Newbie intro and radiator questions

[Ryan Cowper]

Hey yall, I've been looking around for an inexpensive running project IDI for a while now and I finally took the plunge! Picked up a 1989 F250 7.3 IDI/NA with a 5 speed manual trans. 170,000 farm truck. For better or worse, over the last 10 years, it was only used to get hay and tow the horse trailer to the mountains.

I have limited experience wrenching and I bought this thing to learn on. Hopefully folk's will bare with a newbie and field some questions that might otherwise seem dumb. I'll start with the top of my list.

On my way home from purchasing this beast, the radiator cracked at the seam on the top tank. Not big deal, as it didn't loose much coolant and never got hot. I did, however use hose water to top off the rad and drive it another 50 miles. Now it sits till I can get the rad fixed and the coolant properly flushed.

I took it in to the only shop around that actually repairs radiators. I hoped they'd just solder it and send me on my way. The guys there said it'd be 50\50... might destroy the tank trying to seperate it for resoldering. They say once they open it up they might realize it needs to be recored and they'd be happy to do it for $700. I thought that was too much and said thanks but no thanks. I went to the autoyard and found a good looking pressure tested brass\copper radiator from an 92' auto trans IDI. They want $80 for it.

Couple of questions:

Will it fit?

The auto trans radiator has the trans oil cooler lines on the bottom tank. I figured I could splice the lines together to keep the muck out of the lines (why not, someone might want to use it down the road). But what's getting me... besides the lower radiator hose stub, there's an additional 5\8" stub coming out of the bottom tank next to the petcock. What's it for? As memory serves me, my rad has 2 stubs - one for upper and one lower rad hoses and that's it.

If this radiator will work, what would folks suggest I use to cap off the extra stub outs?

Also, the inside of the radiator is greasy around the top tank. I'd imagine, because the thing is pressure tested, that it's not ATF. Probably blown head on the donor truck, IDK. Is there a good way to clean the grease out of a radiator? Should I even be concerned about the residual oil in there giving me trouble?

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to read my first post. Looking forward to putting this truck to work!

 

[Ryan Cowper]

Here's a picture.

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[3Kp]

If you look on ebay you can find a ALM champion 3 core radiator for around $200.00

 

[Randy Bush]

Yes it should fit . just cap off the trans ones , the two 1" ones have no clue , if they are just into the coolant tank just cap them too. Not sure on cleaning it? Could flush it on the truck I suppose ,someone else might have a better idea. I keep a spare one on hand ,auto, It seems they tend to leak after a while. Hope it all works out for you.
Welcome to the forum too.

 

[Randy Bush]

If you look on ebay you can find a ALM champion 3 core radiator for around $200.00

Think I have read on one of the forum of guys have trouble with them. I think the factory style are still a better bet if can find them.

 

[Ryan Cowper]

I thought about that too. I live in a really HOT area, we push 115+ in the summer and I will be towing\hauling in the mountains too. My logic was that the old copper\brass 4 core would probably do a dependable job keeping it cool. But, I don't know. What do you think? Also, I was confused reading other posts about aluminum rads and how often thry seem to have issues with SCA's.

 

[Golden Helmet]

The extra stubs you mentioned, could they have been for the line coming from the heater core, and the drain petcock? I ask because you mentioned your radiator only has two stubs, for the upper and lower rad hose; my automatic radiator has the upper and lower rad hose stubs along with the 2 trans lines, heater core line, and a drain, so I wonder if maybe that was what you were seeing.

 

[Oledirtypearl86]

Hey Ryan welcome to the fourm as for cleaning out the radiator from the donor truck if it is oil I have used Dawn dish soap and hot water I blocked off the inlet and out let poured maby a teaspoon of dawn in the radiator then filled with hot water agitated it by shaking then emptyed and rinsed with hot water then a final flush with distilled water I think it worked out good I just took my time and made sure it was rinsed very well

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

The only reason that used rad wouldn't fit is if your pickup or the donor was A/C but the other isn't. I believe Non-A/C pickups have the short and wide radiator only. But nearly every rig came with A/C it seems so you should be good...

 

[Ryan Cowper]

@Golden Helmet "The extra stubs you mentioned, could they have been for the line coming from the heater core"
That makes sense. I'm sitting inside right now and too lazy to walk outside to look... Does the heater core for a manual trans pull coolant from somewhere besides the radiator?

"my automatic radiator has the upper and lower rad hose stubs along with the 2 trans lines, heater core line, and a drain"
Yup, that's it. Was going off memory. Heater core stub next to the petcock.

@Oledirtypearl86 thanks for the welcome and the soap trick. I think I'm going to get it.

Any thoughts about plugging the heater core stub?

 

[Golden Helmet]

@Golden Helmet

Any thoughts about plugging the heater core stub?

I don't see why not, as long as you have a hose going from the heater core back in to the block. I don't know why there's a T in the line splitting the return between the block and the rad, maybe someone here could shine some light on that.

 

[Ryan Cowper]

The only reason that used rad wouldn't fit is if your pickup or the donor was A/C but the other isn't.

I read about that on another post before I went out lookin for a replacement, I have A\C and the width and thickness of the autoyard one is the same as mine. So... it seems like this one is worth a shot. If for whatever reason it don't work out, they offer a 16 month warranty on it, worst case, I'd be able to exchange it for credit at the yard.

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

I read about that on another post before I went out lookin for a replacement, I have A\C and the width and thickness of the autoyard one is the same as mine. So... it seems like this one is worth a shot. If for whatever reason it don't work out, they offer a 16 month warranty on it, worst case, I'd be able to exchange it for credit at the yard.

Then that sounds good! Wow, 16 month warranty on a brass rad for $80! I'd take that all day every day.
Also the dawn trick works great from what I hear, thankfully haven't had to do it myself.

 

[Ryan Cowper]

I don't see why not, as long as you have a hose going from the heater core back in to the block. I don't know why there's a T in the line splitting the return between the block and the rad, maybe someone here could shine some light on that.

What would you use to plug it. I thought about putting a short hose on it and capping, but that makes me a little nervous to have another potential hose fail point on the rad.

 

[tbrumm]

You should be able to plug that extra fitting from the heater hose tee with a brass pipe plug you can get at any hardware store. Not 100% sure on the size right now, but should be 1/2" NPT. That connection to heater hoses is only there to redirect a little hot coolant coming from the head back into the radiator and around the auto trans cooler in the bottom of the radiator. That was supposed to warm the auto trans fluid a bit before the truck got up to operating temp. It was useless so many of us with the auto trans have plugged that fitting anyway. If that copper/brass radiator is still in decent shape, that is your best bet for longevity - the aluminum radiators are troublesome - don't ask me how I know!