Morris Minor Owners Club

Over the weekend I was using Lizzy and noticed that the 'fins' on the radiator are very brittle. For example running you finger down a small section of the front of the radiator would break off the fins in that section.

There are no leaks, but that may just be a matter of time? Is it likely to fail and should I replace it now at my leisure rather than cursing when stuck somewhere?

cheers

Buy yourself a cheap replacement as a temporary fix and/or hit the yellow pages to get the original reconditioned, should only be about £20 to get it re-cored.

should only be about £20 to get it re-cored.

Might only cost that where you live Lee but in my locallity its cheaper to get one from one of the specialists than have it recored, a heater matrix would cost around £40 - £50 around here.
Thats why I keep a battle scarred but sound spare one.

Welung666 wrote:Buy yourself a cheap replacement as a temporary fix and/or hit the yellow pages to get the original reconditioned, should only be about £20 to get it re-cored.

I've got about half a dozen Minor rads and a couple of Triumph ones that need new cores - If I could find somewhere around here that'd recore for that money I'd get them done and flog them on!

Sadly, they've mainly been put to one side with the intention of weighing them in for a few pennies instead

As for brittle copper fins, I wouldn't worry too much. The Minor rad is huge (about the same capacity and surface as a Triumph 2000, and double a Midget!), if everything else is OK I'm sure it can lose a bit of cooling capacity without any danger.

I used to recore radiators, and even when the cores are new they are very brittle.

But they do get more brittle over time.

And 20 pounds is very cheap for a recore, certianly with todays silly prices for copper