Bugsmasher said:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=304440
Weapon amongst others seems to be a pretty dang good source for info on this type of modification.
Check his thread unders the Watercooling Stickies forum (linked above) and if you still have questions simply post them. I have suspicions that Weapon is in fact a very wise forum-bot with the speed of his answers many times
While the above thread is for a different heater core most of the information is still relevant.
lol @ forum bot. *initiate bot script version 1.2 - check data (heatercore)*<br><br>
<i>"[insert core info]"</i><br><br> <a href="" target="_blank">"
that almost made me spit bud light on the monitor.
bbuster said:
Very funny mat1314. And yes "the invisible hand" is the name of the ship...and yes I did notice Mr. Wealth of Nations but was just curious. Back on topic now: Why does Weapon talk about wanting a copper heater core rather than brass...I know you are not supposed to mix metals b/c that can cause corrosion but why is brass such a no-no?
as for the 77 b'ville, bugsmasher hit the nail on the head with the quote from above. Not all brass cores are made with the PITA fittings but lately, there have been enough of them that require extreme measures as to where the copper ones were just easier to go with as a default.
Keiron said:
Brass = less thermal properties than copper. Brass is pretty much non-reactive, I've never heard of it causing corosion in a WC loop. Weapon wants a copper one becouse the heat goes away faster.
the copper ones might be a slight bit better but that wasn't the main reason that I went with them. I have a modded brass tanked/sided core here and it performs on par with the copper one right next to it. Either one will work very well provided you can get the tubes modded although the copper one might have a razor-thin advantage.
Bugsmasher said:
The following quote is from Weapon in the above linked guide to modding a dual heater core. I think the reasons behind his suggestion of copper over brass HCs pretty much stands the same however-Keep in mind that Weapon's preference in this quote is about the brass or copper versions of a '77 Bonneville heater core. It pretty much boils down to how the tubes were connected. There is no guarantee that this will be the case on the 86 Chevette HC however. Just a guess though since so many have posted the copper preference- it *might* just be exactly the same thing since there are few actual manufacturers of HCs out there. There is a very good chance that the way copper and brass ones are put together is fairly consistent from HC to HC.
that was exactly the deciding factor on the b'ville cores. some of the brass ones were too much of a hassle to work with. As for the chevette cores, it has been some time since I modded one but I have done several in the past. Look for ones with round inlet and outlet holes in the tanks and try to avoid any that have a slightly raised rim around the tube for the easiest mod.
pic of a chevette core I did a while back - it was moved thru several systems so it looks a little worse for the wear and tear:
that one has a shroud I made outta plexi and some extensions added to the original tubes to fit the particular system it went into.
maybe I should do a chevette core how-to??
as a side note, I have pretty much worked out a deal to get '77 b'ville shrouds CNC'd, welded and powder coated in mass so if the concern of having to build a shroud for one of those has kept anyone from jumping on them, don't worry about that prob. I'll get the rest of the info up in the classifieds as soon as they are ready as per forum rules...