I've recently upgraded motors from a 350 TPI to a 383 Carb (with 10:1 CR). My car is running hotter than what it did before so I'm looking at a new radiator.

Currently I'm running an old OEM GM brass radiator, 2 permacool 11" electric fans (without shroud), and air dam is in place.

I've been browsing around and I've found Champion Radiators (company that is sticky'd as 3 core aluminum direct fit) also makes a 4 core for our 3rd Gens. Since it's only $50-$70 more to upgrade I was thinking about going to a 4 Core and building my own fan shroud.

I've tried searching around Google and on here but can not find any information about 3 Core vs 4 Core on street use. I know the tube sizes affect the overal performance of the radiator, but these are from the same company and are labeled the same seperation distance. The 4 Core is just 1" thicker or so.

I've seen a lot of gossip about how the 4th row is useless because the air is already super heated by that point. I've yet to see anyone provide exact figures or actual real world examples.

So can someone provide information to help me make my decision?

 

The more tubes and fins the better.

A 3 row core with 18 fins per inch and ½” tubes set .33” apart will work better than a 4 row core with 12 fins per inch and ½” tubes set .66” apart.

If you need a 4 row deal, consider a rewound high performance fan motor.

Also to help with the heat problem you can add an oil cooler and another trans oil cooler.

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Happy Racing!

 

I'm already running 2 electric fans rated at 1650 CFM each and have a Haynes Transmission cooler.

Where did you get the measurements?

From my understanding both the 3 and 4 rows from Champion are 3/8" apart and offer 14-16 fins per inch. The difference is in the thickness of the 4 row since it's 3.5" thick instead of 2.5".

So a 3 Row would:
Row 3/8" Row 3/8" Row

A 4 Row should be:
Row 3/8" Row 3/8" Row 3/8" Row

Am I correct in my thinking?

 

Your numbers are correct.

I wasn’t referencing any specific model.

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Happy Racing!