the past now, Even the overhead wires on the railway taking 25kV are coppercoated aluminum !

 

​​​​​Charlie Allthumbs definitely done a good job on it sadly!

I have decided to go with the copper radiator, as it comes from the company with the better reputation and they've been extremely helpful. Seeing as they've done a good enough job for so many decades, I'm sure it'll keep me going too!

 

I have recently bought an aluminium one for my DD6, mainly because it came with a pair of big electric fans. I'm hoping they will help when crawling up hill in hot weather. Series XJs seem to treat radiators as consumable items. My only advice is not to put Bar's Leaks in when you refill. Or, if you feel you must, do it once and never again - at least until the next radiator.

 

Too badly bodged for me to have any confidence in it sadly. I'd rather have a moderate bill for a radiator than a huge bill for an engine rebuild!

I decided to go for the original type radiator as it comes from the better company and they're being very helpful. In the UK I probably don't need masses of help with extra cooling anyway, but could always install an extra fan if I needed some more help.

 

I use my 86 XJ6 a lot in the summer heat...now I'm remembering two three-hour drives in 34 C and no A/C...with a normally functioning cooling system I had no issues whatsoever, so OE works well.

 

There are aluminium radiators that will fit but they have plastic tanks. I've been using one for three years now (the original had a fan unit bash into it) and it works fine even with summer temps nearing 100 F. The only issues I've seen is the cutout on the tank for the air intake snorkel is a little smallish causing a tight fit and the female fitting for the aux fan switch wants to leak. If I tighten it more I risk splitting the fitting.

A short piece of appropriately-sized heater hose and a clamp fixed that...

 

over £600 for a radiator in UK ? That's like $800. USD ?

highway robbery if you ask me.

In the US they don't cost THAT much, unless the Series 1 radiator is such a special design.

 

It's custom made to order by a specialist company - you can't just buy Series 1 radiators the same you can for more modern ones unfortunately, as due to supply and demand, they're not sitting on the shelves or manufactured in volume! But it certainly should last a long time.

You can of course get a similar radiator from a modern production car and, with some minimal work, it'll fit. I believe someone near me used a Subaru radiator in his Series 1, said the fittings were near identical.

But it was a modified mess when I bought it, and as I can afford to, I'm doing things right. No more bodges for this car from now on, it had enough of that from a clearly dodgy previous owner.

 

The UK made rads, Alicool and RadTec, are top quality items. If you check out USA made ones, eg Wizard, they are equivalently expensive.

By the by, the main benefit in my view, of an ally radiator is that it takes a noticeable of weight out of the front end ahead of the axle line. On my XJS the turn-in to corners was sharper for the loss of 12 or 14 kilos of weight removed from about 18 inches in front of the axle line.
FWIW, I do not think that the cooling "power" of an good condition OEM rad and a new ally one is that different. The key to cooling is clean radiator vanes inside and out, and cooling fans that are 100% up to spec.

 

​​​​​ The one I'm going with is by NAR - also an equally good company as RadTec. They advertise in all the Jaguar club magazines and supply new radiators to Moss. Top quality stuff.

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As Greg said, this radiator is made by a top quality radiator manufacturer in the UK to original spec, no plastic tanks or cheap materials. It's also made to order, as the demand isn't there to warrant having them sitting on the shelf ready to go. It's actually less than £500, the £610 includes over £100 in tax straight to the government..!

The car had some horrible bodges done to it when I bought it, which have now been undone at great expense. No matter how expensive it is, I'll try and do things "by the book" on this car now. It deserves some proper treatment at long last, as essentially it's a really nice survivor.

 

This one is made by NAR. RadTec was the manufacturer of the aluminum one. NAR advertise in all the Jaguar club magazines here and also supply new radiators to Moss (possibly others too).

I'm not too bothered about weight reduction, but that does seem the be the main benefit of an aluminum radiator. I have the original viscous fan, but if I have trouble, I'd see if I can fit a manually switched additional electric fan in there too.

 

is the Series 1 radiator very different from a Series 3 radiator ? I imagine it is but just in case I would like to know.

 

Radiator prices....and quality levels....are all over the map.

Anything specialist-made is gonna be a lot more money than mass produced.

You can spend $150 for an off-the-shelf XJ6 radiator....or over $700.

For some perspective, a re-core (not new) for a V12 radiator is usually about $500

You can spend $900-$1500 for a re-core on a 1937 Dodge (ask me!)

High grade replace cores for older USA cars are often over $500

Original Jag radiators (back in the day, at least) were very high grade. Hard to duplicate the quality at bargain prices...although it's certainly possible to get satisfactory results without breaking the bank.

So $800 for custom made aluminum radiator doesn't shock me. But it damn well better fit and function perfectly at that price

Cheers
DD

 

Unfortunately I can't find any such thing as an "off the shelf" Series 1/2 XJ radiator. With probably only 1,000 or so in total left on the road in the UK, I don't think it'd make sense to do that! You can find similar radiators which can be modified, but then they'll be rubbish modern quality and I don't want that.

I suppose it depends on the circumstance, but as the cost thankfully doesn't break the bank for me, I may as well go for it. As you say, it'd better work perfectly (and I have every confidence it will), and for such an important part working perfectly is all I'll accept.

 

They're definitely at least somewhat different, but I can't find anything in the way of reasonable Series 3 radiators either. One thing I won't do is compromise on quality, so price really isn't an issue to me - simply whatever it has to cost for top quality, is what it costs. This car is very pampered now, as it deserves to be!

 

its 2000$ now for a xj12 wizard radiator with shroud and 3600 cfm SPAL fans..