Mark Anderson

We just got in 2 new Behr radiators. Not cheap but if you want to stay original its the way to go.

87-95 no cooler $1195
87-95 2 cooler $1495

dr bob

Original Behr radiators are getting to be as rare as hens' teeth. Grab all you can before the hoarders get them!

sstrickstein

The new alloy radiator you sold me last winter worked great in the Arizona heat this summer!

Petza914

I pretty much had to give away my non-leaking Behr since I had gone to a 928MS one as part of my supercharger project. Think I got $200 for it. I think Jared sold his for $100, so although they may be getting rare, there doesn't appear to be much of a 2nd hand market for them, even if they're good. Maybe new ones are a different story.

dr bob

Most peaple looking for a radiator already have a used one. Question is always about condition when it comes to used ones. I have a used on in my car now. Came with the car. Relatively few folks change radiators because of car mods like your kompressor car from Carl.

I know Mark A at 928 International has used radiators that have been inspected and pressure tested, usually for a good price.

--

Several years ago now an enterprising soul in the Pa/NJ area (who shall not be named here...) decided he was going to get into the 928 recycling business. Among the things he offered were used radiators. Many folks who bought them from him went through the trouble of pressure-checking them, and found that they leaked. There was a heated discussion about it, and a flurry of PM's from him asking if buyers should really expect his used radiators to hold 15 PSI without leaking. Of course you would expect that the radiator would hold all the way up to the reservoir cap relief pressure, Or why bother with a pressure-relief cap when your radiator would do a better job protecting the cap than the cap did of protecting the radiator?

I have no trouble getting recycled parts from 928 International. Backed with a functional warranty, and virtually every used part I've seen is cleaned and inspected to the point where it's hard to tell it isn't new.

Mark Anderson

Thanks Bob,
A majority of the used radiators we sell have new tank seals and we do test everyone before shipping. Although most showed no signs of leaking many did not pass the test so the seals were replaced.

FredR

Mark,

Doubtless that is why you are still in the business doing what you do and long may you continue to do so along with all our other heroes who try to help keep these wonderful machines alive.

What frightens me is the fact that Porsche can and do charge prices like this for what should in my opinion be half the price [or less] as doubtless a Mustang radiator may well be. It seems the Porsche box costs as much as the kit in it if not more.

Fortunately originality is low on my priority list and improved functionality high and good kit can be had for some items at more realistic pricing even if it is not stock. It just seems to me that Porsche do not care for 928 owners who try to keep these machines running.

Keeping these machines on the road is going to be ever more difficult and a bag of miscellaneous small maintenance items can easily run to $500 and nothing really visible to show for it- I find that scary and probably not sustainable once I retire in the not too distant future.

Rgds.

Fred

dr bob

So spend like a madman now on the car. It will postpone retirement, and all the expensive stuff will already be taken care of.

Porsche does in fact take OK care of us for the most part. But the last new 928 left their factory doors 20-plus years ago now. They have moved on! Meanwhile, when you and I need a part they didn't make in the factory, they ring up the original supplier to get a few more made. As the number of surviving cars dwindles, so too does the volume of spares needed for the fleet. Warehouse quantities are reduced, order sizes are similarly reduced, and Behr needs to recover set-up and tooling and whatever costs. The because they are the only OEM supplier, they can add in the time of day (24 hr format) and the air temperature (in Fahrenheit), plus a price correction factor that's the inverse of the inverse squared calendar days since the last actual 928 was built at the factory. Simplified, original-spec parts costs will continue to increase steeply, until the demand at that price drops below what they consider their threshold of profitability. From that time the parts will be NLA from the factory anyway.

Kudos to our vendors who step up and search out manufacturers who can supply suitable substitute parts at more reasonable prices. One-piece metal radiators are a test-case study for the longer term effects of differential expansion. So it takes a little more thought to the design of the exchangers, perhaps mounting improvements, so that they can be reasonably reliable in service. We are very aware of previous efforts, and the long-term structural stress issues that plagued many of them in extended service.

It can't be too long ago for me that I was doing FEA on stressed rotating parts in gas expanders. The guys who do the gas turbines thee days have better design tools than I ever had, and a much better in-service monitoring capability to help make them more reliable. I'm an old fart with a sliderule sometimes.

FredR

Bob,

I feel as though I am spending like a madman- you can tell because I am scared to add up the total and I feel as though I am losing the battle!

The cost increases are an inevitability [sad to say] for the very reasons you mention and one has to feel for Mark and others like him as it must be a very difficult business model to keep up with. I would not like to have to manage such on a day to day basis. The more cars come in for breaking, the smaller the already small customer base becomes- urrrgh!

Harvard Business School would probably rate such a business as "lunacy". Anyone who can run such a business and survive has my respect [and appreciation].

Rgds

Fred

Nothing wrong with a slide rule- we actually had to think in those days!

dr bob

So I find myself casually stockpiling known-consumable hard parts. Things like fuel pumps have just rolled to the deep end cost-wise, and at some point things like the in-tank pumps will price themselves out of existence. Folks who choose now to delete that pump force later folks to do the same.

There are certainly some good cases for reverse-engineering some car-specific pieces like headlight and other 'smart' relays. Our vendors go out of their way to find options for us. Rebuilt control arms from 928 International are a godsend for many as their cars pass 100k, for instance.

ROG100

Just for the record I recently returned 4 Porsche supplied later no cooler Behr radiators purchased by a customer over about three years. They all leaked at the tanks with little use time/mile wise and in the case of the last one supplied - out of the box.
After a battle Porsche covered three of them under warranty and commented they were removing the remaining similar radiators from Stock.

dr bob

So, with Porsche "removing the remaining similar radiators from stock", does that mean they will no longer offer them? Or will they get them replaced by Behr? Plays to Post #8 above.