Owners of aftermarket radiators....how many cores and what size are they

[Cranky]

Like the title says....what ya runnin? After years of messing with the factory stock radiator in a 95 Dakota, I finally stuck in an aluminum single core with 1 1/4" tubes in it AND it was a used one at that. Never looked back and it's never been better. Even when the truck was new, it ran hot stuck in traffic with the AC on but not anymore. It came with a brass radiator 2 core from the factory but the tubes were pretty small. Never measured them but from what I remember, they looked to be around 1/2"......

 

[dla4567]

I believe I heard somewhere that more than 2 cores is not good, but I don't remember the perticulars. I got an aluminum 2 core rad with 1" tubes for cheap on EBay. Never over 180 degrees.

 

[Car Nut]

Like the title says....what ya runnin? After years of messing with the factory stock radiator in a 95 Dakota, I finally stuck in an aluminum single core with 1 1/4" tubes in it AND it was a used one at that. Never looked back and it's never been better. Even when the truck was new, it ran hot stuck in traffic with the AC on but not anymore. It came with a brass radiator 2 core from the factory but the tubes were pretty small. Never measured them but from what I remember, they looked to be around 1/2"......

22" U.S. Radiator 4 row piece of sh!t, leaked from the factory, tubes were clod with solder. Bought it through YO and they paid to have it fixed. Running nice and cool now. BTW never seen a 2 core radiator, are you talking rows?

I believe I heard somewhere that more than 2 cores is not good, but I don't remember the perticulars. I got an aluminum 2 core rad with 1" tubes for cheap on EBay. Never over 180 degrees.

2 cores?

 

[Cranky]

The 'core' of the radiator can have 1 row and up to 4 but they are usually called single core or 4 core. Either way is it's call, it's good.

 

[747mopar]

When I was looking for a rad I came across a BeCool rad with 2 rows of 1" tubes, it advertised for motors of 350hp (mines a 456 in thr neighborhood of 500). After looking around it seamed that this was the standard with aluminum radiators that advertised higher hp ratings so I snagged it up. I ran a 165 stat for the first year with a shroud and a thermo clutch fan with no issues. Now I'm running A/C, a 185 stat and dual electric fans. I can turn the dial on the fan controller and immediately start watching the temps drop so it's proven to be more that adequate.

 

[Cranky]

Link to the difference.....

http://www.alumrad.com/aboutus.htm

 

[Cranky]

 

[Cranky]

Which one do ya think will cool batta?

 

['68 383 Charger]

installed a champion 3-row a few years back, my summer time idling at stop lights temp dropped 30 degrees with the new radiator. Huge difference for my Charger.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

Well, I just installed a 3-row Champion because I needed "something" and the price was right. I used to work for a radiator company....and I'm not a mechanical engineer, nor understand this 100%, but I've got a pretty good grip on it.

You are trying to move heat out of your engine. Heat starts from the explosions in your cylinders and has to move through different materials. Heat travels through these things & in this order.
1. Explosions in cylinders
2. Engine block (& pistons/heads too, but we'll ignore that for now & focus on radiators)
3. Antifreeze/coolant
4. Radiator tubes & fins
5. Outside air around us (this is where your engine heat eventually goes)

Each of these material that heat is traveling through has different properties such as "coefficient of thermal conductivity" (how fast heat can move through it), "specific heat" (how much heat that substance itself can hold) and similar properties, all of which play a part in how heat moves out of your engine.

Now to the good part.....radiators & fans. One big factor for the radiator is "surface area" of the tubes. If you ignore the edges of the tubes, you can think of it this way.... two 1/2" tubes = one 1" tube for surface area (pretty close anyway). The more surface area of radiator tubes you have, the faster heat can leave the radiator, whether that's two rows of 1" tubes (2 x 1= 2) or 4 rows of 1/2" tubes (4 x 1/2 = 2), the surface area is roughly the same. Also, the fins help transfer heat out of the radiator tubes, so the more "surface area" of fins you have the better heat transfer you get, just like the tubes themselves. This is referred to as "number of fins per inch" in the radiator industry.

However, the last factor is air flow. The faster that cool air moves past hot radiator tubes, the faster heat is transferred (that's why a breeze feels good on a hot day). More air flow through the radiator cools better. Adding more tubes & fins helps transfer heat for sure, but the heat has to go into the air in order to leave the metal of the radiator tubes/fins & without any airflow, not much heat is transferred. The more tubes/fins you add, the worse your airflow will be.

What you're looking for is the best balance you can find of enough tubes/fins (or rows, if you will) too maximize the heat flow out of radiator, but not so many tubes/fins that you block off the airflow. If you had a 100-row radiator it wouldn't cool worth a darn because you'd have about zero air flow, even with a factory fan + two big pusher fans, you just wouldn't get that much air through it and it wouldn't cool. You could have a helicopter blade for a fan (TONS of air flow), but if you only had one tube total in your radiator, that wouldn't cool too well either.

Somewhere in all that there is the "perfect cooling system" with the most tubes/fins you can get that don't slow down air flow too much & the biggest fan you can find.... but finding that perfect mix is beyond my understanding. I haven't even mentioned antifreeze flow (water pumps) or how copper transfers heat better than aluminum which transfers heat better than brass or how the temperature difference factors in (antifreeze temperature vs. outside air temperature).....ever notice how you overheat in the summer, but rarely overheat in the winters?

A radiator seems so simple...but dang is it complicated. If I had more money & fan shroud fabrication time, my gut instinct is to try one of those aluminum two row radiators with the 1-1/2" tubes. That's 3" of tube (total) and with only two rows, I bet the airflow through them is pretty good.

 

[Mike67]

Griffin...not impressed, passages are paper thin. I barley bumped one and it leaked like a sieve...

 

[71_Duster]

Wizard 22" rad with 1.25" tubes 2 core. Showed up and the billet filler neck was cracked. Sent it back to be replaced got it back put it in and it leaked. Removed sent back fixed and works ok now.

Car still gets hot in traffic. 7 blade mechanical fan, 180 t-stat, new fan clutch, radiator yoke seals, shroud etc. Might be an engine issue at this point.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

Griffin...not impressed, passages are paper thin. I barley bumped one and it leaked like a sieve...

I've also heard that Griffins' tubes are epoxied into the radiator headers instead of brazed..that's good & bad. Epoxy isn't as strong as brazing, but it's easier to fix and you don't have any flux issues. Modern "CAB" flux used to make brazed aluminum radiators is SUPER-DUPER corrosive to aluminum. That CAB flux can be removed with a simple distilled water rinse, but there isn't an aluminum radiator manufacturer I know of that takes this extra, minor step. Copper/brass radiators do not have this issue.

 

[drobertson]

I bought a northern radiator "muscle car" universal radiator from my local NAPA, and my engine runs nice and cool now! And I don't even have a fan shroud for it yet!

 

[A383Wing]

I have purchased 3 radiators from Engineered Cooling Products from ebay for all my cars. They are 2 rows of tubes, 1" wide tubes....all my overheating issues were cured with this radiator, even in the Daytona

 

[cdr]

I have purchased 3 radiators from Engineered Cooling Products from ebay for all my cars. They are 2 rows of tubes, 1" wide tubes....all my overheating issues were cured with this radiator, even in the Daytona

I have the same, 512 ci, cold AC , south east TEXAS HOT HOT weather 107 deg day car runs 180 all day long.

 

[cdr]

One of the biggest problem with old cars, even after rebuilding the engine is rust flaking from the block & plugging up your nice new radiator!!! ASK ME HOW I KNOW, this solved anything from plugging my radiator. http://www.ganofilters.com/index.html

 

[Car Nut]

One of the biggest problem with old cars, even after rebuilding the engine is rust flaking from the block & plugging up your nice new radiator!!! ASK ME HOW I KNOW, this solved anything from plugging my radiator. http://www.ganofilters.com/index.html

This is good to know.

 

[moparedtn]

I lucked out when I went to fetch a radiator for my GTX.
It was set up for the usual 22" big block radiators Mopar was using in the b-bodies back then, but I had zero luck finding an original one for a decent price (just my luck - all the hemi guys had that market cornered, since it is the same radiator for theirs). I knew I wanted an old school brass one that at least sort of looked like original, too, no aluminum for me.
The car was running way hot with the radiator that came in it, which was the wrong one of course (it was for small blocks), so it had to go.
I figured I was going to have to do the 26" conversion to get a decent radiator at a decent price and I knew that meant hacking on the core support and such.

While browsing thru Amazon one evening, I stumbled across a Spectra Premium CU332, which is a 26" radiator for the bigger Fury, Monaco and such. It's an old school brass construction type, 3 row.
Runs for like $295 at Summit and $260 on Amazon...
However, the one I found was "close-out priced" at $43. Shipped.
Said the unit was new, but that the packaging was damaged.
I knew I was going to have to cobble a little with any 26" I got, so I jumped all over it anyways and rolled the dice.
Unit arrived and was in fine shape; the corner of one of the flanges got bent.
Bargain of the century.
Had to drill the two new holes on the passenger side of the core support, but the unit actually mounted pretty cleanly. Found a shroud that was for earlier b-bodies w/26" radiator, modified it to suit my 7-blade fan and all was golden.
Rascal runs 175-180 all day.

 

[drobertson]

I have purchased 3 radiators from Engineered Cooling Products from ebay for all my cars. They are 2 rows of tubes, 1" wide tubes....all my overheating issues were cured with this radiator, even in the Daytona

That's pretty darned good considering a bone stock Daytona tended to have over-heating issues.