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Chinese Aluminum Radiators? Thoughts?

By Dylank101,
in 250-530 EXC-F/XCF-W/XCR-W

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Dylank101

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Hey all, my 08 excr450 has a mangled lower port on the left radiator so it's time to replace.  I'm looking to find a cost effective replacement, aka, not OEM.  name brand aftermarket online I found for like 220, but these Chinese ones on eBay are anywhere from $78-120.  Does anybody have experience with these? I know you get what you pay for, but these may be just fine. Thanks for any input!

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Grand Master

cadman_ks

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14 minutes ago, Dylank101 said:

Hey all, my 08 excr450 has a mangled lower port on the left radiator so it's time to replace.  I'm looking to find a cost effective replacement, aka, not OEM.  name brand aftermarket online I found for like 220, but these Chinese ones on eBay are anywhere from $78-120.  Does anybody have experience with these? I know you get what you pay for, but these may be just fine. Thanks for any input!

I had some on my DRZ,and never had any issues with them.  I didn't buy the cheapest, not the most expensive.  I made sure they were US shipped.  That way, if I had issues, I could afford to send them back...

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chrisso

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Hey all, my 08 excr450 has a mangled lower port on the left radiator so it's time to replace.  I'm looking to find a cost effective replacement, aka, not OEM.  name brand aftermarket online I found for like 220, but these Chinese ones on eBay are anywhere from $78-120.  Does anybody have experience with these? I know you get what you pay for, but these may be just fine. Thanks for any input!

I just got a set for my 06 525exc, haven't unboxed them yet ,they were $130 AUD with hoses ,check them out when I get home in a few days
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bnr

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My Chinese ones on my 525 looked great and were larger but caused the cap to lift a lot more.  It looks like the the airflow through them was poor.  There were more down spouts and less fin area so they are more like a block of aluminum.  I had one good and one bad stock one so I put one stock one back on it cools way better than having both Chinese ones.   My 250 has one Mylar and one stock.  It probably cools better with the Mylar one.  I run guards on both bikes so they are more sensitive to lack of air flow.  I run 3 60 mm computer fans on the 525 and a larger Ebay fan like the KTM one on my 250.  The larger fan wont fit on my 525 because of the IMS 3 gal tank. 

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chrisso

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Ok ,home early ,opened the box and this is what arrived,I got a set of hoses too ,they look really good ,although time will tell if they are any good,the cap is rated lower as well 1.1 as opposed to the one fitted on the bike which is 1.4 ,what will this do ??,are the new rads able to hold 1.4 dunno ,if any of you guys can shed some light on what difference running a lower rate cap might do please enlighten me,will be running the oem thermo fan as well20170607_160952.jpg20170607_160920.jpg

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Grand Master

cadman_ks

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5 hours ago, chrisso said:

Ok ,home early ,opened the box and this is what arrived,I got a set of hoses too ,they look really good ,although time will tell if they are any good,the cap is rated lower as well 1.1 as opposed to the one fitted on the bike which is 1.4 ,what will this do ??,are the new rads able to hold 1.4 dunno ,if any of you guys can shed some light on what difference running a lower rate cap might do please enlighten me,will be running the oem thermo fan as well20170607_160952.jpg20170607_160920.jpg

The lower number will allow the bike to boil over sooner.  The radiator will build up less pressure, which equates to less temperature as well...

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Grand Master

cadman_ks

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21 minutes ago, KennyMc said:


I believe I ran my stock one, not the one that came with the rad's.

When I had them on my DRZ, I ran the stock one, but in the case of the ones that I bought, they were the same.  I used the stock one, only because the one that came with the rads appeared to be cheap...

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Byron909

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I have alot of older bikes. Most of my mullett era bikes have radiators that are too far gone inside. I found that gpi made a radiator for almost every application i ever looked up. They sometimes arent straight, or maybe a bit of burn thru in a spigot, or a hole needs massaged, but at around 100 bucks a set im ok with doing whatever. 

I hate to say it, but they even weld good, like they are made from good material. I probably have over 10 bikes with them. Even a 1985 kx125. Im sure that radiator isnt flying off their shelves. Same with my 99 300mxc, i found my stock rt radiator was literally falling apart, and could not find a good used oem, new was like 400.00$. Bought a set of gpi ones, had to modify slightly but still all good years later. 

One thing for the ktms, most all the china radiators will use a jap cap, not a ktm style. So if you want a higher pressure, buy something for a jap bike. I usually use a fluidyne 21 psi on everything. No troubles.

 

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chrisso

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Ok been busy so haven't got the new rads mounted yet but ,I have noticed that they are wider than oem,two questions 1- will the wider rads work with say force gaurds or any other brand for that matter ?
2- are you guys running the std louvers if so how the heck do you get them to stay in there?

Looks like I have to make up some spacers to take up the slack when mounting the oem thermo fan

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Dylank101

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Okay, late update! Got the radiators on and a set of silicone hoses, cheap no name Chinese as well.  The hoses are great quality but required trimming to fit right. Insanely awkward fitment, but that's just how it is with KTM''s plumbing system, so that's just the way it is.  Radiators are in, work well, they do not boil over, although I have yet to take it on a slow technical trail to see it it still gets hot. The rads do not fit perfect.  The inlet at the top is slightly longer than stock so it changes the angle, had to find a longer bolt for upper mount to reach threads as it stood off 1/4" . They're on there now and are about as sturdy are the stickers, however, they took some semi janky rigging to get them to work. Are they worth the cost? $80, yeah,   but I almost wish I had splurged for top quality oversized ones. I suppose I'll just run them until I have an issue.  Thanks for all the input folks!

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chrisso

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Okay, late update! Got the radiators on and a set of silicone hoses, cheap no name Chinese as well.  The hoses are great quality but required trimming to fit right. Insanely awkward fitment, but that's just how it is with KTM''s plumbing system, so that's just the way it is.  Radiators are in, work well, they do not boil over, although I have yet to take it on a slow technical trail to see it it still gets hot. The rads do not fit perfect.  The inlet at the top is slightly longer than stock so it changes the angle, had to find a longer bolt for upper mount to reach threads as it stood off 1/4" . They're on there now and are about as sturdy are the stickers, however, they took some semi janky rigging to get them to work. Are they worth the cost? $80, yeah,   but I almost wish I had splurged for top quality oversized ones. I suppose I'll just run them until I have an issue.  Thanks for all the input folks!

Yeah there not perfect ,I had to tweet mine to fit,like you say top hose tail is longer ,I found my bottom left hose tail was at the wrong angle and needed some bending to align it,also had to tweet the holes for the plastic oem gaurds to fit ,so far so good here as well,,I would definitely buy another set
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