I have the acquired the typical radiator cracks and stemmed the flow with some Quiksteel plastic tank sealer (still leaks a little). Obviously I'm up for a replacement and there are a WIDE range of prices out there.....

Rock Auto has a Nissens brand radiator for a mere $283 and I wondered if anyone had any experience with this brand, or should I pony up for another brand?

I have shock and secondary tensioner replacements on the schedule for this Summer and would rather not blow the kid's college fund by uninformed buying.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Hamish
2001 MY XK8

 

Nissens is decent quality, I'd get one. Don't forget to do a search fo a 5% coupon for rock auto

 

I installed a Nissen radiator from RockAuto and it has been doing fine since last September. This includes driving in city traffic with 95F+ outside temps. Nissen is the OEM brand you likely have now.

A word of caution: there is a confusing array of radiator part numbers. The difference on my 2001 XK8 vs. the XKR was only in the fittings for the transmission cooling hoses. At the time, the less expensive radiator (~$300) had the wrong fittings. I swapped it for the ~$600 unit and all was well. The part number I used was MJB4190AF.

Someone on the forum bought the lesser priced model and got brass adaptor fittings from a plumbing supply for under $20. Worked fine I understand.

You can follow the thread here. It has pictures. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...m-part-102561/

 

might want to look in your yellow pages book for radiator repair shops before you spend too much on a new unit.

 

I replaced my radiator with a used OEM and I am happy for over a year.
LaRue

 

Jag#4, I followed the link you your original post (excellent detail, by the way) and on the second radiator you got, the MJB4190AF part #, you still had to seal off the relief bleed tube on the upper left hand side of the radiator? So even with the radiator that fit the transmission lines, there were still fixes to be done?

Cheers,
Hamish
2001MY XK8

 

On mine for this part number radiator, yes. It was a minor fix however. Could also have run a hose from the radiator up to the extra fitting on the expansion tank since it is sealed, but what I did was much easier.

FYI: on the first radiator this stub was plugged.

IMHO, the best fix if I had to do it again, would be to get the less expensive Nissens unit and buy brass connectors to match the radiator fitting to the TOC hoses.

 

I JUST ORDERED A NEW TANK FOR MY RADIATOR. IT WAS UNDER A HUNDRED BUCKS. If you don't ask the radiator shop for that, they probably won't even try to look it up.
I should be installing it to my old core this week. It just crimps on with no special tools. You have to compress the gasket before recrimping the tank back on, or risk missing the gasket. 2 or 3 motortcycle straps around both tank sides should do the trick. Use card board to protect the fins. Special care must be taken when installing it. Although this XKR is a 2001, the inside of the core still looked as good as a new one. This is because the car has never had tap water or block sealer used in it. I use the 50/50 coolant off the shelf instead of water. I was successful in welding the old nylon tank inside and outside using black zip ties and a soldering tool, but that was before I knew the tanks were available. I would rather have a new tank due to the age. A couple years ago, our Jag S Type also had to have it's radiator replaced at around 150k miles. It was the same top hose tank that cracked. Steam hammering out of the top hose is causing vibration and then the cracking starts. My radiator man confirmed this suspicion. There can be a lot of reasons for this, sometimes hard to pin point exactly, but running with a low water level or fans not coming on properly, even debris clogging the air flow across the core all contribute to the situation making it too hot to handle. Even worse yet is a leaking head gasket. If you see foamy crud in your water filler, this is your sign.

 

When you get the tank and do the rebuild please post some photos and details. Now I am sad I tossed my old one!

 

Over here in the UK, there are companies which will " re core " most types of radiator, and for a reasonable cost, if there are any other repairs to be made they usually make them for an additional cost. In my own experience they are very good at what they do.
I recently bought a new water tank for my 1999 8 for £44 off ebay, this was a negotiated price with the seller ( offer price ), I bought it for future use and because they are getting pretty scarce now and that means price increase.

 

I have taken off a few radiator tanks, and honestly so far, I haven't had to put any of them back on for various reasons. Now yesterday when I went to pick up my new tank so "I" could put it on, they already had it installed, pressure checked, and brightened the aluminum. It looks just like a new one again, and should work just as good. Even better than that, they would not take a penny from me for their work on it. They only charged me for the tank alone. Sorry no pics of my run of the mill radiator work. Suffice to say that when you bend those tabs back on the core header, ONLY bend the minimun. They chewed my *** for bending some of them a tad too much. If you want to see how they weld nylon, I should refer you to Utube or other places that can explain it better than I can.
I asked them to put in stock a couple more of those tanks so next time you guys need one, you can call them up and get one instead of messing around with that nylon welding stuff. He informed me that that was the last one the warehouse had in stock, but I insisted it is worth a shot that he call them and order at least 3 more, and maybe that will light a fire under them. I will give out his shops phone number as soon as he verifys the shipment. This right side tank fits both the XKR and the XK8. I haven't so far seen any other radiator with the other side cracked yet, so it's a good possibility no body would need that left side tank unless it was damaged by accident of some kind.
If any of you guys want a tank for a spare, let me know so I can relay to my radiator man the additional numbers he's going to order. Maybe we can pressure the warehouse into doing another run of this part number? Or at the very least, out source some more tanks. You guys with cars 10+ years old that's not leaking yet, might start thinking about that.

 

I know it's way too late for some of you guys already reading this thread, but for what it's worth, why not put your old XKR tank with the trans cooler in it into a new XK8 radiator? Saves space for those fittings. That AT cooler side tank seems to last forever. And as far as that goes, if your top tank is good, & under 12 years old, most shops can get you a new radiator core that may or may not be an exact header match, but can be modified to fit perfectly and work just as good for many more years. Just think of it as an upgrade.
This is the problem with manufacturing, they don't make production runs for 1 part. The set up time is too high for just 1 part. They might make thousands of a single part in order to get the wholesale prices right. If you are savy enough, you can substitute parts now and then that are superior to the orignals. Racers do this all the time. Diligent searching and asking the right questions is the key. Going to more than one shop helps too. You'd be surprised how often opinions differ on a single subject.