Need New Radiator

[Mikebear79]

Well, I got the '83 733i out for the first time since buying it 2.5 months ago and was inspecting fuel lines in the back, when I noticed a fresh puddle of coolant at the front end of the car all over the garage floor. I took off the upper radiator hose from the radiator neck and of course, the neck is broken in half and the other half was still in the hose. I have searched a few known parts websites and I can't seem to find a replacement. Does anyone know where to get a decent radiator for the e23? Not picky on brand, but I do prefer one that would have a reinforced neck, unlike the Behr I have. Thanks - Mike

[jclausen]

Go to fcpeuro

[StevenHenriksen]

I don't know if you can get replacement radiators anymore, last I looked on rockauto there were no options for my '84 733i. If I remember right a couple of people on this forum have had good luck with the aluminum aftermarket radiators available on eBay

[Mikebear79]

Fcpeuro didn’t have them either. I do see the all-aluminum ones on eBay though. I’ll probably go with that. Anyone have a preference over the original mechanical fan vs an electric one? The previous owner installed an electric
fan on the back of the radiator and me being a stickler for originality kind of want to revert it back to original. Any thoughts?

[StevenHenriksen]

Hard to go wrong with an original mechanical fan for reliabilities sake. Somewhere buried in all the info on this forum HitmanX has listed the best combination of water pump pulley size, fan clutch, and fan blade using OEM parts for maximum cooling efficiency. Might be worth your time to browse through that info before you start ordering parts to replace your mech fan.

[M535turbo]

A link to that would be great

[Mikebear79]

I ended up ordering an all-aluminum eBay radiator and am waiting for that to come in. I’ll have to hit the junkyard to see if I can find an original mechanical fan and shroud.

PS - Look what I got for my birthday...

[TowJamma]

VERY nice! Happy birthday MB

[Mikebear79]

I finally got the new radiator in. It’s a little thicker than the stock unit, so I ended up keeping the thin electric fan that the previous owner put in. Even then there’s almost zero clearance between it and the spinning pulley that the mechanical fan attaches to. Now on to the voltage regulator so my car doesn’t keep eating the battery up.

84D8EA3A-BF2B-44EE-8789-987CDDEE01BE.jpg

[TowJamma]

That nice follow up info, thanks. I believe if you need to, some on this board have cut the nub off the water pump to gain extra clearance.

[Mikebear79]

That thought had crossed my mind, but I thought it might be a bad idea to do that. Maybe if the current setup is a problem in the future? - Mike

[Hit Man X]

Looks like a decent radiator. That fan will not cool the M30 in summer.