chevette 100% copper or CU+ALU?

[witchhunter]

As above, I know the tanks are brass/copper, but are the fins out of ALU ?

[nikhsub1]

Originally posted by witchhunter
As above, I know the tanks are brass/copper, but are the fins out of ALU ?
Not sure about that, either way it makes no diff. The only problem would be if there was ALU INSIDE the core.

[witchhunter]

yeah i know about that corrosion related stuff, but I still need to know that

[JFettig]

its copper, if you look at the tanks, you can see a gradient from brass to copper toward the tubes. The fins are aluminum

[witchhunter]

thanks m8, that's what I wanted

[JFettig]

from what i have seen is that all the ones that are soldered together and that color, are totally copper and brass, just brass tanks and copper tubes. every aluminum one I have seen has been aluminum finned and tubed, but has plastic tanks...

[witchhunter]

so what about that one from DangerDen, here's a picurl (http://www.dangerden.com/images/heater_core/heater_core_large.gif)

[JFettig]

I see brass, No plastic there....

[witchhunter]

thanks m8

[DodgeViper]

There is NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO aluminum in the Chevy Chevette heater Cores. Made entirely of Copper and Brass.

[witchhunter]

whoa, so I'm a little confused now... So the fins are also AL? they look a little bit too silver for a copper, are you sure about that?

[DodgeViper]

What you see is a thin layer of solder on the face of the fins. What you have to remember is these cores are mass produced for the car industry and looks did not come to play when the cores were designed and soldered and to be used as a heater core that is not seen.

But this is not to say different manufactures may use different material. When I bought my first Chevy Chevette heater core from Checker Auto it was built back in 1985. There was about a half inch of dust on the box. The sales person told me that this core had been in the store a very long time. He said that nobody ever buys parts for a Chevette. When I told him what I was using it for he looked surprised. Mine was made of brass tanks and copper fins.

My second core I bought looks about the same just not as much detail went into soldering the core. Chances are they found an easier way to build the cores from the time my core was built.

[Daemonfly]

On most "copper" heatercores the end tanks and channels are brass(theres a thread about it on procooling.com). The wavy fins themselves are copper. Like mentioned, it's silver colored do to the solder bath used in mass-production.

[[EG]~NaTz~]

why do they use the brass at all? is it harder and more durable than copper or something so that it wont kink or what i dont get that...

[Daemonfly]

Pretty much ;)

At the same thicknesses, a FULL copper heatercore wouldn't hold up as good structurally after a while - and the thermal transfer differences shouldn't really be that noticeable.
Plus, they're made for car heating... doesn't have to be super efficient, plus the Brass is cheaper.