Rupes 0 Posted December 5, 2008 Having smashed my TU about a month ago, the repair I've done looks great, however, I need to start driving it pretty damn quickly, because the Mrs needs her car for "christmas shopping" (God help me) and I've been using it to get to work! Any road-up, I had a GTI radiator in the garage and fitted it instead of forking out for a new TU one... because I'm only going to take it out again in the summer (for an engine converstion), so... The expansion tank hose fits perfectly and seems to allow the rad to be filled using the usual bleed screws to get the air out. The top hose fits, but then I'd changed the standard TU one for a bendy hose a while ago. The bottom hose, however fits onto the TU rad at the back, i.e. TU one points backwards; and the XU one faces towards the offside wing, i.e. sideways. I managed to wiggle the TU hose to get it to fit the XU radiator but when I ran the car yesterday after about 6 miles it pinged off (luckily just on the drive). It also looks like the rad connector is higher on the XU rad than on the TU rad, therefore the hose is 'in the air', so I expect it gets heavy when full of coolant. Now the cunning plan: I thought maybe I could use an XU bottom hose and metal inner wing jobbie (also in wait in the garage) and connect the TU bottom hose (having cut it to length) to the metal thing. What do you reckon, has anyone ever put a GTI rad into a TU engined car before, it should be well cool (fnar, gforr, chortle)? Would the TU bottom hose fit the GTI metal inner wing thingy-me-jig? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Batfink 201 Posted December 5, 2008 My brother and I fitted a gti radiator to a Rallye. Can't remember it being too much of a problem though we had to use at least one GTI hose i think Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rupes 0 Posted December 6, 2008 Aha! So, the bottom hoses actually point the same way on both the GTI and TU radiators but, as the TU one is narrower the hose is longer, this was my trouble, it kinked and pushed its self off, therefore I cur four inches off it and it's fine. Hopefully this maybe useful to other people in future. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jrod 7 Posted December 6, 2008 Done this and I don't recommend it. You have to cut short the bottom hose and filler pipe, unless you use a gti header tank you have no low coolant sensor and no cap on the radiator makes bleeding a bit of a pain. Also with the top hose no gti one would fit for us so we butchered 2 hoses anda bit of metal pipe to make it work. It makes absoloutley no diff in running tempatures as the thermostat just lets coolant through if it cools down. (unless maybe you old rad was shagged.) It sits so close to the alternator and when we had a little bump rallying forced it back into it and nearly retired us. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rupes 0 Posted December 8, 2008 (edited) Thanks for the advice Jrod. The only hose I had to butcher was the bottom one, I only use the car on the road and it's been fine in the 50 miles odd I've done so far (inc heavy traffic), can't comment on the low coolant sensor, but the car let me know in seconds when it was over heating (when the bottom hose fell off), so I'm not too worried, I just have to remember to check it regularly. Having said that, I've got a GTI header tank in the garage, so maybe that's a job for next weekend. You are absolutely right about the altenator, mine is virtually touching the rad! Gonna leave it until I swap engines in the summer unless somone virtually gives me a TU rad in the mean time. Edited December 8, 2008 by Rupes Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
