On 3/14/2020, D. Jerry Leigh wrote:
"I just happened to have two radiators appear in my shop/garage new in box at the same time this week. I thought that some comparisons would be advantageous for those considering a new radiator. Neither has been installed yet so there is no data on performance ­ just on appearance and sizing etc.

One radiator is Aluminum (AL) and from Moss Motors. The other is Brass (BR) and from Victoria British. Both AL and BR slid right in to the open area in my 1960 MGA. Bolt holes were in correct place with BR having welded in nuts while AL was just holes. Both had drain plugs and both had the same depth cap pipe. AL came with a 5# pressure cap included. BR did not have a cap. Both were well packaged. AL was made in China and BR was made in Thailand. AL weighed 5# 9 oz. and BR weighed 12# 4 oz. The cooling coils on AL were18 3/8 x 10 ½ by 2 3/16 inches thick. The coils on BR were 18 ¼ x 10 ½ by 1 7/8 inches thick. AL has 47 rows of vertical tubing with19 very thin and delicate fins per inch. BR has39 rows of vertical tubing with 15 thicker and more durable fins per inch. The width of the fins on AL is 5/16 inch and on BR is 7/16 inch.

Bottom line AL has 84 inches more tubing and 336 more fins that are 1/8 inch longer than BR.

The fins on AL go all the way to the side frame. BR fins have an 1/8 inch open space on each end before they get to the frame assembly so air is allowed to pass through in that area without the advantage of cooling fins.

AL has exterior welding which requires that the Moss plastic radiator fan shroud be cut away at the weld areas to fit flush with the face of the radiator frame. The shroud fits well on BR with no modifications.

It will be up to someone else to see what the cooling difference is but it appears that measurements alone would suggest that AL would have more cooling than BR if the thin AL fins are as effective as the thick brass ones". -- Jerry Leigh

Comments from Barney:

Cooling quality is not intuitively obvious. Brass and copper transfer heat better than aluminum. Even more important, too many tubes and too many fins too close together obstruct air flow, and you can't get heat to flow without air flow. Absolutely nothing beats the original cell core radiator for cooling efficiency. What you have now is a question of which one of the new radiators is wose than the other, as they are probably both worse than the original.

It would be nice if someone did controlled test on these things. You could set them up with a box fan to blow air through the core. Run hot water through at a fixed rate while measuring temperature difference between inlet and outlet. Do same test with each radiator, and compare the results.