Anyone put a del sol radiator in there roadster?

[chrism]

I thought that I read somewhere that a del sol radiator would swap into a roadster. After doing some measuring on the Honda radiator the size seems about right but the mounting brackets are obviously completely different. Can anyone who has done the conversion fill me in on bracket dimensions and or placement. Or is there a site somewhere that would have this info? Is the 1.5 Litre Del sol radiator sufficent for cooling a 1.6 or 2.0 Litre Roadster? If it works I have a lead on new Del Sol radiators for $63 plus shipping if anybody else is interested. Thanks for all your help.

[S Allen]

I have never seen one in a roadster but that does not mean it has not been done. The 510 has been done. If the dimensions are close and the inlet and outlet are in the right place fabricating mounting brackets should not be too hard. I would think the cooling efficiency on a modern radiator would be better than our stock OEM radiators. I have a custom made aluminum Griffin in my stroker and it was not cheap. The OEM radiators bottom side has a taper on each side to clear the steering linkages. It is kind of link a squished vee for lack of a better explanation. I would be interested to hear how it all works out if you do attempt the install.

Steve

[Minh]

You can ask Michael Spreadbury. He did it while swapping in a SR20DE.

http://www.zparts.com/showcase/msSR20swap1/intro.html

He doing a VG30 drop into a 510 right now, I think...

[Dave]

I have installed one. Last night as a matter of fact!

The radiator is from a Honda Del Sol V-Tec automatic. The manual trans ones are only single row radiators where as the automatic ones are double row. The easy way to tell is to look at the thickness. 5/8 inch thick core on the manual trans models, vs. 1 1/4 thick for the auto. also, the ones for the auto have inlet and outlet tubes at the bottom of the radiator to accept auto trans fluid. I went with the auto to give my planned SR20-DET more cooling. For an R-16 or a U-20, the thinner (and more available) radiator for the manual trans cars may work fine. I don't know.

Yes, the mounts have to be modified. If you send me your e-mail address I'll send you some pics.

Michael Spreadbury places a notch in the front crossmember to clear the lower radiator hose. I notched my crossmember but did not end up needing to. Not sure if the roadsters he has converted had slightly different frame and steering geometry from mine, but I could not get my Del Sol radiator to sit low enough in the chassis to make use of that notch. Mine hits the drivers side steering idler arm if I lower it down that far. Luckily, the useless roadster hood scoop now servers a purpose! It allows enough room to raise the radiator up to clear the crossmember and the steering linkages.

[Minh]

Hey!

Did you say that the radiator has a built in inlet/outlet for tranny fluid?

It will probably work as optional oil cooler too then. If general convention applies becuase oil and tranny coolers are generally the same thing.

Hmmm....

[Dave]

True, but keep in mind the pressure differences. I'm not sure what an automatic transmission oil pump puts out but I'm willing to bet it's a heck of a lot less than your engine oil pump. Tapping into your main oil galley and forcing 90+ Psi engine oil through a radiator designed to see pressures in the 15 Psi range would be potentially very messy! However, if you tap into the right location or install a carefully sized orifice to drop the pressure, it should function just fine as an oil cooler. I'd probably fashion a rock guard out of expanded aluminum or steel to shield the lower half of the radiator if you go that route!

[Tycorcr1]

About the idea of using the automatic trans oil cooler as an engine oil cooler, here are some points to keep in mind.

#1 Automatic trans fluid (ATF)is thinner than all non synthetic motor oils. ATF has a higher viscosity rating, which means it flows quicker than motor oils.

#2 The coils of an ATF cooler are usually about 1/4 inch diameter, a real engine oil cooler usually has 1/2 inch fittings. This again is because of the ATF flows about twice the rating of even the thinnest motor oils and the smaller tubing does not produce any frow restictions on ATF as it would for motor oil.

#3 ATF is under high pressure as it flows through the radiator,somewhere around 100-125psi and that is at idle, the pressure increases as the rpm does to a max around 150-175 psi at the regulator inside the auto trans. This is why most AT cooler lines are hard lines and the fittings on the radiator are threaded.

Generally, it is a bad idea to use the trans cooler built into a radiator as and engine oil cooler.

My .02
Keith

[Crazy Backyard Builder]

ChrisM,

The Honda Del Sol rad. has been install on 3 SR20DE convertions, that I have seen from Michael Spreadbury. He has been intalling them do to there nice size and nice facvtory fan with shroud. He fab's lower brackets for the frame, and cut's and adapt's the factory Honda upper bracket . Then he welds the brackets to the frame and the upper cross bar. All 3 cars he has done he has notched the frame for the lower hose to get the rad. as low as possible. So there is some fab work involed, it is not just a bolt in.

He has been using these on engine convertion cars he has been building, I am not sure if the necks are in the right place for stock motor. I hope this helps.


Crazy Backyard Builder