FlyingEagle
Staff member
Have an update to the GVR4 aftermarket aluminum radiator offered on Ebay, with a 50+mm core. The mounting pins sit in a slightly taller position because of the fact that the welds create a height change where the brackets would other sit down flush. The weld material made the rad sit higher and the bracket now sits double that dimension in a semi compressed position. Also, in my C53A chassis, it hits the rad support if using the factory brackets with no modification. The pin location front to back on the core, is a major part of this phenomenon, not just the extra girth of the core/depth change.
The lower coolant switch fitting is an M14/1x25 which is not the size to fit the factory coolant temp switch, that should be M16x1.5 - I was able to file down the threads, then re-tap with a proper tap. There is no imperial drill bit on most hardware chain store shelves (Lowes/Home Depot/Canadian Tire) that won't leave you a hole too big or out of the range of most 3/8" drills can take (smaller diameter shank). I vacuumed out the fitting and then turned the vacuum into a blower and set it into the top rad fitting to get any extra particles out. I suspect nothing went very far anyways and the rad is brand new, so nothing to stick to. I did use tap/cutting fluid and took my time with small turns and reversals in proper succession. Worked a charm, especially after I put a little chamfer at the top of the threaded hole for the O-ring to sit into properly. I didn't want to see that get cut, as part of a design flaw to my newly tapped hole.
The top and bottom tabs that would hold factory type fans, are or do stick out further, so a factory shroud from my C53a (which turned out not to fit due to clearance) sat further out from the core when it was otherwise nearly flush on a proper C53A core rad. Nearly every dimension changed as a result of being a Chinese copy. I emailed the ebay seller and the confirmed the fitting size and said if I had anymore questions, that I should contact them. I went to work on the rad mods....
All of the extra height pushed the rad cap upwards The cap which is the deeper style of the two Japanese styles available - be warned your factory DSM/Galant/CSM rad cap will not work (0.9bar) due to the depth of the fitting, but they supply you with a 1.1 bar cap that does work. Time will tell how well the cap works!
I had to use a second hood and remove a chunk of webbing to clear the top neck and rad cap as a result. This may have no bearing on a rad put into a Galant, but it the whole radiator sits higher and the cap sits higher, you have been forwarned that lower mounts and or top mounts may need fiddling ... bolt on ... sort of.
The lower coolant switch fitting is an M14/1x25 which is not the size to fit the factory coolant temp switch, that should be M16x1.5 - I was able to file down the threads, then re-tap with a proper tap. There is no imperial drill bit on most hardware chain store shelves (Lowes/Home Depot/Canadian Tire) that won't leave you a hole too big or out of the range of most 3/8" drills can take (smaller diameter shank). I vacuumed out the fitting and then turned the vacuum into a blower and set it into the top rad fitting to get any extra particles out. I suspect nothing went very far anyways and the rad is brand new, so nothing to stick to. I did use tap/cutting fluid and took my time with small turns and reversals in proper succession. Worked a charm, especially after I put a little chamfer at the top of the threaded hole for the O-ring to sit into properly. I didn't want to see that get cut, as part of a design flaw to my newly tapped hole.
The top and bottom tabs that would hold factory type fans, are or do stick out further, so a factory shroud from my C53a (which turned out not to fit due to clearance) sat further out from the core when it was otherwise nearly flush on a proper C53A core rad. Nearly every dimension changed as a result of being a Chinese copy. I emailed the ebay seller and the confirmed the fitting size and said if I had anymore questions, that I should contact them. I went to work on the rad mods....
All of the extra height pushed the rad cap upwards The cap which is the deeper style of the two Japanese styles available - be warned your factory DSM/Galant/CSM rad cap will not work (0.9bar) due to the depth of the fitting, but they supply you with a 1.1 bar cap that does work. Time will tell how well the cap works!
I had to use a second hood and remove a chunk of webbing to clear the top neck and rad cap as a result. This may have no bearing on a rad put into a Galant, but it the whole radiator sits higher and the cap sits higher, you have been forwarned that lower mounts and or top mounts may need fiddling ... bolt on ... sort of.
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