Good aluminum radiator?

Griffin radiator

 

That's because the radiator sits 1/2-inch too low. Drill new mounting holes and the petcock is a non-issue. Why would you want to start cutting on the car when you could just modify the radiator? If you run a 3-row, you'd better have a seriously mean fan to move air through it. A friend of mine found that out on his '66 Mustang. A 2-row solved that problem, and should be fine for what you are running. A stock 3-row is not as thick as a Champion 3-row. A stock 3-row would work well if you wanted to go that route.

 

I am running the Champion 2 row with stock fan and have no issues. Will be going to electric fan though

 

Good point about the three row taking more drawing power, I am thinking a two row should be fine. I will probably figure out something after Christmas. Also chip, not sure if I'm going yet, had to pull the motor due to a leaking seal. While it was out I decided to rewire a lot of things! It should be good to go by then, but hopefully I'll make it to the show either way. Lots of good information as always!

 

I purchased one from EBay 4 years back for 139.00 out of Ohio, from silla.

 

I paid $176 including shipping from Jegs a few months ago.

 

Well I was going to buy the 2 core, but I happened across a great deal on a brand new champion 3 core. Hopefully it will work out ok! Again guys thanks for all the help!

 

It will work good if you have plenty of airflow.

 

Try to imagine that an engine.. especially a smaller and lower compression/moderately powered one.. is only putting out limited amounts of heat/BTU's during stationary idle times so you will be fine. Most people get by using anything from a well designed single core to even an old school factory designed 4 core with thinner core tubes. IF.. such an engine is still running hot then either your too lean and/or idle speed timing is too far retarded and/or you live in 100° heat while probably not using a fan shroud to more evenly distribute the airflow coming across the available core/s(which has a very bad tendency to "shrink the usable core size").

Only reason I say this is because I constantly hear far too many people getting confused with cooling capacity vs cooling efficiency. Just throwing more cores in the mix doesn't necessarily mean it will run cooler. One design aspect (primarily due to the bigger capacity and increased fin count/sq/in) limits the speed at which a heat spike will occur.. and the other controls how fast/effective the radiator is at reducing said heat spike back to normal running temps.

In other words.. a poorly designed and improperly shrouded cooling system trying to cool a motor with the tune anywhere near those stupid factory regulated specs will not be in top form even if it's polished up to look like a show car. Whereas a factory single core can easily cool a much bigger powered motor if everything is as it's supposed to be for best performance(tune, shroud, core design, and water wetter coolant additive). If you are currently running much less than about 30° of idle advance?(including the vacuum advance pots contribution when hooked to FULL manifold vacuum).. then your just tossing thermal/mechanical efficiency and low speed response/torque away altogether. The engine will tell you what it wants with a vacuum gauge mounted to the intake manifold. I run over 50° spark lead on many of my motors including my old high-compression 383" Blazer. Heck, even a few of my Vortec powered work vans ECU routinely allows over 50° advance when they are unloaded and gutted of seats.

PS. This brings back memories. I once drove my '69 Mach 1 across almost half the country without any fan at all. Starter burnt up early on in the trip too and couldn't shut it down unless I parked on a hill so I could pop the clutch to restart it. lol Which meant sitting at lights along the way was stress induced torture. Have also done the same with virtually every EFI powered car I've ever owned too since I always convert to e-fans. Aside from sitting at longer lights in the summer time with the A/C running at full tilt.. my e-fans hardly ever come on at all.

PS.PS A shroud is not always mandatory either. I've seen many others and also personally run 2 e-fans staggered(high mounted on one side and low mounted on the other half of the core) without issues. Not quit as efficient but increasing the fan flow helps even up the score to make it livable in rush hour traffic. Had this same arrangement on my big-block Torino for years and it never overheated once in hot SoCal climate.

 

The car has plenty of air flow, that is definitely not a problem. It has a 5 blade flex fan, a pusher fan and a remote trans coolerThe reason why I upgraded was due to the original two core having way to much crud in it. Even after cleaning it several times it still wasn't where I wanted it to be. That's the main reason for a new one and honestly I got the 3 core brand new at at lower price than the 2 core. The original never seemed to cool it right, it always ran hotter than it should. As for the motor, after chasing down numerous problems on that and getting a decent setup, it was still hotter than I liked. There fore the only real cause could be the radiator after a lot of back tracking.

 

ok.. got it. Be sure to clean out the heater core and replace/flush the hoses real good too. No need to start clogging up the new one right off the bat, eh.

What temps does it typically run at idle? Do you run a high-temp t-stat?.. or a lower temp unit?

 

Actually already did that last week, turns out the heater core was going bad as it was! There was so much crud in that thing... At idle it runs about 175 and high 190s/200 at highway. Those arent bad numbers BUT with a 160 thermostat and all the other cooling mods it should be lower. In Florida it gets pretty hot during the summer and a don't want it to over heat when it starts getting into the high 90s/low 100

 

I would suggest flushing the system a couple more times and running distilled water in your new radiator with the correct mixed antifreeze...

 

All good information, but I'm curious; how do you keep your idle speed below 1500 RPM (I just made that number up) when running 50 degrees of initial timing?

 

The block has been recently rebuilt, but I am going to flush it several times before I do anything! As for the coolant, definitely going to run the correct mixture, if I remember correctly you only need about 30% anti and 70% water in floridas climate. In colder climates you need 50/50 usually.