Radiator BLEW! .... Opinions?

[MandolinMan]

Well I was using the truck the few days ago around the farm to feed and water the animals, when I noticed steam ( at first I thought smoke ) coming out from under the hood. shut it off in a hurry, popped my hood, and saw that something in my radiator blew and was blowing coolant all over the engine compartment.

Its been leaking slightly since I bought the truck, so have been planning on having the radiator patched. But now I'm sure that its beyond patching so I'm looking at getting a new one.

Questions are:

-What radiator would y'all recommend as best for the money? Someone recommended Radiator.com to me, wondering if any of you have done business with them?

-Is the installation as easy as it looks? Anything special to know?

Would appreciate your input. I plan on trying to getting switched over as soon as we have a day warm enough.

 

[whiteboyslo]

Bang for the buck, your best bet is a Champion radiator. They're sold all over the internet, including eBay and Amazon. Assuming you have the tall/skinny radiator as opposed to the short/wide one (most do), your PN is CC1165. There's also a version called American Eagle (PN AE1165). Difference is the Champion is a 3-row with 3/4" diameter tubes. AE is 2-row with 1" diameter tubes. Most go with the Champion version.

These are relatively cheap (presumably Chinese) aluminum radiators that do very well. Fit and finish can leave a bit to be desired, but not that bad. They come with 16psi caps, though. Best to put a 13psi cap on as that's the OEM pressure.

Install is super-easy, especially since you have a manual transmission (no need to worry about transmission cooler lines). Drain what's in there, unbolt the fan shroud (4 bolts) and move it out of the way, remove the hoses, and remove the radiator (4 bolts). Just be careful getting the old one out. They're cumbersome. If you have AC, use some cardboard to protect your AC cooler during removal/install.

Some other jobs to do at the same time:

- New hoses
- New thermostat (Stick with Motorcraft)
- New coolant with SCAs to prohibit cavitation

My $.02,

Mike

 

[MandolinMan]

I should have mentioned that I have the short wide radiator in my truck, not the taller narrow one mentioned above. Looked on Ebay but didn't see a champion radiator in this configuration.

 

[firehawk]

Another option is to find a radiator shop that can recore it. I did that with mine, as the end tanks were in great shape and the core was new and an exact match including fin count/spacing.

 

[icanfixall]

A word of caution buying any radiator. Count your tube rows and the fins per inch in the tubes. Please don't buy a dimple core 3 row. they just wil not cool our engines. Some crack head engineer felt by adding dimples into the tubes it would slow down the flow of coolant thru the drop in the radiators and cool better. Now if they used a 4 row it may have worked but the 3 row never worked. Oem was a 4 row heavy radiator and it worked very well. The best aluminum radiator is the Rodney Red but. your going to be spending about $650.00 for it. It has 2 rows but they are 1 or 1 1/4 inch wide. I have one as do several other members here. They cool almost too well but they work. Figure on 15 fins per inch of tube. No 12 or 13 fin radiator will coll well enough. If you return to the oem style make sure its a 4 row with 15 fins per inch. Might be a great time to flush the cooling system now before the new radiator is installed. Muratic acid found at many hardware stores will clean out any syale nicely but be careful draining it. Refill with distilled water and you will never have a coolant problem again. there is no minerals in distilled water that will drop out and plug up the tubes like well water or house drinking water does. Look into the top tank of the radiator. See all that mineral crap stuck to the top of the tubes. Yes.. Thats the reason for running nothing but distilled water and coolant. Is there a problem with distilled water.. Yes. When you have a leak over a long period it will not leave a trace of minerals as it evaporates so you can track the leak. You need to catch it leaking to find the leaks when its wet. Another good thing bout distilled water is it has no conductivity so there will be no electrolysis going on the the cooling systems.

 

[MandolinMan]

Having a hard time finding a radiator to fit. Autozone carries this spectra brand:http://www.autozone.com/autozone/pa...N-iufowZ9pdak?itemIdentifier=998120_266437_0_ . Not much info on it though.

Looked on the Champion website and it doesn't look like they make the size that my truck requires.

What do you guys think? Any specific radiator you could recommend in the wide/short configuration? Doesn't look like there's many options in this style.

 

[79jasper]

Don't use spectra. Not big enough.

Champion has it. As many people here have them.

Sent from my USCC-C6721 using Tapatalk

 

[Knuckledragger]

If you have a radiator shop anywhere close, have yours rebuilt. The stock brass works great and lasts a long damn time.

 

[whiteboyslo]

Don't use spectra. Not big enough.

Champion has it. As many people here have them.

Sent from my USCC-C6721 using Tapatalk

Champion only sells the tall/skinny version.

Mike

 

[79jasper]

Hmm.
I thought a few people had bought those.

Sent from my USCC-C6721 using Tapatalk

 

[HammerDown]

If you have a radiator shop anywhere close, have yours rebuilt. The stock brass works great and lasts a long damn time.

Expensive option in my area > local mom/pop shop wanted almost $600