I’m looking for a replacement radiator for my 2000 Ford Explorer, 4.0L V6 SOHC. The current aluminum radiator with plastic jugs is leaking from one of the jugs. Past experience has shown that these radiators usually last 7 to 10 years before they begin to leak. I’ve had good luck in the past replaci…

I was going to pass this by until I saw the poster. Being as it is you, I will offer my first thought though have no evidence to back it up. My first thought was it somehow caused an electrical charge that a sacrificial anode could resolve. WIKI A sacrificial anode, or sacrificial rod, is a metall…

I don’t know why replacing a plastic tanked aluminum core radiator with a copper core & tank would be any more prone to problems than replacing it with an OEM. Is this an automatic tranny and is the tranny cooler built into the radiator? Perhaps that has something to do with it, although I cannot im…

I had thought of this, but my older cars have the same general metal components as the Ford. Aluminum heads and cast iron blocks. I was under the impression for decades that additives in coolant prevent galvanic action from taking place as part of their corrosion-resistance package. That’s why I don…

What you’re looking at is differential coefficient expansion rate of the two different materials. Aluminum core on plastic tanks. The aluminum core is going expand at a different rate than the plastic tanks. This puts a stress on the seal between these two different materials. With an all copper ra…

Yes, I understand that. The question is ‘why would a brass or copper replacement tank not be reliable in modern cars over plastic and aluminum?’ The advise I was given when I asked a radiator shop about getting a brass radiator to replace the plastic and aluminum radiator that is OEM, was that brass…

It may not be that brass won’t work. Maybe brass was available in older cars because they had brass originally, or folks still wanted brass to replace the plastic/aluminum. Now that brass is the exception, fewer folks ask for it, fewer ones are built, and maybe the cooling systems designed for pla…

Just my 1 cent but I think a brass radiator will outlast any modern vehicle that it’s installed in and it’s quite likely any notions that modern cars will kill a brass radiator are fairy tales. My hot rod Ford has a brass radiator that’s been in there for half a dozen years with no problems at all. …

Electrolisis issues asside, it would appear that by far the greatest cause for the failure of radiators and heater cores is the repeated expansion and contraction from the pressurized cooling system. With 16+psi pressure caps being common and automobiles operated through repeated cold to hot cycles …

I have never heard of compatibility or corrosion problems with all-metal radiators, but it is getting harder to find them. When my '91 Volvo plastic radiator failed after 8 years, I found a metal radiator for it and it has been fine since. However, I notice now that no one sells a metal radiator f…

Brass Radiator vs Aluminum and Plastic?

Maintenance/Repairs

BustedKnuckles February 5, 2010, 12:45am 5

Yes, the trans cooler is built-in, but so is the trans cooler in my Toyotas. I don’t think that’s an issue either. It just baffles me.

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Brass Radiator vs Aluminum and Plastic?

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