Fuel Economy - 1990 Renix XJ

[BulletMaker]

Ugh, so I bought the champion (local guy had one) and now after reading all the reviews and talking to another radiator shop I had looking for an all copper/brass I had a little bit of pucker factor and regret. However after reading all the other posts going back and forth on everything it seems that just about every radiator sucks, no matter what it's made of, or who made it. However for the price, I think next time I'll just buy two of the plastic tank/aluminum ones, it'll be cheaper.

So last night I put the thing on a time/pressure test (I plugged the input and output holes, and then blew it up with 15 PSI of air. I just got up, it still has 15psi of air in it (I'm willing to fudge the number a little bit because of thermodynamics).

So it's off to get more distilled water, anti-freeze etc.

The one thing I frequently wonder about when it comes to "radiator sux" opinions is what level of care did that cooling system get. I'm pretty militant about coolant changes and using proper water, could this be the source of the longevity issue with radiators in general?

 

[8Mud]

I also don't know what the deal is with the quality of radiators. I bought a top of the line Modine two row aluminum, it failed in a few months. I bought another store brand Copper (for another XJ) and it failed in a few weeks. I bought another, that was cheap and it arrived damaged in shipping. Maybe it is just bad luck.

One thing I noticed with the Copper/brass radiators is as the cost of copper had gone up the thickness of the materials has gone down. I'm getting way old and am not getting any stronger, but the radiators just feel lighter.

I also think some of the major manufacturers contract out manufacturing of their product, per their specifications, overseas or to Mexico and the quality control may not be what it used to be.

I just bought a cheap Taiwan knockoff that was heavy as as heck and just looked clunky, it seems to be doing fine.

i finished paying top dollar for junk and am at the point now, that I buy the cheapest I can find and just swap them out when they fail.

I did have a couple of water pump bearing failures in a row and finally settled on the cause being that I was using a store brand anti freeze. From the looks of the inside of the pumps the coolant may have been lacking in caustic inhibitors or maybe just a bad batch.

 

[SuperRA]

I dont' know if the info was already presented (I skimmed through previous posts), but DFlinstone on Cherokee Forum started a thread on the 746 Injectors. You might want to take a look at it if you are going to swap your injectors for your Renix. The are supposedly an exact match in specs to the originals and are of the new design like the 703s.

http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/1990-renix-volvo-bosch-19-280-155-746-injector-swap-163105/