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Radiator questions

bsgreen

bsgreen

1/2 ton status
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Jan 22, 2011
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Stevensville, MT
Has anyone put a universal radiator in their trucks instead of the direct fit? Did you run into any issues? I'm just trying to figure out if it's worth the extra 300ish bucks for a direct fit. :eek1:

I was looking at this one. Would this be big enough for 350 hp and 400 tq
http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS-Performance-Products/555/52008/10002/-1?parentProductId=
It has the same dimensions as the stock radiator so I don' think I should run into too many problems...
 
I see plenty of plastic tanked models, which I'm not interested in, not original on any of the C/K/R/V trucks we deal with AFAIK. Fairly inexpensive though.

I wouldn't go universal. My finding has been that normally the radiator inlet and or outlet are different diameters than stock, which means hose adapters, or trying to find a hose that fits.

http://www.championradiators.com/page/400601634 has aluminum ones for pretty reasonable. Can be found on ebay as well. Some griffins are even reasonably priced.

Seen some issues with fitment on the champion radiators in our trucks, but I guess you have to pick your poison.

Looked at that radiator linked, no heater inlet (so redoing your heater hose to the water pump) not really liking the outlet being so high off the bottom of the radiator (if it matters or not), and if that picture is accurate, same fitment issue as the champion...there isn't a very good surface for the rubber mounts to "grip" on the tops and bottoms of the tanks.
 
thanks for the info guys. :thumb: I think I'm gonna go with the champion radiators. Seems like a pretty good bang for the buck.
 
the Northern universal alum's from summit are an outstanding value....
 
Hold up. I may have been a bit misleading. The Champion radiator may not have the stock diameter hose either though. As I recall the lower one fits fine, but the upper is not "standard", at least not for a TBI 454. Unsure what ANY of these radiators is supposed to fit, but seems like none (universal or otherwise, but all aluminum aftermarket in general) fit as they are supposed to.

Perhaps GM used a larger upper(inlet) hose early on, but my Dads TBI 454, my TBI 350, nor my TPI 350 hoses fit the Champion radiator inlet hose fitting.

I guess what I'm saying is, they all have their issues. Just depends on what you want to deal with. Last I checked, a short (17" core?) copper/brass radiator for mid-70's cars (smaller than the one for our trucks) was right around $300.
 
Matter of fact, radiator that was being replaced had a dual diameter upper hose inlet fitting, so my Dad just cut that off and used it as the adapter, and cut a portion of a spare lower hose for the short piece of hose needed to mate up to the radiator.

Not a big deal, I just dislike having any more connections than necessary. It seems to me the predominant size hose is not what the aftermarket builds their radiators for, but I'm looking at it solely from a truck perspective. Then again, how many 28x19" cored car radiators are there?
 
I used a Northern aluminum in the biggest size they offer (31x19 I think). It was around $140 and the only issue I ran into were fan shroud fitment and mounts. I modified some factory mounts to make it work and use electric fans so I built my own shroud to fit. The hoses were tight but I got them to work.
 
I will caution anyone with a BBC in their truck (and probably diesels, whatever '81+ trucks that had a solid upper radiator mount, as opposed to the two separate ones for the smaller radiators) that the upper mounts are different on the "big" radiators than the small blocks, and it appears the aluminum radiators are not designed for those. The big block radiator upper mount plate has the mounts about 3/4" higher than even the "tall" small block radiator. So need to make some spacers in that case.

Should be no issue with the small blocks though, AFAIK if you have two separate metal pieces that hold the upper radiator mounts/shourd in place, there are only two variants...tall and short, and the short is fairly uncommon.
 
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