kato1453

I am putting on a factory Aerokit on my 997-1 and wondered if there's a big enough difference in cooling to justify adding the third radiator. I live in SC and don't have any big plans for track time. Thanks in advance

PhilD

I have the third radiator and for the street it makes a difference, but not a vast one. It does stabilize the temp better, but I can still get the oil to 225°F with one quick hard run, which is what I was seeing before. Seems to keep the temp around 200°F on moderate speed runs on the freeway, and I was seeing maybe 10-15°F higher before.

Is it needed for street driving? Most probably not, but it's such a cheap mod that it's worth doing in my view and I've always been a great believer in "cooler is better".

robbonds

cheap? How much with install ?

PhilD

$194 at Pelican. I had mine installed with a whole bunch of other work, so can't say what the labor was on it. By all accounts it is an easy DIY and if you have the bumper cover off already then you have done a big chunk of the time consuming stuff. I'd guess at 2 hours or so if you were paying someone.

dasams

PDK or manual? One downside is added weight.

PhilD

Manual, and yes it does add some weight. In reality I can't say I can tell, but yes every little bit of weight does add up.

I believe the 3rd radiator with coolant adds 13 lbs to the nose of the car.

RobC4sX51

On a related topic, I notice that the 2011-12 C2s/C4s has a third radiator (I have a '10 which does not). But as far as I can tell, the 2011-2012 GTS (which is basically an X51 engine) does not have the center radiator. Why not? My '07 C4s X51 did, my '06 C4s before that did not and I never noticed ANY difference in oil or water temp. And the center radiator gets even more rock dings than the side ones so a screen protector is a good idea.

slicky rick

Center radiator is installed on pdk cars. Standard from 2011 on

RobC4sX51

My bad, yes, the GTS too, but not the 991! Wonder why?

robbonds

Used to be Only x-51 cars