I need a radiator for my sbc cheap vs expensive???

I need a radiator for my model A project, I'm gonna run a 327 sbc, 32 shell, channeled, I need a chopped rad. There's is a bunch of sellers on ebay selling 150-200 buck chinese radiators, has anyone of you ever tried these or it's total waste of money?

I know griffin, walker are good companies but I'm just wondering.

for example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200707351508?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_1185wt_1165

I'm asking cause I'm on a budget but I'm not stupid! I'll save money if these are crap. I need opinions or advices on good affordable companies. I just don't want to spend 800$ if one 200$ will work good. thanks!

 

Cant tell you much on radiators ,Im hoping mine works,Theres been many threads on here how aluminum isnt repairable,Im sure epoxies work.As for the seller of the link.Ive dealt with him before and the quality and shipping is fast,

 

I & a number of others here have had success with the early Mustang repop radiators, which (at least when I bought mine) are about $125. I have had no overheating issues with my 283 with a normal fan. My car is channeled, as well. It's a close fit, in light of the fact that it doesn't have the lopped off corners, but it can work.

 

I have a 1965 Falcon one in mine. It is a 3-core, and was about $125. It will need a grille in front of it, and some fill panels to keep the air from going around it, but it beats a $600 radiator.

 

I jsut put an AFCO in my Sporty. I havn't used it yet but it wasn't that bad and almost fit. About 450 bucks from Speedway. I've always used Walkers but at about $850 they're getting steep.

 

Funny, I was looking at that same radiator today. It is still about an inch too tall for my car, but I think the Mustangs will fit. I might have to cut the corners off at the top. I ran a Mustang radiator in a hiboy about 30 years ago and I never had any problems with cooling.

 

Whenever this subject comes up you will get some who love copper/brass amd others who swear by aluminum . The way I see it, whichever you choose, a good radiator is an investment in troublefree hot weather driving so you should buy the best one you can afford.

I've become a fan of aluminum in recent years but I have a Brassworks radiator in my 27 that is over 20 years old. I had to scrimp and save because even back then it was over $ 700, and I have had to have leaks fixed a few times (mainly because my engine shakes the whole car so much) but if you spread out that cost over lots of years of use it reallly was a good purchase.

If you do buy an aluminum one, get one that is tig welded, not epoxied together. PRC is one that we use now, and they have been very good to deal with and make a good product.

Don

 

The last 2 radiators I bough were the speedway chopped 32 ford units. The one that I have used so far cools and works well. It's in front of a 400 small block. It's not glued together like even some of the Griffons I have seen and used. I have a 34 chevy cheap ebay unit and it looks to be constructed well, and is not glued together. I have not installed it. So I guess the jury is still out, but it looks good

 

no one as rally addresed the question

Is a 700- 800$ walker worth the cost, versus a 200 aluminum chinesse ?

Keep in mind most vehicles manufacured today don't use brass any longer..they use Al

 

My $125 Falcon radiator is Copper and Brass, it was made in Canada.

It may be true that most vehicle manufacturers are using Aluminum in their radiators; however, they are Aluminum cores with crimped on fiber-reinforced plastic tanks. Not a straight-across comparison to a TIG welded, all Aluminum radiator.

The OEM's are doing what they are doing, because it is CHEAP.

 

I know these might be fighting words for some, but I am not a fan of Walker or their radiators. I tried on two occasions to buy radiators from them and both times they were very short with me on the phone and said "It won't cool your motor so we won't build it." The first one was for my 27, the Brassworks did build it, and the car runs at about 170ish. The second one I ended up buying a PRC aluminum one and I had to put a 190 thermostat in to get the car above 150 going down the road. The way I was treated on the phone at Walker left a bad taste in my mouth.

My Son Don has a Walker in his T bucket with SBF and when he called Walker they gave him the same line that a 6 inch chopped 32 radiator would not cool his car. He asked them why do they then sell the same radiator to Total Performance for their kits, and the answer was " We don't like selling them that radiator but they insisted !" He bought it from TP and the car runs no hotter than 190.

But that is just my experience with Walker.

Don

 

i agree with the cost of brass vs al

but it doesn't mean it won't work..

who has a aluminum radiator and what is thier experience with it...

 

AFCO (American Fabrication Company) now has thier radiators made in china. They should have to change the name to ADCO, American Design Chinese Output. I used to buy afco cores for my custom radiator builds, always happy with the results and the welds were always good. Now the alloy comes precontaminated and have actually had to throw away a couple that proved next to impossible to weld. If your going to use afco you might as well buy a cheap chinese rad and thats what they are selling you only its got a higher price.

Griffin likes to glue the cores into the tanks on thier alum rads, this makes them really hard to fix if there is ever a problem. The tanks on thses are made of thinner stuff than everyone elses too, makes em lighter but the trade off is they are much easier to break.

Not sure what Walker does as I dont think I've ever used a walker alum rad.

BeCool is just plain to spendy for me, having had one or two in front of me I saw no reason for the higher price. Also the electric fan mounts they include with thier kits are a joke in my opinion.

as for the brass verses alum,, they both have about the same thermal effiency so on paper there shouldnt be much difference in cooling, however the aluminum cores have more fins per inch than the standard brass/copper and thats where they gain the higher cooling ability.

As for brass/copper having a longer life, I think that too is bullpucky. treated properly and mounted correctly they will last just as long if not longer as the welds are stronger than the solder that holds a normal rad together.

 

X2. I pulled a set of their shocks out of the shipping box the other day. I was pissed to see the "Made in China" sticker. We shall see how they actuall work.

 

yeah and how much cheaper were they,, my cost on the cores dropped 20 bucks, however it added as much as 3 hours of fab time to finish. What a bargain......

 

I use 65-66 Hi-pro mustang 3 core radiators. They fit very well in the little grille shells. The last one was in a 28 A pickup with a 32 shell, 4" channel 350/350 no problems in 100+ heat.

 

Wow, by your replies it seems like american companies is selling the same chinese shit under their brand name or they build them poorly! lol I might give a try on a 200$ aluminium... Thanks for the help!

 

I guess you have all ready figured out the dimensions of your radiator by how much your grill is chopped coresponding to the amount of chanell for the car. There is a good listing of various oem radiator sizes in a thread here. The list is taken from Chester's book How to build a T bucket for under $3000. I got dimensions from there and made cardboard templates to check potential fit in the grill shell. I searched the swap meets with my template for a radiator. I ended up using the smaller radiator from 72 dodge dart. I still had to modify the top of the Model A cross member because I needed more clearance for height. I Should have considered the radiator height when determing the chop and chanell before hand.

 

Yes, this is the same one I was talking about above. At the risk of opening myself up to criticism for not completely covering my radiator with the grill shell, here are some older shots of how things turned out with a 5 1/2" channel & a Z-ed frame. If I'd have only channeled it 4," the radiator would've been completely covered. Maybe people are being nice, but I've never had a negative comment about all this. I hope this give you some sort of reference point.

 

guys, I don't know about the chinese ones you are talking about but I refuse to buy chinese shit(if I know it came from there- ask me about my OTC trans jack) when there is another product available. But epoxied alouminum isn't bad. car manufacturers DID NOT go to aluminum radiators just because of price. they are lighter( better to meet EPAfuel mileage) and transfer heat better for a given surface area and volume(lighter still). do you think they would carry 100,000 mile warranties if they weren't relible. if you want to rave about Walker ok but ask D.W. about his and how much heel he had with them whenhis tubes cracked at that WELDED tank. epoxy will fix a polyester and aluminum just fine if need be. I have 3 benzs with over 200000 on them(1 is 25 years old). the one that does NOT HAVE THE ORIGINAL radiator is because I ran over a piece of rebar that bounced off a trash truck and went through the grille and rad. I admit to having paid for a very large honeycomb core for my wifes 48 Buick, but then I had more money than I do now and I wanted it to look original. if the Falcom and mustang radiator fit the shell use them, they cool 450 hp plus big blocks stock. finally, do you think a900 hp NASCAR engine would have an aluminum rad( they are welded though) if brass/copper was better no matter that they pay several thousand for some of them.

 

I bought an aluminum radiator with stamped tanks from C,G&J, INC. doing business as Brice Thomas Radiator in Gasdon, Alabama. They have a store on the auction site... They will custom build right here in the U.S.A.

 

I have heard it argued that epoxied aluminum radiators are more durable than welded ones because the epoxy spreads shock loads out over a larger area. OEM radiators (and their accompanying warranty) seem to bear this out.
I've never installed any aluminum radiator in any of my old cars, but I just sold a 1998 Olds Intrigue that we put 150,000 miles on and never, ever changed the antifreeze and it was still cooling like new when it left the driveway. That was enough to convince me. My '85 Chevy truck now has an aluminum core/plastic tank radiator in it and it seems to cool exactly the same as the original copper/brass radiator did. No better, no worse. Weight didn't matter to me on that truck but it sure would on a small roadster.

 

when i was working for a shop we were installing a bunch of chinese aluminum radiators, no1 ever came back with any complaints, on close inspection of the radiators we installed the welds were quite nice and the quality of the radiator as a whole was decent, and they were dirt cheap, i would say go for it!

 

Just remember it is "Evil Bay" and, take it from me, it didn't earn its reputation by being "of high quality".

You will get what you pay for!

A wise man once said "think with yer dipstick"!

 

You are probably right by they're also selling walker at 800 bucks on evil bay and by what I hear Walker radiators are overpriced and not the quality expected. So why should we leave that much money if the quality is not there, that's why I want to compare, to know if it's really worth spending big money on a radiator that we are not even sure it's made in USA... Most of the parts we use to buy were made in USA but now it's not rare to find a taiwan or china sticker hidden somewhere even if they claim to be american product... And if it's the case for radiators I prefer 200 instead of 800

in 2012 high prices doesn't automaticaly means quality, sometimes we can blame the brand name behind it for the high price...

 

as a fair word of warning i purchased a radiator off of evil bay for 2 large from "zpcsports" "chinese" when i got it it was destryoyed and the wrong one i returned it and was promised my money back which i never recieved i contacter the website and they stated that he is an overseas sell that has an american account and drop ships from a supplier in the states so they couldnt do anything to him so i was out my money and a beat up radiator so i went with superior radiator it was 485 shipped for a custom radiator 17" tall and it took exactly 10 days very nice looking product but it really cost me 685

 

that's why you use paypal

 

The Mustang/Falcon radiators are probably made overseas somewhere too but they have been very reliable for us in a couple T roadsters.

 

Hello,I have a 355 sbc in a hotrod and i used a 65 mustang 3 core alum radiator made by fluidyne,I got it from summit and it works great also have a/c and still works great it think there still under 200.00 and no epoxy

 

Sorry about that,under 300.00