Radiator Replacement 8v

[Vwspen3310]

Hello all,

I think I am blowing my rad right now as we speak. I am getting dripping down passenger side of the radiator and its not coming from any of the connections. I think its just sprouting from in between the plastic and metal part of the radiator.

Anyways. This leads me to the dilemma of finding another one. I have heard there are differences between an 8v and a 16v radiator. My car is an 8v but I have air conditioning. I have heard that cars with ac were equipped with larger radiators. Should I be worried about this? I am looking at a spectra CU837 which only says to not use on a 16v.

Any thoughts?

[sciroccohal]

Get the biggest 8V rad you can get. I believe this is the 25" wide core kind.

16v's are slightly different.

The good news is they are super easy to replace in a 8v.

Might as well put a 180 thermostat in there while you have it drained.

you'll swap the fan shroud, swap the thermoswitch, check the shroud flappers (important!)
the rest is easy peasy!

Might I suggest you open up the heater valve and flush the whole shebang before you put the new rad it. You'll be amazed at the guck that comes out.

[Vwspen3310]

ETKA says it should be a 675 mm which makes sense. I already did the thermostat. along with the water pump and everything else in the world. (5 angle valve job head gasket front engine seals valve guides valve cover gasket timing belt etc.) I was hoping to be able to drive her to the fall eurowerks meetup here this weekend but now that I need a rad I can't.

Is the heater valve your talking about the limiter between the heater core and the engine coolant? I think my heater core is shot too. Dash is already out so I think I will just do both the rad and the heater core in one swoop.

part number I pulled was vw 191 121 251 c. This seems to be a 16v one though... All of the pictures that are pulled up with this part number look identical to my current rad, with the exception of a down turned lower port. Hm.

[Vwspen3310]

I am having more troubles. I purchased a radiator and had it shipped to me, but it turns out they thought it was for an 8v but it was for a 16v. It was wayyyy too long and the inlet and outlet were at terrible angles.

I now noticed that there are 2 different kinds of rads (or so it seems): One for with a/c, and one for w/o a/c. Is there actually a difference in these?

This is what I believe my radiator is currently: (23 and 3/8" high by ~11" by ~1")
https://www.carpartsdiscount.com/aut...tml?3593=68147

But this could also do: (but it may be smaller by 3 or so inches?)
http://www.carpartsdiscount.com/auto...tml?3593=76881

I am planning on getting my A/C working. Which kind of radiator should I be getting?

[DT1]

Radiator for a DX engine is a 525mm core, 321121253AL



And I believe that this is the same radiator used with or without AC (we didn't have AC in the UK).

There's a link saying that it is for 8v Scirocco's with AC

http://www.parts4vws.com/catalog/pro...er=321121253AL

[Vwspen3310]

Thank you all for the help! Unfortunately it came to no good, seeing as after staring at part numbers and dimensions and my radiator for several hours last weekend, I realized that my radiator has a brass core, meaning I can just solder up the crack and i'm golden! Although I will be taking the chance that when I disassemble the end of the radiator (to not damage any seals when heating the brass) I won't end up breaking anything else. Wish me luck!