BTW, Advanced DOES NOT SELL an aluminum plastic 2 row radiator for this application!!!! They are terrible at product information. There is no such radiator available in the world that I am aware of. They may, however sell a chinese 2 row copper/brass High Effiency replacement but I doubt it. Even if they do, it's no upgrade, it would be a down grade at best!!!!! They are very mistaken on what they are selling if they told you that. Take it from a radiator man.................or have them pull one out and show you inside.............I'll pay you 250.00 for it if you can get one for me, that's how sure I am they don't have one...............

 

One more thing while I'm at it.....Griffin radiators suck from the stand point that they epoxy the tube to header joints because their cores leak there more often than not when they come out of the vacubraze oven. This causes a problem should you need to do any modifications that require TIG welding near the tanks. It's too easy to get it hot and ruin the epoxy joint and then you're pretty much screwed, no warranty on mods and no radiator. Come on Griffin, get it together and step up to the plate with a better mfg system like everybody else has!!!!!!!! Buy some new tooling like Visteon (who made the 1st ford plastic/aluminum radiators and had tooling problems so they epoxied theirs too for years and they failed left and right and I sold the @#%&* out of replacement ones) finally did about 1993 or so.

 

Again, I don't think Becool builds a 3 row aluminum radiator at all. They will use 2 rows of 1.5" tubes instead.......... I can build a 2 row, 1 pass or 3 pass radiator with dual fans and an aluminum shroud for around 850.00 unpolished.

 

Here's what I'm in the process of installing:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/82-92...2661QQtcZphoto

 

Good job!! That is the exact same radiator I would have sold you for $309.00 and some change but freight would have been some less. BTW, Universal does not make that radiator, they simply put their name on it in the pic and sell some one elses radiator, however, I know the manufacturer of that unit and you should have no problems. If your car runs warm with that in there, I would point a finger at the underdrive system. You may be alright, but SW recommends a 25 to 30% overdirve on a waterpump to get the max out of it. Don't worry about it unless you have a problem or not great results. I just installed a made to order billet pulley on a blown SBC in a 55 sedan delivery and removed about 20 degrees!! Anyway, good job on the rad pic.

 

Thanks. Universal was great to deal with and they do make it very clear that they are selling radiators made by Northern Pro.

My first radiator arrived damaged. All I had to do was contact Universal and they took care of everything. Sent me a new one right away and had the delivery service pick up the damaged one for return. I didn't need to do anything but have the box ready for pick up. Excellent customer service.

I've noticed JEG's is now selling what appears to be the exact same radiators, only they do label them as "JEG's" radiators. Looking at the pics on their Web site, it's a Northern Pro.

 

Step 2 is done.








Now I need to fab up an upper mounting bracket and an upper bracket for the fans.

 

bad *** setup bro

 

Its guys like Bret who I wished made us the real direct fit radiators with upper mounts....fan mounts are easy as most can be kind of 'hung' from the upper mount and tightened near the bottom...zip ties or something.

But yeah agreed, bad *** setup....something like what I want, just going to have my local speed shop do this for me. I'm just putting the car together, then giving it to my shop and having them finish what I want with the cooling.

 

Took care of the finishing touches today.

 

That looks great but I'd think that some of the air would just escape over the top of the radiator (and around the sides) instead of going through it. It all looks great, and if it works great too then that's even better. I just wanted to make the suggestion. How did you mount the MAF sensor and air filter setup? Once again, great setup. wish my car looked like that under my hood...

 

Took the car for a test drive and it's running a little cooler than it did with the stock radiator. So far, all looks good.

To secure the intake tube I piked up a Spectre intake bracket kit for $11 at Pep Boys.

 

Well the Advance in Madison AL has it. Plastic tanks/2 core aluminum. Saw it with my own eyes.

I accept pay pal if you really want one...

 

......................I REPEAT, THERE ARE NO ALUMINUM/PLASTIC 2 ROW RADIATORS AVAILABLE FOR OUR CARS FROM ADVANCED AUTO PARTS! I just got off the phone with your Advanced Auto Parts 256-430-2746 and they do not have any such radiator available in stock or special order either one. The one they stock which you "saw with your own eyes" is a 1 row plastic/aluminum plastic as I asked them to pull it from the shelf and look inside..... yep, one row. The only "2 row" that you "saw with your own eyes" for "$170.00" that they offer that is not a stocking item for them and would have to be ordered is a COPPER/BRASS unit. Once again, no such plastic and aluminum animal available for our cars...... yet anyway. We should have made a bet on this as I accept Paypal as well. Please be honest when you post here as some are wanting real legitimate info. Everybody makes mistakes and that's understandable but this was an outright BS statement!!!

 

Well I'm not wanting to start a feud over this. What I saw and what you heard I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree. Could I be mistaken? Yes. I am trying only to be helpful and apologize if I made a mistake. I will go back by there and confirm what I saw (or thought I saw). Until then I'll take your word for it. I do not profess to be an expert in this field as you aparently are radman, but seriously relax. I was just having a little fun with the paypal comment and I didn't intend to attack you personnally. I too want to have the information on this forum as accurate as possible. Thanks, Anthony.

 

OK one of the things ive got out of this is that apparently there is a different radiator for 91-92 cars than there are for previous models, I have long been under the impression that ALL 84+ cars had the same 1 row alum/plastic comp rad that many of us know and hate.

If there is a different stock rad, what is the difference and what are the GM parts numbers, all the aftermarket searches I do turn up the SAME replacement rads for all 84+ f bodies.

IMO the stock alum/plas rads blow (literally), ive seen them fail in just about every GM product ive dealt with in the last 15 years.

 

Here's the scoop. Believe it or not, from 1982 to 1992 there were actually 8 different radiators for our cars and I'm only talking about v8's here! The first years appear very experimental as there is even a core that's only 20 3/4" wide for an 82-85 5.0 w/o HDC and w/o AC and even varied from that depending on rear end ratio's . That was way too small!! Anyway, the radiator was available in 3 rows of 3/8" tubes in copper/brass for HD Cooling on 82-84's with 305's, Delco # 20108 for M/T's and Delco # 20469 for A/T's. The rest were all variations of with and without heater hose connections, low coolant indicators, and transmission coolers (and there were a variety of internal coolers installed in these). To summarize, the core variations were as follows. Plastic/aluminum cores had 2 thicknesses, 7/8" thick Delco#20375 found in a few 5.0's and 1 3/8" thick found in most all other V8 applications. The 82 - 84 3 row copper/brass radiators were 1 5/8" thick and were 3/8" tubes. Delco deleted all production of copper/brass radiators in passenger cars and pickups in the early 90's due to EPA & OSHA issues, labor costs, and other econimic issues having to do with assembly of these all metal unit. (lead, chemicals & other heavy metals) Aluminum & plastic was far less expensive to produce for a number of reasons. Now, what to use........ The copper/brass unit is available in the aftermarket and will be commonly referred to as a generic "DPI" or "CompuSource" part #750 or #1861. From the few manufacturer that still build this radiator or import it from China or build it in Mexico, it should arrive in a box as a 3 row, 3/8" unit however, Radicon which is imported by Performance Radiator may only supply it in 2 rows of 9/16 or 5/8 tubing under the same #750. (be careful, many suppliers will send an aluminum/plastic as a substitute so inquire before ordering!) The aluminum/plastic radiator is commonly know as a DPI or Compusource part#951. Depending on manufacturer, this may show up as 1 3/8" or 1 1/8" thick. Most mfgs making 1/1/8" cores just add more fins to attempt to make up the difference. Don't be fooled by the thicker copper/brass unit being 1 5/8" thick. The actual tube to fin surface for heat swaping on thes units is 3 rows of 3/8" tubes or 1 1/8" tube/fin surface. The aluminum radiators are all single row cores in plastic tank versions so obviously, the real tube/fin surface is whatever the thickness is. This means that the 1 row x 1 3/8" thick aluminum core actually has more heat swap area than the 1 5/8" 3 row copper/brass unit. Both units are typically fitted for with or without heater hose connection and low coolant indicator. The aluminum/plastic radiators are actually very refined now days and typically last as good or better than the copper brass units. I know you keep seeing these plastic tank units leaking but that's mostly because that's almost all thats installed in vehicles anymore. Check the odometer on some of these vehicles when you work on them and the rad is leaking. You'll be surprised that most will have in excess of 100,000. I have watched the industry shift to aluminum/plastic and for the consumer, it's been a good thing but for the average radiator shop it has not. For the above average shop that stocks alot of parts and has good techs it has just been a change, not the end of anything. Well, sorry for the length of this post but there's all you ever wanted to know about the GM rads for these vehicles with V8's. Not enough room for all the engines here but some of this info will apply to 82 - 86 2.5 4 cyl but who cares, right? PS.......All of these radiators have a 2 3/8" header to sit into the rubber insulators on the top and bottom of the radiator support and shoud. Aftermarket 2 row all aluminum race radiators like I sell will be approx 3" thick at this same location. There are no 2 row aluminum radiators that have a 2 3/8" thick header at this time. (FYI fit info)

 

My 88 IROC had an overheating problem, installed a lower temp fan switch, 160 thermostat, water wetter and she would still would overheat.

Took the advice to put in the radiator for a 91 Camaro, bought it from NAPA, everything fit perfect and now she runs nice and cool.

Never goes over 220, even when I'm stuck idling in traffic with the A/C on and its 116 degrees out, I live in Phoenix and have to deal with extreme heat!

 

I'm using a Summit direct fit aluminum radiator along with SPAL dual 11" electric fans.

It's pretty tight in there at the bottom of the radiator on the drivers side, but I got it in ok.

 

My experience (w/ my car in stock trim) in using a 160* t-stat as well as changing fan temps showed me no benefits as well. Those only lower the temperature at which the t-stat opens or the fans kick on. They do nothing to increase the cooling capacity of your cooling system. Water wetter worked pretty well for me, but I fixed the problems with my cooling system (gauges working improperly, electrical problems with fans) before trying to improve its efficiency.

 

Ok folks, I must humbly correct myself. I went back and checked at Advance and Topradman is right, the radiator I saw was indeed a one row type. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused. We're fortunate to have an expert here to catch mistakes like mine. I would have edited my earlier post but couldn't. Thanks again Topradman and please forgive my smart a$$ comment.

 

Are all of these aluminum radiators the same made by Northern All Pro?? They all seem IDENTICAL.

EBay http://www.univparts.com/media/CR5062.jpg

Jeg's http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...-1&showValue=1

Summit http://store.summitracing.com/largei...m-380455_w.jpg

 

Yes, all the same Northern Pro radiator. JEG's also carries urethane isolators for these radiators along with polished aluminum channel covers. You can see the channel cover in my pics. Finishes the radiator off nicely.

 

I picked up my rad from Southwest Speed. Order it by dimension. 128 bucks!
700hp car and I run at 160 degrees with the stock pump and one fan. It fit very well.

 

what are those dimensions

 

Dont remember off hand, just go measure the rad bay, on their site they have a couple different dimensions. One will be almost perfect for what you need. The inlet/outlet are the right size, and I reused the radiator top plastic bracket.

If you search on here you should be able to find the dimensions also. It was someone on here that told me what to get and I just double checked.

3 core aluminum.

 

ok I looked at www.southwestspeed.com wow 150 bucks for an all aluminum rad! It doesnt look like they have trans coolers though? Batass, did yours have a cooler? Or what are you doing for trans cooler?

 

Nope no cooler, I use a B&M cooler. Thats really the way you want to go anyway. It was like 70 bucks.

 

i bought a 3 core direct fit from autozone or advance 3 yrs ago $138 no fab needed. all lines in same location as stock with trans cooler built in. i have 180* stat and fans on toggle. never get hotter than 190*. and that is sitting in traffic here in florida .02.

 

I'm using a Jegs direct fit..... It is taller then the OEM Rad. but there isn't much left on my car that is OEM anyway. I made a Upper Rad mount out of some .90 Alum.

Ray

 

I see some silicone couplers hiding in front of that rad. Are you turbo???? Btw, that upper rad mount looks great!

 

Turbonetics T76 BB (ordered) upgrading from a t70. Gonna Spray a 75 shot No2, to help spool out of the hole. I'm also running a 3200 Stall.... How do you like your stall speed ?


Ray

 

Our cars sound similar. I'm also going to use a dry shot into the intercooler. I haven't installed the converter yet but i'm sure i'll like it compared to my B & M Holeshot 2400. I spoke to a specialist from Precision Industries before ordering the converter and this is the one he recommended based on my combo.

 

YUM YUM...maybe one day Ill have something like this.

 

"I H8 WWD" Are you referring to the Upper Rad mount? Very easy to make, and cheap.

Ray

 

Well yes that and the 3" radiator along with the turbo setup...

I know they are easy to make, which boggles my mind why no radiator company makes them to come with their radiators KNOWING that one has to be made...if anything bigger than stock thickness.

I'd like a:

3" thick
Stock height and length (whatever it may be)
3 core
No trans cooler (I have aftermarket cooler)
Radiator mount with screws to mount.

I could go to a performance shop but I was told $600 for a setup like that and I am NOT paying that much for any radiator ALONE.

It just bugs me all the little things companies dont make that are needed for the products they DO make.

Its like selling a catback system without the clamps....they know they're needed, so why not add it in.

P.S. Im a picky/stingy ****...

 

Well, I wish I would have known about this radiator before I hacked up my lower radiator support to make my griffin 31x19 fit. I don't see any easy way to mount the stock style single or dual fans. The wonder bar is in the way for the dual fans and I am afraid the single won't be enough.

I have read on here the SPAL fans are supposed to be great. Whats the best way to mount them? Is it ok to use those zip ties that go through the radiator? I would be afraid they would wiggle some and make the radiator leak. I see summit has some brackets(I think someone in a previous post has them on a dual SPAL fan setup)

Here's a link I found from a search:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/engi...highlight=spal

Any idea how many CFM I would need? It's a 406 w/ AFR 195 heads and a 288XR roller cam.

I want to start the car this sunday if I can. Thanks.

Jason

 

I use the stock single fan, 160* stat, with a three core rad and I havent seen it go over 170 yet.

 

What radiator did you get? As in, what is it from?

Are they all 3 core? That's a good price.

 

ready rad. by transpro. autozone. $118.99 i just looked through my files and found the receipt and the slips that came in the box. still in the car and running beautifully

 

receipt? do you have a part number?

 

this is what is on the receipt... #237403 438918 radiator
bought that for the 88. does a good job with the tranny fluid too since i have a new jasper trans. 4L60 in the car i need to protect it too.

 

Been doing alot of searches and was really wanting a Summit direct-fit.
After reading the complaints, I decided against it.
Got a new Visteon radiator and it looked great.
Was VERY disapointed to find that the core was 1/4" thinner than the original.
This is totally unacceptable since these cars have age on them and the cooling systems are not the best for heavy summer traffic.
Returned the Visteon and took my chance with the Summit since it looked like replacement radiators would not be any better.
The Summit radiator is made very nice.
There are a few mods that need to be done that are not that bad.
Was not too happy with the upper hose inlet being so long.
I am thinking of cutting it down, but I am not sure if the hose is big enough to go on it.
Had to use an adaptor for the heater hose since the one on the radiator was smaller than the hose.
Had to cut a clearance in the lower mount for the drain.
Modified the upper mount by cuttin off a small section of the end.
Used a couple of washers to space back the fans.
Removed the lower rubber mounts and used cut pieces of rubber to cushion the radiator.
Overall, I am pleased with the Summit.
Bet it will keep these cars alot cooler than the originals or replacements.
Only a little effort and thought went into this installation.
I think many that are not happy with the Summit interprets "direct-fit" as it will install itself and fill with antifreeze on its own....!!

 

Mine fit perfectly from Southwest Speed, just had to remove the top rubber grommets.

 

i agree 100% why spend hundreds of $ when you can buy a stock replacement for 100 bucks at advance auto parts

 

yeah Im in the process of finding a radiator and the one I had was stock and it worked great. Other than wow factor, why buy a "BeCool" radiator?

I'm looking at the southwest Speed radiators. They look like the right way to go, is there a better one, especially for the price?

 

Anyone ever tried this radiator? Looks like a great piece. Not sure about the fitment tho. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-8...ayphotohosting

 

That looks like it would be a direct fit. I don't see the bung for the heater hose.

 

I guess Ill be the guiny pig. Ill order one next week and take pics.

 

does anyone know of a company that makes custom rads, id like a 4 core alum 31 x 19 for my turbo car since there is a intercooler blockin flow