Replacement Radiators and cooling capacity

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HI, I have a 2000 VW GTI GLX with the VR6 motor. My radiator sprung a leak and I was limping around hoping my stop a leak would work. I purchased a replacement radiator a while ago from Rockauto but hadn't installed it until yesterday.
What I noticed is the Hella Behr unit is much thinner in terms front to back thickness than the Valeo originally supplied on the car. Also the number of tubes and fins seems to be less. How to I determine cooling capacity and if this is appropriate?
 
If it doesn't overheat, good to go.

Aftermarket radiators are hit or miss. Haven't found too many over the years as good as OE. Usually upgrade to oversized all aluminum radiator when I can.

Make sure you have the correct PN.
 
I've installed several of the very cheap Chinese radiators off ebay and I've never had any problems with them. Sometimes they do look a little bit different than stock, but if it fits I'd guess it will be just fine.
 
I replaced radiators for 95 Honda Odyssey and 2004 Sienna with cheapest ones from RockAuto. Both were noticeably thinner and less capacity. Both work fine and needed less coolant to fill.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Behr is OE radiator for many German makes. I have my E430 OEM radiator replaced with Behr few years ago, the OEM was Behr too.


I believe that they also supply Ferrari, (or at least they used to in the past).
 
Thanks all. I looked on Hella's site, and they have nothing listed for this motor. RockAuto describes this as a 24mm thick radiator but offers a Valeo which is 34mm.

I believe the thicker radiator has more mass to absorb heat and more fin area(10mm x height x # of fins).

I wrote to RockAuto and Hella hoping to get an answer. My concern is the VR6 motor runs hot, supposedly because of the narrow difference between the odd and even pistons. I think it's only 15 degrees and they are nested into the space between the opposites.

If that's true, and add to it Philly's 90+ degree days, I don't want to overtax my other systems trying to pull this heat away.

I am struggling with the thought experiment: The pump will pump the fluid through the radiator at the same rate, regardless of the size/volume of the radiator. I guess the question is how efficient is the radiator at removing the heat during the passage between the inlet and outlet. This Hella Behr radiator uses less fluid, and is thinner, so it has let capacity in both the fluid and the metal to absorb/dissipate heat.
Will the Hella be adequate? My guess is no, unless the original radiator was sized larger than neaded by about 30%. Are the Germans fans of this type of excess?
 
POssibly your car came with different engine options, and this one, while physically fitting, is the one for the smaller engine?
 
The thing to watch with the aftermarkets is the transmission cooler. I've seen several fail, sending engine coolant into the transmission. If you have a manual, no need to worry.
 
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