Radiator Research

[1972chevy]

FWIW the 307 radiator worked fine for me with dual fans and a ESP FMIC

looks like they deleted a month worth post/ threads.
please update us on your cam sensor balancer

 

[turbojay]

Night and day with the boxing. Keep in mind, every cubic foot of air that goes around the radiator pressurized the engine compartment and make it harder for air to go through the radiator.

Not to mention it's MUCH easier to air to go through that huge gap, than all the fins.


I boxed mine in years ago so basically my entire grill area was a ''ram air'' for the cooling system. And I ran my air intake duct to that same cavity in front of the A/C condenser instead of using that goofy little air dam inlet.

Great idea...any chance you can post some pics of your setup?

 

[GNRick]

I just installed the APDI 8010683 from Rock Auto. I think I have a 185 stat. Hottest I saw was 184 degrees after 30 minutes driving. Outside temperature was 55 degrees. Fit was perfect, has built in oil and tranny coolers. Oil lines screw right in, but they said on fb that you need special fittings for the tranny cooler. I'm using an external tranny cooler. It is aluminum with plastic end tanks. It has a plastic drain plug, no pet cock. Price has varied in the last two weeks from $129 to $145.00

 

[V6POWER]

Have you boxed in your radiator opening and put strips of foam vertically on the end tank? That will make a big difference with controlling airflow.

Would you please post pictures of your box-in? Thank you.

 

[GNRick]

I just installed the APDI 8010683 from Rock Auto. I think I have a 185 stat. Hottest I saw was 184 degrees after 30 minutes driving. Outside temperature was 55 degrees.

Ok so I probably have a 180 stat. Had more seat time today. Drove on the hwy and in town. Max temp was still 184. Ambient temperature was 61 today.

 

[gm5150]

What special fittings are needed for the trans cooler line hook up on the APDI rock auto radiator? I ordered this one, not sure what I need to hook up my trans cooler lines.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GNRick]

Buy a tranny cooler from parts store. Then take the cooler and radiator to a hardware store to buy the correct fittings to adapt the cooler to the radiator. Then return the tranny cooler.

 

[SS/GN]

As promised here ya go.....the 307 V8 radiator has a thinner core than the F body. The petcock is on the left side, lower hose is on the bottom. 307 probably ok for SLIC car, not for a front mount.

Steve
Thanks for the info as always. Be aware that some F-body rads come with the smaller core also. The 6 cylinder Camaros had a smaller core and the Z-28 had the larger core. I have ordered an F-body rad and received the smaller core. Sent it back and ordered another and received the larger core!

 

[Mrdrv8s]

def would like to see some pics of the boxed-in radiator opening! I'm in texas, hot and bery humid. I'm trying to decide on rads s we speak ( ron davis with dual fans or alradco )my radiator is stock and has tons of buildup.
anyone have suggestions how to thoroughly clean the complete cooling system and passages?

@earlbrown ... you seem to have a ton of knowledge on this. would love to hear some of your thoughts and suggestions.

 

[earlbrown]

Put a plain ass F-body radiator in there and be done with it.
I live in GA where it's over 100F damn near all summer and the lowest humidity we see is 100%. I have a F-body radiator, stock fan, autozone heater core, and a 180F thermostat (that's right, 180). When I floor my car, the temp drops a little on my powerlogger logs.

You don't have to get one that's 1000X better than the stock radiator to stay cool. An unclogged radiator and a clogged 30+ is not apples to apples.

 

[Coelacanth]

What Earl said. I did the F-body rad swap myself and probably saved myself $300 USD after shipping, which included adding a separate engine oil cooler. The Alradco radiator is a nice unit, but by the time it shipped here to Canada, I would've been into it for at least $600 Canadian.

I followed this tutorial for the most part:

F-Body Rad Swap

It went pretty smoothly; the only part that took a bit of work was my car's tranny cooler lines didn't quite route to the rad's inlet & outlet ports perfectly. I made the existing lines work by doing some cutting and bending with tubing cutter/bender. If it helps, I documented most of the procedure on the first page in my resto thread:

https://www.turbobuick.com/threads/coelacanths-86-gn.415173/

 

[Coelacanth]

For some reason, I can't edit my post above. I wanted to mention I didn't add the extra external tranny oil cooler as shown in step #18 of that tutorial; I was able to connect my tranny cooler lines to the F-body radiator's inlet & outlet ports. I only have the engine oil cooler mounted on the front of my rad.

 

[Pronto]

I would add an external trans cooler as well.

 

[tford]

FYI, with my original radiator and a 160 stat, I was getting temps in the 200's. I went with the GN1 radiator and I rarely see temps above 170 now on a hot day. Still has the stock fan set up too. I have a large external trans cooler in front of it as well. In my opinion, the more expensive ones are a waste of money. The GN1 one was a true drop in with no mods needed. No complaints here.