Well, I have a story to! I was into the radiator thing at the same time Joe was/is.
I bought a Griffin Aluminum "SBC Street Rod" ..I guess you could say "universal" type for $245. Like Joe says, two men to take the old one out but one can put it in....unfortunately for me I did both. When it came it needed the side "brackets" in order to have something to bolt it in. So, I went to Lowe's and bought a 3' piece of 1/8" flat aluminum for $8. Then I took it to a friend that is in our car club and he welded the brackets on the side for free. Next I picked out about a half dozen hoses from Advance and brought them home. Top hose no problem but the bottom hose I liked had no coil wire in it. So, I cut it to length, then pulled the old steel coil out of the old hose and cut it to length and placed it in the new one. Bought a new radiator cap, drilled some holes, (actually made them slots) and bolted it in.
Problems? My V8 sits LOW in the chassis so the fan hits low on the radiator. It cools just fine anytime your moving but five minutes sitting in traffic it will start to heat up some. The Flex fan I "formerly" used was only 14" due to hitting the bottom radiator neck. Thats not a problem now but I still need more fan but it won't help if its at the bottom of the radiator.
Next move is to install an electric fan to help as before but I don't like the ones that fasten through the radiator....... Neighbor to the rescue. He has a practically new 17" puller fan that he gave me the other day. Took it off his 350 blower engine.
So, plans are to pull off the flex and run only the electric.... or if it will "squeeze" in I may use both. It will be tight.
All this to agree with Joe and couple others..... Murphys law does apply and nothing is as simply as it appears.
Oh, my total spent about $275.
EDIT: I ordered my radiator through caparadiator.com out of Bloomington N.Y. They treated me good and also, after about a week, Bill called me back and ask if I was satisfied and how things were working. Haven't had THAT kind of service in a long time.
Last edited by Achipmunk; 05/22/2009 4:08 AM.
