I need help trying to figure out the cooling capacity of a radiator. I am in the process of swapping in a VW 1.6TD into a suzuki samurai.
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=235308

Can anyone tell me if the radiator from an '84 mazda diesel has the same cooling capacity as the rad from an '87 vw jetta 1.6TD ?

The "typical" installation tales a 26" rad from a quantum and places that in the samurai. This involves a bunch of hammering on the drivers side wheel well to make the clearance necessary for the hoses.
Well, I don't much like the idea of hammering body parts or cutting hood braces to make things fit so I'm looking around at alternatives.

On the left is the rad from the doner vehicle, Middle is the rad from the samurai I bought with the diesel swapped in, on the right is a rad from an '84 mazda 2.2L diesel


To make things stand up I placed the donor rad on the right this time.


I can't use the donor rad as both inlet and outlet hoses are on the passenger side of the vehicle. I need them to be on the drivers side. (hense the recomendation for a rad from a quantum)

The Mazda diesel rad is the one I am interested in installing. It fits between the frame rails. Can be mounted similar to the stock suzuki rad and can be set up as an "open" system (meaning the overflow bottle is not pressurized)


I guess the other thing to toss in the equasion....
The jetta rad is a "double pass" coolant flows into the tank on the drivers side, across to the tank on the passenger side, then back across again to the tank on the drivers side.
I'm not sure how this affects cooling....


Thanks,

 

you could try measuring overall square inches of fin surface, and multiply that by the depth or how many cores you have, to see what that will give you for effective cooling area.

How tight are the tubes in the donor coil, vs the mazda.

Perhaps finding a rad out of a Ram50 diesel would work. See what kind of cooling it would provide.

Just food for thought.

 

the mazda one doesn't look to good.

 

Yup, it's a leaky one but that's not the point. It fits reasonably well. I can always get it recored/repaired.

 

The Mazda one is an old style downflow brass rad with a very coarse fin pitch. It does not have anywhere near the cooling capacity of the 2 pass crossflow VW unit. I'd be very hesitant to use it.

 

If you know a good radiator shop, ask them about a custom core for the size width that you can fit. May need to go thicker than the original VW unit to get the necessary cooling.

 

So, with careful measurement with a tape measure.

26.5"X12'X1.25" = 397 cubic inches stock aluminum jetta rad

16"X18"X2" = 576 cubic inches Maxda diesel rad

Some 45% larger? how's my math? is this how it's figured?

Even with the inefficiencies of the copper over the aluminum the cooling area should make up the difference.