Radiator Upgrade

[Treymen]

Re: Radiator Upgrade

I'm using a stripped down stock-style radiator (no oil cooler, no trans cooler, and no heater ports) with a Flex-A-Lite 220 electric fan setup (dual 12" fans in one enclosure). With a 160dF t-stat I see no more than 164 degF no matter what I do (and I live in South GA). With a 140dF t-stat I see no more than 149dF under the same conditions. My entire cooling system consists of:

- Aforementioned Radiator
- Flex-A-Lite 220 Electric Fans (wired to ECM control)
- No shrouds
- 160 or 140 degF thermostat
- New stock water pump
- Stock upper/lower coolant hoses
- A/C Delete (so that condensor isn't in front of radiator)
- Tranny Cooler relocated to rear (so that it isn't in front of radiator)

Basically, a radiator, low temp t-stat, dual 12" electric fans, and nothing blocking airflow except the grill. Never a moments trouble in 5 years (and counting) and I drive it daily in 100+ degF GA heat and have even done a few 30 min sessions @ Roebling Road Road Course.

Take it FWIW.

Hood

I like it.....

 

[MySaudi]

Re: Radiator Upgrade

Hood what kinda radiator is that?.. I tried to look it up, but I get nothing on it..

 

[sytyguy]

Re: Radiator Upgrade

If you pick up a radiator for a regular 2WD, manual tranny, 4.3L truck (the 2.8s and 2.5s have smaller, thinner cores) you can get one w/o the tranny or oil coolers, but still retain the heater ports. Fact is, I had to get different style tank put on my pass side to get rid of the heater ports as I couldn't find a radiator that had all these features and still had the same core size, outlet size/placements, and fill cap placement.

Like I said above, it's not a shelf item. I had a local shop take the aforementioned radiator and swap the pass-side end tank with one with just a fill cap (no heater ports or tranny cooler). It was a freebie from a friend, but I can't imagine it would cost all that much. What that end tank came from?.....<shrug>. I sold that radiator to a guy on S-Series a couple of years ago after I did a turbo swap and no longer needed the clearance at the heater ports, but I am thinking about doing it again to the radiator I currently have. I have also seen some radiators modified by cutting the heater ports down flush and threading a plug into the cavity, however, I'm not comfortable with 16-18 psi pushing on a plug that might have 2-3 threads in a plastic end tank. A better method would be to remove the end tank and swedge plug it with an anchor nut on the inside, but if you're gonna remove the tank, you may as well swap it.