Alloy or Copper/Brass radiator

[c6erb]

Which is best?

[jellison]

Alloy is all you will likley find after market - radtec then nuts...

[Boosted Ls1]

Copper painted matt black is best for shedding heat as it's got a higher emmisivity value then aluminium. It's more expensive and heavier but if you want it to shed heat, it's better

Boosted.

[GreenV8S]

Aluminium, but make sure you go for a vertical flow radiator.

[Notanutter]

Has to be copper, polishes up a treat for concours, especially all the fiddly bits between the cooling fins

[v8 racing]

Im with boosted on this one copper cools the car much better than aly rads, but getting one made to specific size is treble the cost of aly and heavier

[GreenV8S]

Boosted Ls1 said:

Copper painted matt black ... it's got a higher emmisivity value then aluminium.

In the visible band that's true (that's why white black paint looks black) but I understand that white paint actually has higher emmissivity in the IR band. Not that this particularly matters since virtualy all heat loss occurs through conduction not radiation, and all the paint does is act as an insulator which reducs heat transfer.

There seem to be endless pros and cons between copper and aluminium, and the heat transfer characteristics seem to vary hugely depending on the type of solder and anti-corrosion coatings used, and particularly on the fin designs. But the factor that seems to make the biggest is the geometry. In general a thicker matrix works better at low air speed but a thinner matrix can allow a higher air flow and increased heat transfer at higher air speeds. So depending what aspect of the cooling system you want to improve, you could find a slim aluminium radiator works better than a fat copper one, or vice versa.

[Boosted Ls1]

Maybe so but as said before copper has a higher emmisivity then aluminium and it gets even higher when painted black. As for the assembly of the core, well you can get them dense with plenty of fins if that's what you want and you can get them triple row or more.


I had a pair of copper chargecoolers installed in a modded rv8 plenum when it was boosted. They worked a treat.

Boosted.

>> Edited by Boosted Ls1 on Thursday 23 February 08:56