Radiator Options!

Thinking about trying to fit a bigger rad to my car, does anyone know what rads will go in the mk1 without cutting things!? Cheers guys

For what engine? They have different locations of the pipe outlets, which makes an obvious difference to the choice of radiator you have.

20vt, at the moment i have the outlet and inlet on the LHS as you look into the engine bay or drivers side should you be sitting in the car Its the standard mk1 Gti rad, but i can always fabricate hoses to accomodate it going over to the other side as im using spal fans its much of a muchness! Just need it to be of a similar thickness, so not to come too far into the intercooler path.
Any Ideas?

You'll notice there's a number of holes for brackets along the slam panel, which means you can easily fit a wider radiator, so long as it conforms to a certain width which fits these holes. The stock GTI rad is 525mm. You can get bigger ones:

570mm
630mm
675mm
720mm

Not sure if the 730mm would fit though.

Awesome info there, you wouldnt be able to put a model to a measure would you!? I'll get a measurement in height and depth etc and ring round!
Nick

nick82 said

Awesome info there, you wouldnt be able to put a model to a measure would you!? I'll get a measurement in height and depth etc and ring round!
Nick

Nope! Except to say, bigger rads are used in :turbo diesel; Passats; auto; air con. But you could take a tape measure to a scrappy?

Another rad to consider is the Corsa Turbo Diesel. Its wider but also not too deep (tall). Most car radiators (for example VR6) are a standard height which is a big bigger than the Mk1 Golf's.

Good call paul!

Whats wrong with the 16v radiator, this is a common choice for the engine swap, holes on the left etc, it fits like a glove in mine with a slimline fan and theres hardly any pipework to make up!

i've got a 16v engine in, using the standard mk2 16v rad and standard fans and there loads of room!

onzlo said

Whats wrong with the 16v radiator, this is a common choice for the engine swap, holes on the left etc, it fits like a glove in mine with a slimline fan and theres hardly any pipework to make up!

x2

except he did ask about upgrades!

Hello all I am also having this dilema, sorry to hi jack a little however:

I have 3 rads in my garage and have been doing some research into this hopefully it will be some use:

Rad 1: 16V rad, this seems to be 430mm core size inlet and outlet on the right.

Rad 2: G60 rad, this is also 430mm  with the inlet and outlet on the left.


Rad 3, Standard mk1 rad 525mm inlet and outlet on the right again.


Finally on searching the net iv found that there is the rad for a VR corrado that is a 630mm core, this one is by far the biggest however possibly to big for a mk1 well a 20VT'ed one anyway as there will be no way of getting the intercooler pipewok between the edge of the rad and NS front light.

Also i saw a 20VT mk1 at VW festival with a twin fan rad from a mk4 polo, looked really neat and the fans were very slimline i need to track this guy down find out what core size it was..

Thing i dont understand is how on earth can a smaller rad be better for cooling???

Hope this will give you some options of rads that fit at least.

Cheers Mark

Depending on the fin design, a radiator can be more efficient, therefore the 16V rad (430mm) can be as good (give the same cooling power) as the Mk1 GTI rad (525mm). Out of the 4 you mention, the Corrado VR6 and Corrado G60 rad have the outlets on the other side to the other 2. So you need to use the radiator with the outlets on the correct side for you, otherwise you'll spend a lot of effort on unnecessary cooling pipe adaptions, etc. Obviously, VR6 rad offers more cooling capacity than G60; and the 16V probably a little bit more than the Mk1 GTI.