Britpart radiator

[g&t]

Sorry to bore you guys again with this (last post 5th Aug) but like many of you I do like thing to be 'right' Having fitted a Britpart replacement rad to my 3.5efi I find that although the fan cowlng will re-attach, it's not possible to secure it with all the original screws & the fan blades are closer to the cowling opening on the driver's side than t'other. I'm happy to scource a alterative cowl but the question is which one(?)how many different cowls are there for the V8 I wonder. The rad itself seems to be decent quality enough but, because I am not 'trade', Britpart won't even talk to me let alone give any advice re. cowl fitment.

[Tetsu0san]

Source a different radiator. If it's a Britpart one then that is where all your trouble lies.

[g&t]

Source a different radiator. If it's a Britpart one then that is where all your trouble lies.

Too late, fitted on Thurs. My independant (who's worked on LR's for 20 yrs) is happy with the quality, in fact thinks it's better than the last genuine unit he fitted for another customer last year. It's just that the original cowl seems very slightly wider than the rad. which incidently is obviously a standard 3.5 unit as it's got 2 outlets at the top LH side, one for the expansion tank & the other, now plugged, was for the inlet manifold of the carb version. Perhaps if I measure the cowl's width some-one can compare it to a later (3.9?) item for me.

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

My independant (who's worked on LR's for 20 yrs) is happy with the quality, in fact thinks it's better than the last genuine unit he fitted for another customer last year

Smile sweetly at him, and give his guide dog a biscuit as you leave...

Nige

[need4speed]

Smile sweetly at him, and give his guide dog a biscuit as you leave...

Gotta agree with nige though... If it moves, seals, supports, conducts electricity or cools, dont buy britpart...

Phil

[g&t]

Smile sweetly at him, and give his guide dog a biscuit as you leave...

Nige

Think you are being a tad judgemental there Nige, the guy is a pro & I've used him for several years. He described the said genuine rad as 'poorly finished & with paint flaking off' scourced from a main stealer at a cost of £450.......... I'm not a cheapskate & often fit genuine components, it's just that when they are no longer available from LR the commonly used outlets only do pattern parts & most of them are scourced from Britpart. It's a question of being choosey about what you buy as BP's stock comes from a number of different manufactures (some of it NOS) & it's often the unit price you pay that's the clue to the quality.

[Tetsu0san]

As the fan cowling doesn't fit and you have a Britpart radiator, the 2 things just add up. Britpart radiators look nice and the fabrication quality may be quite good, but the tolerances are usually way out and this is why your old cowling doesn't fit.

I bought one for a 300Tdi Disco, it looked really nice but it was about 8mm too big on end and 12 mm too big the other. You just can't work with that sort of difference in size and the fact that you are looking for a fan cowling specification that probably doesn't exist just rings alarm bells in my head.

I don't think anyone is really questioning your mechanics ability, but perhaps he is just impressed with how it looks rather than the fact that it doesn't fit properly.

Almakes or Bearmach have radiators which will be almost the same cost of the Britpart one and they will 99% be the right size and specification.

[Steve Hiatt]

Agreed, if the cowling is genuine then the rad or the fitting must be wrong.

If it's any consolation I recently tried to change a Defender mirror glass with a Britpart one, firstly it was half the thickness of the genuine one and secondly it was a couple of mm longer than a genuine one so didn't fit a Britax mirror.

[need4speed]

....If it moves, seals, supports, conducts electricity or cools, dont buy britpart...

Seems i need to add 'reflects' to that list....

Phil

[elbekko]

It may look nice on the outside, but I dread to think of what it looks like on the inside if the tolerances are that far off

[easytiger]

I have to agree here having put a Britpart rad on my classic last year, had a nightmare trying to line up the brackets, got it to fit somehow and a couple of weeks later one of the top mounting brackets simply gave up and became detatched from the rad, I knew then that I should have had the original re cored, ah well.

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

Think you are being a tad judgemental there Nige, the guy is a pro & I've used him for several years. He described the said genuine rad as 'poorly finished & with paint flaking off' scourced from a main stealer at a cost of £450.......... I'm not a cheapskate & often fit genuine components, it's just that when they are no longer available from LR the commonly used outlets only do pattern parts & most of them are scourced from Britpart. It's a question of being choosey about what you buy as BP's stock comes from a number of different manufactures (some of it NOS) & it's often the unit price you pay that's the clue to the quality.

Er - I don't

Any "Independant" LR place who worth anything doesn;t use Britpart unless they are into the "Buy as cheap as I can and sell for as much as I can blag and get away with"

GENUINE LR is exactly that - genuine and fits,

if you had a genuine LR (From a main deaaer not some pratts that say "Its OEM Guv Honest )

then it would fit perfectly as would the cowling.

Saying that "commonly used outlets use Britpart" = the "commionly used poor quality outlets who don'yt care use Britpart is more accurate".

I gave up ages ago as stuff didn't fit, and / or was of applaing qulaity and thus failed shortly after fitting, ......

or was that after removing from the box ?........

The "£450 and poorly finished" is frankly laughable,

Genuine stuff fits, and if sourced as genuine - and not fobed off as such as "OEM M8" (and there is a vast difference)

then I have never ever in 30 years had an issue with fitment or quality.

As to

the unit price paid is a clue to quality

er no

if someone buys junk and wants to sell it at top whack and pretend its 'quality' then its still junk.

Saying Britpart stuff is good, is like saying a Proctology examination is "Fun" - its not - but they both have lots of s**t in common

Nige

[easytiger]

So you dont feel too strongley either way then Nige? LOL

Mark

[errol209]

So you dont feel too strongley either way then Nige? LOL

Mark

Oh, don't wind him up!

We have concluded (as a group) many times that the blue cardboard boxes are occasionaly handy and that things like seals, fabricated parts, retainers, gears, bearings, cables, cast parts, switches, pipes, panels, lenses, plugs, shafts, indicators, lockwashers, engine components, heating and cooling devices, flanges, ball joints, bushes, transmission parts, glass items, friction products, machined parts, steering related items, hoses and repair sections are a bit "iffy";

but otherwise they're OK.

[g&t]

I'm going to pull out of this discussion now as some of the replies are not exactly helpful, but not until I've had my (final) say: To cast aspersions on the abilities of a reputable one-man independant without even knowing the guy or the quality of his work is, quite frankly, not the sort of attitude I would have expected from this forum. He's had his own business for a number of years & has around 20 years of LR experience. He too is no stranger to the shortcomings of pattern parts (including BP) & took the trouble to satisfy himself as to the quality of the rad as soon as it was delivered, as should it turn out to be unfit for purpose he would be expected to remove it again in his own time & have the hassle of sending it back to his suplier. If the rad was indeed 'made to poor tolerances' how come it dropped straight in(?) only the cowling seems slightly wider (though it does fit & does not foul the fan) & I think that's probably because BP have opted for one rad that will fit both the carb (hence my point about the extra water outlet)& EFI models. With hindsight I would have gone for a re-core, but then they say hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[need4speed]

I dont think anyone is meaning to disrespect your mechanic personally. The point Nige is (strongly) trying to make is that if your mechanic has as much experience as you say he has, then he should come to expect no different from BP...

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

I don't want to cause you any probs here on LR4x4

What I was trying (Clumsily maybe) to say was that a really good independant would normally run from Britpart, and

you did come on here and ask why your radiator didn't fit you cowling, and the fact it was a Britpart Radiator

caused many inc me to say "Thats prob the prob" - but you didn't seem to acept the answers that britpart parts are shall we

agree "Hugely Variable" in terms of quality and or fit.

Your prob weas fit - my point was a genuine rad will fit your cowling - period, other pattern stuff may equally not fit,

and a fair bet that a britpart one won't, but you seem to trust your independant highly - your choice and right

Lets not fall out over this, hopefully you will be sorted and back up and running, but do be carefull of non genuine stuff,

there is a wealth of knowledge on here, sometimes the truth can sting esp when you have paid good hard earned money out and

things are not as they should be, I am horrified sometimes of the junk people sell, and the poor qulaity and fit,

but its the world we live in, prioce does not assure quality - as I have found out several tuimes, but cheapest normally means

its not the best

Anyway, back to 4x4ing

Sorry if you had the hump with me, not meant that way, I actually feel fotr you as I have been there and was hacked off

that it (my LR) was not as I expected it to befor my ghard earned

Nige

[FridgeFreezer]

Something I've come to realise is that mechanics, even good ones, are not engineers. They may be very experienced, meticulous, trustworthy, etc. etc. but that does not mean they understand underlying principles of what's going on or why something is good/bad.

[g&t]

O.K guys, I agree there's no need to fall out over this. My independent always prefers to fit genuine parts for the very reason Nige gives, but on this occassion the local main stealer was unable to scource one for a 3.5 so MY choice was either pattern or recore. As the RR is not a daily-use car then with hindsight (that word again!) the latter would have been a better choice. If someone with a 3.9 could take some measurements from their cowl (not the rad) for me i.e the width across the top & the position of the aperture in relation to the cowl body itself I'd be very grateful. As to the villain of the piece, the rad itself, I'm taking the RR on a trip early next month & expect to cover around 1000m most of it on motorway's so watch this space!

[Bowie69]

g&t, where are you? I have a cowl somewhere, you are welcome to it, just need to dig it out..... if you're local I will

[FridgeFreezer]

I fitted a later rad to my dad's ~88 3.5, IIRC it was from a 3.9 with aircon so was the same size width & height but much deeper core for more cooling, we had to use the cowling that was with it but it worked beautifully.

[g&t]

g&t, where are you? I have a cowl somewhere, you are welcome to it, just need to dig it out..... if you're local I will

I'd be happy to pay the carriage as I'm in Essex. If you are still up for it can you follow my previous post re. the measurements first?

[g&t]

I fitted a later rad to my dad's ~88 3.5, IIRC it was from a 3.9 with aircon so was the same size width & height but much deeper core for more cooling, we had to use the cowling that was with it but it worked beautifully.

This one appears to have a deeper core, so maybe that's the cowling I need. Thanks for that.

[Bowie69]

OK.... Cowl is:

715mm wide

415mm tall

Aperture is:

150mm from left side

100mm from right side

Extends 55mm above the top edge

Extends 18mm below the bottom edge

All looking as if you were the fan in the rad, i.e. from inside the ending bay.

Have a look

[g&t]

Thanks a lot for your time Bowie, I'll compare your measurements with my existing cowl over the W/E & reply.