Lower radiator bracket question

[Meyer]

All,

Plugging away here and trying to finish radiator install. Side brackets are on, the lower center bracket is giving me a challenge. This is on a SS7, 912is. The instructions say to drill 3 #30 holes in the bottom of the radiator and rivet the bracket on. I drilled the 3 holes, carefully, and only 1 of 3 will accept a rivet in terms of depth. The hole that is ok is the middle hole, the fore/aft holes will not let the rivet sink in far enough to grab. I believe the core is in the way underneath. The holes are about 3/8", maybe a bit more, fore/aft of the middle hole if that makes sense.

I guess options are drill them further fore/aft or move the bracket to the left or right slightly? Any advice? I am not sure what the core looks like underneath and want to avoid the swiss cheese approach.

Thanks

Scott

[bbs428]

Same happened to me a few days ago. I have the SS7 fwf kit.

I placed the rivets in and held and pulled the radiator shroud a bit as I pushed the rivet flush and started pulling. As it pulled, the necessary clearance was made as the rivet became smaller in length. I believe the surrounding SS shroud is pushed in a little at the edges so there's not enough room. Maybe this happens during shipping? My NACA duct also seemed to fit better with the oil cooler in the lower position. Anyways - it all turned out good for me as I'm sure it will for you.

Hope this helps!

[efwd]

Scott, that center strap on the radiator is a problem at a later date you will find. The 912iS oil cooler gets mounted to the face of the radiator. That means you will have to either remove it altogether or modify it as I did. I will go back and see if I can find the pic in my thread but my strap was bent straight up the face of the radiator, a bushing was fabricated to slip over a long bolt that is then fastened to the engine mount. I would say that you should be fine adjusting slightly left/right , fore and aft. The strap you are using is likely wide enough to cover any holes that were not used once it is riveted on.
I see below now that Bret has photos. The oil cooler is best down low as we both found.

Look closely at your radiator. I believe the first core where coolant will be found, is above the 1/3" or so of the cooling fins. I believe you can make the room for the rivet within that gap without fear of having a rivet head resting on the core where chafing might be a problem over time.

[bbs428]

Fwiw - To my knowledge there has not been any radiator failures due to the rivets chafing on the core. A search turned up no radiator chafing failures as well. In my case I have some clearance albeit not much.