smaller radiator?

hey guys, my car currently has a radiator that runs from one end of my headlights to the other. wondering if they would be any problems with swapping it with a smaller radiator from say a civic.

shouldn't be tooo much of a problem in my books, just try to get something thicker, to compensate, like a EK civic radiator isn't tooo bad.

cheers. how much should they go for anyway?

The first questions you should be asking yourself is why would you want to do that?

I would only do it if it is completely necessary, reason being is because a full length radiator has better cooling properties based on the surface area it has over a thicker half length one.

The half length designs utilise a thicker core to increase coolant capacity, although because they dont have as much surface area they are unable to cool the air as effieciently as an equivalent full length.

Hope that helps.

yea i know that there is a down side to get a 1/2 sized rad. but my full face doesnt allow me to keep my a/c fan with my aftermarket headers.. hence the need to use a 1/2 sized rad..

You could get a delsol one. :thumbsup:

They're pretty efficient. I've never had my temp guage move at all!!! (yes my guage works btw :P)

cant stress enough how inaccurate the stock temp gauge is...

How innaccurate do you think it is?? Whats your reasoning?? Temps are quite important to me so i'd like to know what your on about. :thumbsup:

well not so much inaccurate but more like not an accurate indicator of temp. It has no actual numerical values so your temps could be anything.

say it sits on halfway or just above it, do you know what temp that is?

if temps are important to you you wouldnt be using the stock temp gauge for temp assessment :)

Temps are important to me and thats why i'm gettin oil temp & pressure guages.

i see what you mean about not being a numerical value but is it accurate in that it gives you an indication of whether or not the temps are higher then normal??

Water temp is important too.....

the only way you can determine that is via a proper water temp gauge, something that can tell you exactly what temp your engine is running at, eg. 88 degrees...

halfway on your standard temp gauge could be 95 degrees.

i posted up a thread on here a while ago which showed a good example of how inaccurate the gauge can be. i think it was titled 'running temps' or something like that.

Anyways...... i bought a B16A (dual core) radiator from a wrecker for $165 with 3 months warranty on it. The single core one was 150 so i figured what the hell why not, and since i blew my single core one's top off i think the 15 dollar difference was a good investment. No complaints about it yet