aluminum radiators

!!!!! Sharp eyed readers might note that the radiator is bolted to the FRONT of the U shaped radiator support not the back side. This gives me another 1/2" of clearance right up to the flexolite fan recomendation of 1". It bothered me that the radiator would be hanging off the weld capturing the captured nuts, which is structurally backwards, but I came up with the idea of using a bolt 1/2" longer than Henry's and I'll put a nylock nut on the radiator side. Perhaps even an upgrade. Kind of like those guys that wear a belt AND suspenders!
 
Pretty much left off original with the diesel. Will look bone stock without lifting the hood. None of this aluminum wheel, slamming it to the pavement billet stuff on this mountain.....
 
Nice piece for the price, eh? And the diesel and chassis look to be made for each other. But the bench and shop wall is almost as interesting. We definitely share the same organizational plan! And what is that beautiful large-scale model on the shelf with the helmeted driver?
 
I bought it at a Value Village thrift store for 20 bucks. It looks to be made of wood, but I haven't drilled into it, The driver upon close inspection looks to be from India,,,,,,
 
When I was tired of my PO's original radiator repair using an ear plug, I looked into replacements. I actually bought two; one cheap china alum unit off of ebay for under $200 and its fine but a total generic until other than 4 hose connections and I could have made it work. But I found a locally sourced alum unit made in the US close to where I live and went with them. It works great and the flatty runs cool, I had some fitment issues with the unit and the company was eager to take it back and fix the issue which had to cost them a pretty penny to ship it back and forth twice but they did. I think in this day and age unless you live in a hot rod rich environment like California, its hard to find a real old time radiator shop that does real radiator work any more so aluminum units come into play, YMMV.
 
When you guys swapped to an aluminum radiator, how did you run your wire lume to the passenger side? Normally it would run in the channel that is attached to the brass radiator.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
 
As for me, my entire harness is made from discarded extension cords. On jobsites the 'twenty something' crowd will often toss something like a 12 gauge 50 footer in the trash when an end goes out. Color coded and jacketed wire for free! I attach to existing holes in the frame with black zip ties. This is performed in a workmanlike manor complete with headlight relays and circuit breakers. It's not ugly and disorganized like my workbench. This wiring will span the space under the radiator nicely. BTW, the diesel swap has about 500 miles on it running nice and cool.
 
In general I'm not a proponent of aluminum radiators. I had a mighty expensive Made in USA one from Fluidyne that I installed on a '66 Mustang,
thinking it would cool better than the old copper brass unit. My new radiator was in the car about 3 days before I had a hand-built copper brass one back in the car. The aluminum unit took longer to heat up but it ran 20 degrees hotter. So much for "3 rows of staggered tube" BS being better. I'll take the "inefficiency" of 4 inline rows and the lower operating temp of the copper brass.

Might be different with a flathead engine, but my 10.5:1 Windsor didn't like it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top