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26 inch vs 22 inch radiator

dodge68charger

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My 68 big block charger has a 22 inch opening for the radiator. The car is painted already so i cant put the extension piece to modify the opening to 26 inches. Is their an advantage of putting a 26 inch radiator into the 22 inch opening? Will a 26 inch radiator fit without modifying anything.
 
not easily. The 26"was for factory A/C and R/T, at least mine. The 26" won't bolt up to stock specs, but you can make it work.
 
No, you'll need to cut the opening/support and drill new holes. My Charger originally had a 22" rad, but the previous owner installed a 26", which didn't cool better. He left the 22" opening and drilled two new holes, but did not cut it up. I went back to a 22" 4 row that's fits perfectly and cools the car between 170 to 190. My stock fan works great without a fan shroud. You can always go through Glen Ray and have a 22" 2 row upgraded to a 3 row.
 
If you don't have the Rad yet I went with Wizard's 22" 2 row with upgraded core size. The cores will fit just as much coolant as a 4 row.
 
I agree...just upgrade your 22" and save the work. Their won't be a cooler difference in the end.
 
No, you'll need to cut the opening/support and drill new holes. My Charger originally had a 22" rad, but the previous owner installed a 26", which didn't cool better. He left the 22" opening and drilled two new holes, but did not cut it up. I went back to a 22" 4 row that's fits perfectly and cools the car between 170 to 190. My stock fan works great without a fan shroud. You can always go through Glen Ray and have a 22" 2 row upgraded to a 3 row.

No, you don't need to cut a thing! Just drill a couple holes on the Pax side and be done with it. The amount of radiator that's blocked by the opening is irrelevant to cause any cooling issues. Just make sure that you use a shroud with it
 
I have a 26" Glen Ray rad in my Cuda with a 22" opening. Bob said the slightly smaller opening won't affect cooling and it hasn't. I made brackets to mount the 26" rad to the 22" mounting holes. No drilling and stock shroud.
 
No, you don't need to cut a thing! Just drill a couple holes on the Pax side and be done with it. The amount of radiator that's blocked by the opening is irrelevant to cause any cooling issues. Just make sure that you use a shroud with it
Why install a 26" rad if 4" of it is blocked??

You can't use a 26" shroud, it will not be centered with the fan, he'll need to jerry rig the whole thing.

Might as well let a backyard mechanic jerry rig it like they do on Ford's and Chevy's.
 
Because it has more volume cooling capacity and surface area for heat dissipation, regardless of the opening....thus more cooling power. For mounting the 26" radiator, use the two factory pre-drilled holes on the driverside, and like 69a100 mentioned, drill the holes for the passenger side. There is two stamped indents on the passenger radiator cowl wall that are blank. They fall perfectly inline with the two stamped indents w/drilled holes for a 22" mount, just further out. That's where you'll need to drill out, unless you go with a custom bracket like 65Hemi.

As far as the shroud, on a 22" it's opening center is offset to accommodate centering the fan. From the factory, they were that way. 26" ends up being centered. He'll have no issue with a factory style shroud.
 
Some people just seem to think that they know it all, I speak from first hand experience!
 
Because it has more volume cooling capacity and surface area for heat dissipation, regardless of the opening....thus more cooling power. For mounting the 26" radiator, use the two factory pre-drilled holes on the driverside, and like 69a100 mentioned, drill the holes for the passenger side. There is two stamped indents on the passenger radiator cowl wall that are blank. They fall perfectly inline with the two stamped indents w/drilled holes for a 22" mount, just further out. That's where you'll need to drill out, unless you go with a custom bracket like 65Hemi.

As far as the shroud, on a 22" it's opening center is offset to accommodate centering the fan. From the factory, they were that way. 26" ends up being centered. He'll have no issue with a factory style shroud.
The 26" 3 row installed in mine did not cool as well as my new 22" 4 row both without a shroud. The previous owner had to move the horns to accommodate new holes for the 26" rad, mine was a mess.

Some people just seem to think that they know it all, I speak from first hand experience!
I know from experience by the way my Charger was jerry rigged.

69a100 do you own a Charger? Maybe mine was different from the factory.
 
From recent first hand experience - I did not go with a 26" rad since my car originally had a 22". Instead, since I swapped in the new 451 for the 318, I opted for an all aluminum 22" rad with 2 row x 1.25" tubes from Griffin. No shroud yet, fixed fan, 160F t-stat. Just fired the motor last weekend and it runs a cool 180F at idle. I'm amazed. The tube size is the key here. The Griffins cool better than Be Cool from what I've heard, are made in the U.S.A. and their Exact Fit series has all of the original stamped features of the originals - only difference is it's made of out Aluminum.

If you want to keep a stock looking rad that is non-aluminum, whichever brand you opt for, get the biggest tube size you can get (which may mean a 2 or 3 row).
 
Why install a 26" rad if 4" of it is blocked??

You can't use a 26" shroud, it will not be centered with the fan, he'll need to jerry rig the whole thing.

Might as well let a backyard mechanic jerry rig it like they do on Ford's and Chevy's.[/QUOTE]

Why all the Ford and Chevy bashing? Certainly all of us were guilty of a little "jury rigging" while we were learning to do things the right way. If you feel the need to bash other car guys (Bob Glidden-Ford / Bill Jenkins - mainly Chevy) perhaps you should look inside yourself for the reason... JMHO
 
As far as the shroud, on a 22" it's opening center is offset to accommodate centering the fan. From the factory, they were that way. 26" ends up being centered. He'll have no issue with a factory style shroud.

Thanks Prop. I'm going up to a 26" and installed the new cowl bracket but was wondering how the fan/shroud alignment was going to work. I feel better now.

Edit - Right after posting I read Dave's post. Hmm...it seems that if the driver's side radiator bracket was the same for 22" and 26" and the difference between the two was the passenger's side mount, then the 26" would be centered, whether someone drilled holes or used an aftermarket bracket like I did. But if the driver's side bracket was different depending on rad size, then the 26" would be off-center in a 22" chassis. Either way my car has the new bracket welded up so it's the 26" with shroud and it has to work one way or another.
 
Because it has more volume cooling capacity and surface area for heat dissipation, regardless of the opening....thus more cooling power. For mounting the 26" radiator, use the two factory pre-drilled holes on the driverside, and like 69a100 mentioned, drill the holes for the passenger side. There is two stamped indents on the passenger radiator cowl wall that are blank. They fall perfectly inline with the two stamped indents w/drilled holes for a 22" mount, just further out. That's where you'll need to drill out, unless you go with a custom bracket like 65Hemi.

As far as the shroud, on a 22" it's opening center is offset to accommodate centering the fan. From the factory, they were that way. 26" ends up being centered. He'll have no issue with a factory style shroud.

Someone put a 26 in a 70 Hemi Clone RR on a 22 support, for a car that I work on for a guy. Didn't have the shroud initially, but he wanted me to install one. So I did. But the fan was slightly off center on the unit. It worked, but I didn't like the way it looked. Unfortunately, this guy paid a lot of $$ for this car that was all hacked here and there. Ask me how I know. I got a book on this car. LOL. See if I can find some pics.
 

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Here is the 26" rad in my Cuda with a 22" opening. I made brackets to mount using the 22" bolt holes and also use the stock 26" shroud.

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