What Rad material is best?
 

I need to replace the heater matrix in my focus and can't decide wether a Alu core or brass/copper is better? It's Alu as standard.

The Alu one seems more expensive that the brass/copper one. Does anyone have advice or an opinion?

Thanks, Rich.

The aluminium one should be lighter, but copper is a better conductor of heat.

Anders

Thanks Anders, I'm pricing up an oem one this morning before I decide on the after market route.

I could be wrong, but I belive that copper or brass components which are soldered requires the use of a glycol anti freeze that has better resistance to galvanic corrosion.

The issue is Ford usually use lifelong coolant from the factory, which is an OAT based coolant, as such it has a slower ability to prevent corrosion, hence why everything in contact with the coolant is aluminium, like the engine or plastic. This is to prevent galvanic corrosion (galvanic corrosion is caused by two different metals, and water acts as an electrolyte, otherwise known as the battery effect).

You can use the cheaper glycol based antifreezes instead which offers superior corrosion protection. The bad news is that protection doesn't last as long, so needs to be changed every 2 to 3 years. Whereas true OAT coolant are good for about ten years, hybrid coolants usually specify around 5 years.

You can probably use the OAT coolant to no ill effect in the short term or a hybrid OAT coolant, but the new heater matrix may not last as long as it should.

Eitherway, thoroughly flush the entire cooling system before refilling, unless the coolant your using is like for like with what was in there before. :)

it will be intresting to see if anyone ran any tests with oe rad and alli one what the diffrence is in temp